‘Second banana’ splits at 98
Tributes pour in for Carl Reiner, one of showbiz’s best-liked personalities
Carl Reiner, the ingenious and versatile writer, actor and director who broke through as a “second banana” to Sid Caesar and rose to comedy’s front ranks as creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show and straight man to Mel Brooks’
2000 Year Old Man, has died. He was 98.
Reiner’s assistant Judy Nagy said he died of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, California.
He was one of show business’ bestliked men. The tall, bald Reiner was a welcome face on the small and silver screens: In Caesar’s 1950s troupe, as the snarling, toupeewearing Alan Brady of The Dick Van Dyke Show and in such films as The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
In recent years, he was part of the roguish gang in the Ocean’s Eleven
movies starring George Clooney, and appeared in documentaries including
Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age and
If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.
Tributes poured in, Van Dyke calling Reiner “kind, gentle, compassionate, empathetic and wise,” and Clooney saying he made “every room he walked into funnier, smarter, kinder.”
Betty White described herself as privileged to work with Reiner and
“heartbroken”. Steve Martin said goodbye to “my greatest mentor in movies and in life. Thank you, dear Carl.” Billy Crystal said “all of us in comedy have lost a giant”, and Sarah Silverman said “his humanity was beyond compare”.
Brooks said he and Reiner had been best friends since meeting on
Your Show of Shows.
“Carl was a giant, unmatched in his contributions to entertainment,” Brooks said. “When we were doing
The 2000 Year Old Man together
there was no better straight man in the world. So whether he wrote or performed or he was just your best friend — nobody could do it better.”
Reiner directed such films as Oh, God! starring George Burns and John
Denver; All of Me , with Martin and Lily Tomlin; and the 1970 comedy
Where’s Poppa?
But many remember Reiner for
The Dick Van Dyke Show one of the most popular TV series of all time and a model of ensemble playing, physical comedy and timeless, goodnatured wit. It starred Van Dyke as a television comedy writer working for a demanding, eccentric boss (Reiner) and living with his wife (Mary Tyler Moore in her first major TV role) and son.
“The Van Dyke show is probably the most thrilling of my accomplishments because that was very, very personal,” Reiner once said.
“It was about me and my wife, living in New Rochelle and working on the Sid Caesar show.”
The pilot, written by Reiner, starred himself as Rob Petrie, and aired in July 1960. When the show was reworked (CBS executives worried Reiner would make the lead character seem too Jewish), Van Dyke was cast and the programme ran from 1961 to 1966. Orson Welles, was known for rushing to his bedroom in the afternoon so he could be near a TV when the show was on.
Much of Reiner’s early work came as a “second banana” — although, as Caesar once put it, “Such bananas don’t grow on trees.” He performed in sketches — satirizing everything from foreign films to rock ‘n’ roll — and added his talents to a writing team that included Brooks, Simon, Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart. “As second banana,” he told TV Guide, “I had a chance to do just about everything a performer can ever get to do. If it came off well, I got all the applause. If it didn’t, the show was blamed.”
It was during the Show of Shows
years that Reiner and Brooks started improvising skits which became the basis for The 2000 Year Old Man.
Reiner was the interviewer, Brooks the old man and witness to history. Reiner: “Did you know Jesus?” Brooks: “I knew Christ, Christ was a thin lad, always wore sandals. Hung around with 12 other guys. They came in the store, no one ever bought anything. Once they asked for water.”
Reiner was the father of Rob Reiner, who starred as Archie Bunker’s son-in-law on All in the Family and directed movies including When Harry Met Sally . . . Rob Reiner said in a tweet this week that his heart was hurting. He was my guiding light.”