"Comedians are really writers who don't have pens and pencils about them, but they riff." -- Carl Reiner
Carl Reiner (born March 20, 1922) is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during this career. He has the distinction of being the only person to appear on all five incarnations of The Tonight Show. He is well known for his work in the remake of Ocean's Eleven, and its two sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen.
"A fellow who has a funny bone can learn to hone his skills, but I don't think you can develop a funny bone - you either have it or you don't. And by the way - when you get it, we don't know it.""A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.""Everybody wants to laugh - you know that. They need to laugh... people need to laugh.""I think that comedy really tells you how it is. The other thing about comedy is that - you don't even know if you're failing in drama, but you do know when you're failing in comedy. When you go to a comedy and you don't hear anybody laughing, you know that you've failed.""I'm a charming coward; I fight with words.""If you can get a laugh out of a name, you're ahead of the game.""It's like a bird. If he knew what he was doing, he would fall.""The absolute truth is the thing that makes people laugh."
Reiner was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Bessie from Hungary (née Mathias) and Romanian-born Irving Reiner, who was a watchmaker. Carl Reiner Biography (1922-) His parents were Jewish. They immigrated to the United States in the 19th century. Like father, like son - The Jerusalem Post - HighBeam Research When he was sixteen, his older brother Charlie read in the New York Daily News about a free dramatic workshop being put on by the Works Progress Administration and told him about it. He had been working as a machinist fixing sewing machines. He credits Charlie with changing his career plans. Reiner was educated at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and served in the United States Army Special Services during World War II.
Reiner performed in several Broadway musical, including Inside U.S.A., and Alive and Kicking, and had the lead role in Call Me Mister. In 1950, he was cast by producer Max Leibman in Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, appearing on air in skits while also working alongside writers such as Mel Brooks and Neil Simon. He also worked on Caesar's Hour with Brooks, Simon, Larry Gelbart, Mel Tolkin, Mike Stewart, Aaron Ruben, Sheldon Keller and Gary Belkin.
In 1959, Reiner developed a television pilot, Head of the Family, based on his experience on the Caesar shows. However, the network didn't like Reiner in the lead role. In 1961, the recast and retitled show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, became a hit. In addition to usually writing the show, Reiner occasionally appeared as temperamental show host "Alan Brady," who ruthlessly browbeats his brother-in-law (played by Richard Deacon). The show ran from 1961 to 1966. In 1966, he co-starred in the Norman Jewison film The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming.
Reiner began his directing career on the Van Dyke show. After that show ended its run, Reiner's first film feature was an adaptation of Joseph Stein's play Enter Laughing (1967), which in turn was based on Reiner's semi-autobiographical 1958 novel of the same name. Balancing writing, directing, producing, and acting, Reiner has worked on a wide range of films and television programs. Probably the best-known films of his early directing career were the cult comedy Where's Poppa? (1970), starring George Segal and Ruth Gordon, Oh, God! (1977) with George Burns and "The Jerk" (1979) with Steve Martin
Reiner played a large role in the early career of Steve Martin, by directing and co-writing four films for the comedian: The Jerk in 1979, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in 1982, The Man with Two Brains in 1983, and All of Me in 1984. Reiner also appeared in The Jerk.
In 1989, he directed Bert Rigby, You're a Fool. Since 1960, Reiner has spent many an occasion on stage, in recordings and occasional television appearances playing the straight man to Mel Brooks' "2000 Year Old Man" character. In 2000, Reiner was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. A year later, he played thief and con man Saul Bloom in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven and has reprised that role in its sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. In 2004 he voiced the lion Sarmoti in the animated TV series Father of the Pride.
Reiner has also written a number of books, including memoirs like 2004's My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir, and novels like 2006's NNNNN: A Novel. In American Film, Reiner expressed his philosophy on writing comedy thus:
Recently, Reiner guest starred as a clinic patient on the season finale of the hit FOX series House on May 11, 2009. He also lent his voice to the character of Santa Claus in the NBC Christmas special Merry Madagascar in November 2009. In December 2009, he guest-starred as legendary TV producer Marty Peppers on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men.On June 30, 2010 he guest starred in TV Land's new series "Hot in Cleveland" as Elka Ostrovsky's date; a role that he reprised on the July 28, 2010 episode.
On December 24, 1943, Reiner married singer Estelle Lebost. The two were married 64 years until her death in 2008. At the time of the marriage he was 21 and she was 29. Estelle is probably best remembered for her one line — "I'll have what she's having" — in the deli scene in their son Rob's 1989 hit, When Harry Met Sally. She died on October 25, 2008, at age 94.
Reiner is the father of actor-turned-director, Rob Reiner, (b. 1947), poet, playwright and author Sylvia Anne Reiner (b. 1957) and painter, actor, director Lucas Reiner (b. 1960).
Reiner, who was raised Jewish and remains proud of his Jewish cultural heritage, has described himself as a Jewish atheist. He says that "man invented God, not the other way around."
