\u201cWhen I die,\u201d Rob Reiner once joked to an interviewer, \u201cI want my tombstone to read, \u2018Now I\u2019m in this place!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That day came too soon. But over his five-decade career, Reiner \u2014 who was found dead Sunday at his Brentwood home along with his wife, Michele \u2014 never stayed put, roving from music spoofs (\u201cThis Is Spinal Tap\u201d) to horror movies (\u201cMisery\u201d), political thrillers (\u201cA Few Good Men\u201d) to coming-of-age dramas (\u201cStand by Me\u201d) and romantic comedies both glibly teenaged (\u201cThe Sure Thing\u201d) and bracingly adult (\u201cWhen Harry Met Sally\u2026\u201d). Reiner bobbed and weaved and, in the process of entertaining himself, directed at least one of everyone\u2019s favorite movies.<\/p>\n
If I was marooned on an island and could only bring one film from the entire history of Hollywood, I\u2019d choose Reiner\u2019s 1987 adventure \u201cThe Princess Bride.\u201d<\/a> That swashbuckler perfectly executes each of the above genres \u2014 and fantasy, too. It\u2019s everything you\u2019d want from the movies in one title, all in under 100 minutes.<\/p>\n And those films listed above are just Reiner\u2019s first seven movies, a string of excellence that deserves a toast bigger than the 20 bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau he witnessed Andre the Giant drink in one day on the set of \u201cThe Princess Bride.\u201d<\/p>\n More than Reiner\u2019s success, however, I want to salute him as an artist who chose creative risks over easy money. He continually evaded expectations and the industry\u2019s attempts to trap him in a box.<\/p>\n Many tried, of course. As an unknown theater actor, Reiner recoiled when strangers pegged him merely as \u201cCarl Reiner\u2019s son.\u201d His father, the multitalented comedian and creator of \u201cThe Dick Van Dyke Show,\u201d didn\u2019t think his boy had much talent and pressed him to be a ballplayer or a doctor. Norman Lear, a friend of the family, disagreed. Watching young Reiner play jacks in the living room, he thought the kid was hilarious.<\/p>\n \u201cI was still searching for an identity for myself,\u201d Reiner told an \u201cAll in the Family\u201d fan magazine in 1971, the year Lear offered him the role of Archie Bunker\u2019s hippie son-in-law Michael \u201cMeathead\u201d Stivic. The part made him famous, but it wasn\u2019t the identity he wanted.<\/p>\n Reiner, then 23, was already weary of being typecast as a mop-haired, love-bead-wearing revolutionary, a clich\u00e9 he\u2019d already played plenty, including in a cameo on \u201cThe Beverly Hillbillies.\u201d He said yes to Meathead, assuming that the sitcom\u2019s hot-button bigotry would be so incendiary that it couldn\u2019t possibly last longer than 13 episodes. Instead, \u201cAll in the Family\u201d became the No. 1 TV show in America and ran for eight seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cThey still call me Meathead,\u201d Reiner lamented in 1985. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what I do \u2014 it\u2019s always going to be there.\u201d As a Reiner fan who wasn\u2019t even born until after Meathead was off the air, I hope he knew how many of us wouldn\u2019t rank it at the top, or even the top five, of his overall accomplishments.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s only because of what Reiner did next. Despite winning two Emmys and having little else on his horizon, Reiner turned down what he told the Los Angeles Times was \u201c$1 or $2 million a year\u201d<\/a> to star in \u201cAll in the Family\u201d spin-offs. Just as Meathead left his wife to move into a commune, Reiner left security to forge his reputation on his own terms. He wanted to find out if he could direct.<\/p>\n He revealed his intentions in back-to-back comedies that couldn\u2019t seem more different: 1984\u2019s mockumentary \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap\u201d and the 1985 rom-com \u201cThe Sure Thing,\u201d<\/a> in which John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga play teens on a road trip. You\u2019d never think those two movies had any connection to each other at at the video store, but they\u2019re both Reiner\u2019s nose-thumb to Hollywood tropes. \u201cSpinal Tap\u201d sent-up self-important band documentaries like \u201cThe Last Waltz\u201d; \u201cThe Sure Thing\u201d attempted to liberate the teen sex comedy from raunchy \u201cPorky\u2019s\u201d-style copycats.<\/p>\n Obey a studio formula? Absolutely not. He didn\u2019t even want to repeat himself.<\/p>\n Tilt Reiner\u2019s filmography one way and it appears to be all about opposition, a restless yen to zag when others assumed he\u2019d zig. Tilt it another and it looks more like an urge to prove himself to himself and maybe a bit to his dad. He called the night that Carl Reiner finally gave him a genuine compliment \u201cthe major turning point in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n The poignancy of \u201cStand by Me,\u201d<\/a> the authenticity and gravitas he invested in this story of youth, makes it a personal triumph \u2014 his funny father couldn\u2019t, and wouldn\u2019t, have directed anything like it. It\u2019s worth noting that the studios didn\u2019t initially encourage Reiner\u2019s eclecticism. Lear had to step in and finance Reiner\u2019s first four films, rescuing \u201cStand by Me\u201d when it got shut down two days before principal photography. Lear\u2019s $8-million investment turned into a $52-million hit.<\/p>\n The punchline was that Reiner\u2019s next one, \u201cThe Princess Bride,\u201d wasn\u2019t any easier to green-light. Executives always wanted him to make his most recent film again. His father had refused an invitation to adapt the William Goldman novel and instead handed the so-called unfilmable book over to him. Reiner tackled the challenge. Lear had to finance that, too.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I had other things inside me,\u201d Reiner told the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know if people would accept them.\u201d He launched Castle Rock Entertainment in 1987 so he wouldn\u2019t be dependent on anyone\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n