Actor, director, writer, and producer Carl Reiner passed away on June 29, 2020 of natural causes. He was 98 years old.
The multi-hyphenate had a career that spanned 70 years and nine Emmy awards, including five for his work on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He was also the father of director Rob Reiner.
Reiner was born in The Bronx on March 20, 1922 and got into acting via a free dramatic workshop. In 1943 he was drafted into the Army Air Forces and served in World War II. During his time in the military, Reiner had his first job directing a play and he performed around the Pacific theater entertaining the troops.
He performed in several Broadway musicals like Inside U.S.A. and had the lead role in Call Me Mister. In 1950 he was cast in Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, appearing in skits while working with writers like Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. Ten years later he teamed with Brooks as a comedy duo on The Steve Allen Show, which eventually grew into five comedy albums, the last of which one a Grammy, and an animated TV special.
Reiner had developed a TV pilot based on his personal and professional life which would become The Dick Van Dyke Show. He wrote many of the episodes, appeared in the show as temperamental show host Alan Brady, and his directing career began in earnest there.
After it ended, his first major film was Enter Laughing, which was based on Reiner’s semiautobiographical novel of the same name. Some of his early directorial efforts were Oh God with George Burns and The Jerk with Steve Martin. His collaborations with Martin also included Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Man with Two Brains, and All of Me. Reiner directed Bert Rigby, You’re a Fool and narrated the Grimm children’s story “The Musician of Bremen.”
He remained active in the industry through the 2000s, including starring in Ocean’s Eleven and its two sequels. He also voiced Sarmoti in Father of the Pride, did a guest spot on House, voiced Santa in Merry Madagascar, was in Two and a Half Men, and in The Cleveland Show. Reiner’s final performances were voicing Carl Reineroceros in Toy Story 4 and in Forky Asks a Question.
