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Carl Reiner (born March 20, 1922) is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He is the father of actor-turned-director Rob Reiner, and husband of Estelle Lebold Reiner, a minor comic actress best known as the lady who says "I'll have what she's having" at Katz's Delicatessen in When Harry Met Sally... after Meg Ryan's phony orgasm scene.

Reiner is the most Emmy Award-winning performer with nine Emmys. Three of his Emmys were for producing and writing the Dick Van Dyke Show. (Technically, Cloris Leachman is the most Emmy Award-winning performer who has won all eight of her primetime Emmy Awards solely in the acting categories.)

Born of Jewish descent in the Bronx, New York, Reiner was educated at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and served in the United States Army during World War II. He later performed in several Broadway musicals, including Inside U.S.A., and Alive and Kicking , and had the lead role in Call Me Mister. In 1950, he was cast by Max Leibman in Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows, and worked alongside writers such as Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Woody Allen. He also worked on Caesar's Hour.

Reiner was frequently seen or heard playing the straight man to Mel Brooks' "2000 Year Old Man" character.

In 1961, Reiner created The Dick Van Dyke Show. 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 the late Richard Deacon). The show ran from 1961 to 1966.

Reiner began his directing career on the Van Dyke show. His first feature was an adaptation of the play Enter Laughing (1967) (The play, writen by Joseph Stein, is based on Carl Reiners own book of the same name). Probably the best-known film of his early directing career was the cult comedy Where's Poppa (1970), starring George Segal and Ruth Gordon.

In 1969, Reiner had a part in a small-time movie Generation alongside Pete Duel and Kim Darby.

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.

In 2000 Reiner was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 2001, he played the character of Saul Bloom in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven and its 2004 sequel (He is also confirmed to be starring in the third installment of the series). In 2004 he voiced the lion Sarmoti in the animated TV series Father of the Pride.

While appearing as a guest on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live which was telecast in the early morning hours of May 9, 2006, he revealed that his wife, Estelle, would be turning 92 in June 2006 (which means she was born in 1914, which means she is 8 years his senior).

External links

• [1] Carl Reiner - Museum of Broadcast Communications
• [2] "Remembering the Dick Van Dyke Show" (Carl Reiner)

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