Star played it straight for laughs
Carl Reiner Writer, actor and director BORN MARCH 20, 1922 – DIED JUNE 29, 2020, AGED 98
CARL Reiner was a prodigious talent whose wit and good nature shone through in all his forms as a screenwriter, actor, director. In 1961, he created and wrote The Dick Van Dyke Show, still regarded as one of bestloved sitcoms of all time.
Originally titled Head Of The Family, the show was modelled on aspects of Reiner’s life but the producers did not fancy him for the part, which went to Van Dyke instead. It didn’t matter – the real genius was in Reiner’s writing. He cleverly avoided slang, resulting in its timeless feel.
The show earned 15 Emmys during its four-year run and remained Reiner’s proudest work because it served to inspire generations of young writers.
Reiner was the long-term comedy partner of Mel Brooks after they met on Your Show Of Shows in 1950. Brooks said his friend was a “giant” who created comedy gems. Their 2,000-Year-Old Man sketch, originally a joke performed privately, became a side-splitting sensation as Brooks fired off lines about the events he had witnessed over two millennia. Reiner played the straight man but his own comic timing meant he was anything but – as he proved in films It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World, in 1963, and The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, in 1966.
He formed another partnership with Steve Martin. The pair delighted in visually absurd gags, with Reiner directing Martin consecutively in films The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Man With Two Brains and, finally, in 1984,All Of Me.
Reiner was born in the Bronx in New York City to Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Irving Reiner, was a watchmaker and his mother, Bessie, was a housewife. While working as a machinist, aged 16, he enrolled in a free drama workshop his older brother Charlie had heard about. It changed the course of his life. Drafted into the US army during the Second World War, he excelled at entertaining the troops throughout the Pacific region.
After returning home, he commenced his career in Broadway musicals. In his later years, Reiner popped up in shows including Ally McBeal and Frasier, and scored a host of voiceover roles during the 1990s. He also played old-time crook Saul Bloom in Ocean’s Eleven in 2001, returning for its two sequels.
He died of natural causes at his home and is survived by his three children: actor and director Rob, Annie and Lucas. Estelle Lebost, his wife of 64 years, died in 2008.