Carl Reiner

About the Author

Carl Reiner (1922-2020) was an actor and writer who created and costarred in the classic sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, inspired by his time as a cast member and writer (along with Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Woody Allen among others) for Sid Caesar’s sketch comedy programs Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour from 1950-1957. He later directed major film comedies, including The Jerk, Oh, God!, Where’s Poppa?, The Man with Two Brains, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, and All of Me.

He appeared in such films as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming, and the Ocean’s 11 film series, and on the television shows Two and a Half Men and Hot in Cleveland. He also voiced characters in Toy Story 4, Family Guy, and Bob’s Burgers.

Winner of twelve Emmy Awards, Reiner was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame and received the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for Humor. His comedy album The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000, one of five he recorded with Mel Brooks between 1960 and 1997, won a Grammy Award.

The father of director and actor Rob Reiner, he wrote several books, including My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir, What I Forgot to Remember, Enter Laughing, and one Broadway play.