The stellar career of Sid Caesar’s “second banana”
Carl Reiner, who has died aged
98, was one of Hollywood’s most revered figures. A writer, comedian, director and actor, he was best known for creating the classic sitcom
Before that, he had broken through as “second banana” to Sid Caesar. It was how he referred to himself, but as Caesar put it, “such bananas don’t grow on trees”. He devised a famous double act with his lifelong friend Mel Brooks; directed a string of early Steve Martin vehicles; and as an actor, had a late-life hit as an ageing con artist in the 2001 heist movie That would have been a fine swansong, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian – but Reiner kept working, and at 96, he “made a sensational return to the public eye” when he became the oldest celebrity on Twitter, thanks to his furious denunciations of the Trump administration.
The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Shows
Ocean’s Eleven.
Carlton Reiner was born in New York in 1922, the son of Jewish immigrants. Growing up in the Bronx, he developed a quick humour and a talent for mimicry, and after high school he joined a theatre group. He helped entertain the troops during wartime service in the US army, and in the late 1940s, he started getting roles in Broadway revues. He joined Sid Caesar’s
in 1950 as a writer and performer, said The New York Times. In the writing room, he worked with a group that included
Your Show of
Brooks and Neil Simon.
about a TV writer living with his wife in the suburbs, was based on his own life; he had originally planned to play the main role himself, but decided to step back, and wrote a new part for himself, as Van Dyke’s egomaniacal boss. In the meantime, he and Brooks had been honing the routine that became
He played the straight man, interviewing Brooks, who’d been alive at the time of Christ. They recorded it in 1967, and knew they had a hit on their hands when Cary Grant, having been given one copy of the album, requested two dozen more to take to England. Reiner recalled that Grant came back “and said, ‘She loved it.’ I said, ‘Who?’ ‘The Queen Mother.’ And Mel said, ‘Well, if the biggest shiksa in the world loves it, we’re home free.’” In 1979, he directed – the first of four films he made with Steve Martin.
Met Sally,
Show,
Man.
The Dick Van Dyke
The 2000 Year Old
The Jerk
In 1943, he had married Estelle Lebost, an actress and singer. They had three children. She appears in the film
which was directed by their son Rob Reiner: she is the woman in the restaurant who utters the famous line: “I’ll have what she’s having.” Following her death in 2008, he became even closer to Brooks, who had been widowed three years earlier. They met every night for dinner, and watched together. When lockdown started, they phoned each other instead.
When Harry
Jeopardy