In memory of Hollywood greats Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner
The tragic deaths of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner shocked the entertainment world and beyond.
Rob Reiner appears in “Mel Brooks: 99 Years Old”! An upcoming HBO documentary about the comedy legend goes even deeper.
The two-part documentary by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, premiering January 22nd and 23rd on HBO (8 p.m. ET/PT), focuses on the life and enduring charm of Mel Brooks, who turns 100 on June 28th.
Reiner, who tragically passed away along with his wife Michele Singer Reiner on December 14th, has shared some valuable insight about his father, Carl Reiner, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 98.
Carl Reiner was Brooks’ best friend and comedy partner for 70 years. The friendship and partnership was truly special. Rob Reiner offers the most scathing and authoritative take on this famous duo.
Reiner talks about first meeting Brooks when he was four years old, when the comedy writer was staying at his parents’ house. Since then, Brooks has become an integral part of the Reiner family.
The son also talks about how Carl Reiner plays straight men in skits with Brooks, such as the famous “Two Thousand Years Old Man.”
“My father was like a second banana. He never felt like he needed to be a star,” Reiner says in the documentary. “He’ll push Mel over the edge and make Mel explode with creativity and humor.”
Brooks, who lost his father to tuberculosis when he was two years old, looked up to his older brother, Carl Reiner.
“I always thought that even though Mel was about four years younger than my dad, he still saw my dad as a father figure,” says Reiner.
In the later years of their friendship, Carl and Mel spent most of their nights sitting at Reiner’s house, watching TV and movies while eating dinner on a TV tray.
“Mel was there when my dad passed away,” Rob Reiner said, describing how Brooks found his father collapsed in his home. “My father passed away shortly after that.”
Still, Brooks continued to visit friends.
“After my dad died, for months and months and months, (Brooks) would come over and sit there and watch TV and eat dinner, and he continued to do that for months and months,” Reiner says. “He was so close to his dad that he wanted to be close to him when he was gone.”
