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The Satellite Award

The Satellite Awards are an annual award given by the International Press Academy. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards. In 2011, Satellite nominations in the motion picture categories have been pared down from 22 to 19 classifications; the change reflects the merger of drama and comedy under a general Best Picture heading, including the Best Actor/Actress headings and the Supporting headings.

Award categories[link]

Film[link]

• Best Actor (includes previous drama, musical, and comedy awards*)
• Best Actress (includes previous drama, musical, and comedy awards*)
• Best Animated or Mixed Media Feature
• Best Art Direction (and Production Design)
• Best Cast (or Best Ensemble) (2004–present)
• Best Cinematography
• Best Costume Design
• Best Director
• Best Documentary Film
• Best Editing (or Film Editing)
• Satellite Award for Best Film (includes previous drama, musical, and comedy awards*)
• Best Foreign Language Film
• Best Original Score
• Best Original Song
• Best Screenplay – Adapted
• Best Screenplay – Original
• Best Sound (1999–present)
• Best Supporting Actor (includes previous drama, musical, and comedy awards*)
• Best Supporting Actress (includes previous drama, musical, and comedy awards*)
• Best Visual Effects

(* In 2011, the International Press Academy combined the drama, comedy, and musical film awards into one category, affecting Best Film, Actor and Actress, and the Supporting Awards.)

Television[link]

• Best Actor – Drama Series
• Best Actor – Musical or Comedy Series
• Best Actor – Miniseries or TV Film
• Best Actress – Drama Series
• Best Actress – Musical or Comedy Series
• Best Actress – Miniseries or TV Film
• Best Cast (or Best Ensemble) (2005–present)
• Best TV Series – Drama
• Best TV Series – Musical or Comedy
• Best Miniseries or TV Film (1996–1998, 2011–present)
• Best Miniseries (1999–2010, combined with Film)
• Best TV Film (1999–2010, combined with Miniseries)
• Best Supporting Actor (2001–present)
• Best Supporting Actress (2001–present)

External links[link]

• International Press Academy website

This film award-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Ryan Douglas Hurst^[1] (born June 19, 1976) is an American actor who perhaps most notably starred as Gerry Bertier, an All-American linebacker in Disney's Remember the Titans and as Alison's brother, Michael, in the show Medium. He also played the role of football player Lump Hudson in The Ladykillers, appeared in the movie We Were Soldiers as Sgt. Savage, and starred in the TNT show Wanted. In Saving Private Ryan, Hurst portrays a paratrooper who, because of temporary hearing loss, cannot understand Captain Miller's questions about sighting Private Ryan which forces Miller (played by Tom Hanks) to ask the questions in writing. He currently plays Opie on the FX network series Sons of Anarchy.

Hurst was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Candace Kaniecki, an acting coach, and Rick Hurst, an actor.^[2][3] Hurst attended Santa Monica High School.^[4]

Filmography[link]

• The Postman (1997) - Eddie March
• Patch Adams (1998) - Neil
• Saving Private Ryan (1998) - Paratrooper Michaelson
• Rules of Engagement (2000) - Captain Hustings
• Remember the Titans (2000) - Gerry Bertier
• Venus and Mars (2001) - Roberto
• We Were Soldiers (2002) - Sgt. Ernie Savage
• Lone Star State of Mind (2002) - Tinker
• The Ladykillers (2004) - Lump Hudson
• Noble Things (2006) - Kyle Collins
• Chasing the Green (2008) - Ross Franklin
• Rango (2011) - Jedidiah

Television appearances[link]

• Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1993) - Crunch Grabowski
• Beverly Hills, 90210 (1994) - Student Actor
• Campus Cops (1995) - Wayne Simko
• JAG (1995) - Dirk Grover
• Boston Common (1996) - Nikolai
• Wings (1996) - Barry
• L.A. Doctors - Kevn Raives
• The Woman Every Man Wants - Guy
• Taken (2002) - Tom Clarke
• Touched by an Angel (2002) - Doug
• John Doe (2002) - Elvis Braithwaite
• Dr. Vegas (2004) - Steve
• House (2005) - Sam
• Wanted (2005) - ATF Field Agent Jimmy McGloin
• Inspector Mom (2006) - Andrew
• Medium (2005, 2006, 2007) - Michael 'Lucky' Benoit
• Everwood - Ed Carnahan
• CSI: Miami - Miami Dade Police Officer - Episode 506 "Curse of the Coffin"
• Raines (2007) - Marko
• Sons of Anarchy (2008–Present) - Opie Winston
• Mad TV (2008)
• Law and Order: SVU (2011) Doug Loveless - Episode 267 "Bombshell

References[link]

External links[link]

• Ryan Hurst at the Internet Movie Database

This article about a United States film actor or actress born in the 1970s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Jason Isaacs
Isaacs in July 2011
Born	(1963-06-06) 6 June 1963 (age 49) Liverpool, Merseyside, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	Since 1988
Partner	Emma Hewitt (since 1988)
Children	Lily (b. 2002) Ruby (b. 2005)

Jason Isaacs (born 6 June 1963) is an English^[1] actor born in Liverpool, known for his performance as the villain Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, the brutal Colonel William Tavington in The Patriot and as lifelong criminal Michael Caffee in the American television series Brotherhood.^[2][3] Though most of his work has been in film and television, it also includes stage performances; most notably as Louis Ironson in Declan Donnellan's 1992 and 1993 Royal National Theatre London premières of Parts One (Millennium Approaches) and Two (Perestroika) of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,^[4][5] and as Ben, one of two hitmen, playing opposite Lee Evans as Gus, in Harry Burton's 2007 critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary revival of Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter's 1957 two-hander The Dumb Waiter at Trafalgar Studios.^[6][7][8] He recently starred in the NBC drama, Awake as detective Michael Britten.

Early life and education[link]

Jason Isaacs was born on 6 June 1963, in Liverpool, Merseyside, to Jewish parents. He spent his earliest childhood years in an "insular" and "closely knit" Jewish community of Liverpudlians, of which his Eastern European great-grandparents were founder-members.^[9] The third of four sons,^[2] Isaacs attended a Jewish school and a cheder twice a week as a young adult.^[10][11] When he was 11, he moved with his family to Northwest London, attending the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, in Elstree, Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, where he was in the same year as film reviewer Mark Kermode.^[10] He describes his childhood as "preparation" for portraying the "unattractive", villainous characters whom he has most often played.^[12] National Front members frequently harassed Isaacs and his friends throughout the 1960s and 1970s.^[12][13]

Following his more traditionally inclined brothers, who became respectively a doctor, a lawyer, and an accountant,^[2] Isaacs studied law at Bristol University (1982–85), but he became more actively involved in the drama society, eventually performing in over 30 plays and performing each summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, first with Bristol University and then, twice, with the National Student Drama Company. After graduating from Bristol he went immediately to train at London's Central School of Speech and Drama (1985–88).^[1][2][14]

Isaacs' parents eventually emigrated to Israel.^[10]

Career[link]

After completing his training as an actor, Isaacs almost immediately began appearing on the stage and on television; his film debut was in a minor role as a doctor in Mel Smith's The Tall Guy (1989).^[14] He was initially known as a TV actor in the UK, with starring roles in the ITV drama Capital City (1989) and the BBC drama Civvies (1992) and guest roles in series such as Taggart, Inspector Morse, and Highlander: The Series in 1992–93.^[3][14] He also played Michael Ryan in ITV1's adaptation of Martina Cole's novel Dangerous Lady, directed by Jack Woods and produced by Lavinia Warner, in 1995.^[15]

On stage he portrayed the "emotionally waffling"^[14] gay Jewish office temp Louis Ironson in Tony Kushner's Pulitzer-Prize-winning Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, at the Royal National Theatre, in its London première, performing the role in both parts, Part One: Millennium Approaches, in 1992, and Part Two: Perestroika, in 1993.^[4][5] When auditioning for that role, he told the producers, "Look, I play all these tough guys and thugs and strong, complex characters. In real life, I am a cringing, neurotic Jewish mess. Can't I for once play that on stage?"^[11]

His first Hollywood role was alongside Laurence Fishburne in the film Event Horizon in 1997, in which he played a crew member ultimately killed by the protagonist-turned-antagonist acted by Sam Neill.^[16] Subsequently, he appeared in the Bruce Willis blockbuster Armageddon (1998).^[14][15] Initially called upon to take a fairly substantial role, Isaacs was eventually cast in a much smaller capacity as a planet-saving scientist so that he could accommodate his commitment to Divorcing Jack (1998), a comedy thriller he was making with future fellow Harry Potter cast member David Thewlis.^[2]

After portraying a priest opposite Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes in Neil Jordan's acclaimed adaptation of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair (1999), Isaacs played the charismatic honourable priest opposite Kirsty Alley in the mini series The Last Don. He then shone as "memorable" villain, Colonel William Tavington, in Roland Emmerich's Revolutionary War fictional film epic The Patriot (2000).^[14] Starring opposite Mel Gibson as the film's hero, and Heath Ledger as Gibson's screen son, Isaacs portrays a sadistic British army officer who kills Ledger's character, among many other soldiers.^[14][17] Although his work in the film earned him comparisons to Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of Nazi Amon Göth in Schindler's List (1993) and mention of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, reaching beyond being typecast as an historical villain, Isaacs chose to play a drag queen in his next project, Sweet November (2001), a romantic comedy-drama starring Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves.^[2]

Isaacs has appeared in many other films, most notably as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series of films (2002–2011). Regarding the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling, Isaacs has said: "I went off and read the books after the audition and I read the first four books in one sitting – you know – didn't wash, didn't eat, drove around with them on the steering wheel like a lunatic. I suddenly understood why my friends, who I'd thought were slightly backward, had been so addicted to these children's books. They're like crack."^[3] In "The Naked and the Dead", an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, on 26 November 2006, Neva Chonin names the character Lucius Malfoy one of the 12 "Sexiest Men Who Were Never Alive" and Isaacs one of the 13 "Sexiest Men Who Are Real and Alive".^[18]

Prior to the making of the film, when asked whether or not he would be in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Isaacs replied, "I hope so – you'll have to ask David (producer David Heyman). I can't bear the idea that somebody else would get to wear my Paris Hilton wig, but you never know."^[19] Isaacs also talked to J. K. Rowling on the inclusion of Lucius Malfoy in the then unpublished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so that he would have a part in the seventh and final film: "The character does not appear in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; but ... [Isaacs joked], 'I fell to my knees and begged ... It didn't do any good. I'm sure she doesn't need plot ideas from me. But I made my point. We'll see. Like everybody else, I'm holding my breath to July to see what's in there. I just want to bust out of prison, that's all. I don't want to stay in Azkaban most of my life.' "^[20] However, on 12 September 2008, AceShowBiz.com revealed that Isaacs is indeed reprising his role of Lucius Malfoy as a cameo appearance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), where he is seen in a moving portrait.^[21] Afterwards, Isaacs reprised the role again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) and Part 2 (2011).^[22]

He has appeared in Dragonheart (1996), Event Horizon (1997), Black Hawk Down (2001), Jackie Chan's The Tuxedo (2002), and as George Darling and Captain Hook in P. J. Hogan's adaptation of Peter Pan (2003), and as the voice of Admiral Zhao in the animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005).^[3][15]

Isaacs played the leading role of Sir Mark Brydon, the British Ambassador to the US in the BBC Four miniseries The State Within (2006), for which he was nominated for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for the 65th Golden Globe Awards.^[23][24] On British television, he also portrayed actor Harry H. Corbett in The Curse of Steptoe, part of "a season of new one-off dramas for BBC Four revealing the stories behind some of Britain's best loved television entertainers, and their achievements," first broadcast in March 2008.^[25][26] On American television, Isaacs appeared in three episodes of The West Wing in 2004, prior to developing his most notable TV serial role, as Michael Caffee in Brotherhood (2006–08).^[15]

Between 2 February and 24 March 2007, Isaacs played Ben, opposite Lee Evans (Gus), in the critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary production of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, at Trafalgar Studios, in London, his first theatre performance since appearing in The Force of Change (2000).^{[6][7][8][27][28]} He posed for photographs after his performance on 3 March 2007.

Isaacs played Major Briggs, an American military officer, opposite Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, in Paul Greengrass's thriller Green Zone (2010), a fictionalised drama set in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone (2006), by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, for which production began in Morocco, in January 2008.^[15][29][30]

In 2007, he was cast in Jan de Bont's then-still-upcoming film Stopping Power, to play its star John Cusack's "nemesis",^[31][32] but, on 31 August 2007, Variety reported that the film, also planned for release in 2009, had been cancelled after a financial backer pulled out.^[33] Isaacs appeared in one episode of the TV show Entourage in the fall of 2008 as Fredrick Line. In 2009, he was nominated at the British Academy Television Awards for Best Actor for his role as Harry H. Corbett in The Curse of Steptoe.^[34]

On the evening of 2 May 2009, Isaacs performed the role of Ben again, opposite his Brotherhood co-star (and Tony Award winner) Brian F. O'Byrne (as Gus), in a "rehearsed reading" of The Dumb Waiter. Their reading capped off the Harold Pinter Memorial Celebration being curated by Harry Burton (who had directed him and Evans at Trafalgar Studios). This Tribute to Harold Pinter co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC), of The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY), was part of the Fifth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, held in New York City, from 27 April to 3 May 2009.^[35][36]

He provided the voice of Ra's al Ghul in the 2010 DC animated film, Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Isaacs currently stars as detective Michael Britten in the new NBC series Awake, which premiered 1 March 2012. After Britten gets into a terrible car wreck with his family, his dreams begin to take on two alternate realities, one in which his wife died in the crash and one in which his son died. Says Isaacs about the ambitious premise: “There’s no question it’s challenging. We’ve got a bunch of very experienced writers who have written things from HBO shows to The X-Files, to 24 and everything in between. And they are challenged. All of them have said that it’s the hardest job that they’ve ever had. But sometimes that’s a good thing. … If it comes easily, that they could write in their sleep, I personally wouldn’t want to act – and I think the audience wouldn’t want to watch.”^[37]

"Hello to Jason Isaacs" Meme[link]

"Hello to Jason Isaacs" has become a much-mentioned phrase on Simon Mayo's and Mark Kermode's BBC Radio Five Film Review. Fans of the show have started inserting the phrase into other programmes and websites, most notably including The Jay Leno Show, Google (UK), Swedish radio, Stuff White Brits Like, and signs at events, such as the Rally to Restore Sanity.^[38] Since 12 February 2012 Google.co.uk searches for Jason Isaacs return the message "Hello to Jason Isaacs".^[38]

Personal life[link]

Isaacs at the Monday After The Masters Celebrity Pro-Am Golf Tournament, North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on 11 April 2005

Isaacs and his partner, BBC documentary filmmaker Emma Hewitt, whom he began dating at the Central School, have lived together since 1988 and have two daughters: Lily and Ruby.^[2][3] Although unmarried, he refers to Hewitt as his wife.^[39]

Despite Isaacs' screen celebrity as Lucius Malfoy, he maintains a relatively modest, "calm, sedate and suburban" life,^[39][40] which he prefers to the "hideously compromised lives" of the more rich and famous: "I imagine like most of us that I'd like obscene amounts of money but the people I met and worked with who have those obscene amounts of money and have obscene amounts of fame have awful lives. Really. I mean hideously compromised lives...."^[3] Described as an "invisible star" who can still travel by the London Underground to film premières unrecognised, he has observed: "They just think, who's that t*** in black tie? As soon as I get on the red carpet they start screaming and screaming. ... It's laughable because when it's all over I go home on the Tube as well."^[41] "I can go anywhere. No one knows who I am. I can go on the tube and bus and wander through the streets."^[3]

As a non-religious Jew, Isaacs has semi-jokingly called himself a "Jewish man who does almost nothing Jewish in his life".^[13]

Isaccs is a firm, though not un-critical supporter of the Labour Party declaring: ""I am huge New Labour supporter. They've done amazing things in terms of real money put into education, health service and childcare. But they've also, on this watch, done away with the right to silence, and been party to an invasion of a country based on false pretexts. They, and most of the West, have done away with the Geneva Convention... all these things have happened on my watch, but I've done absolutely nothing about it other than try to sound righteous."^[13]

Selected work[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Some of the information in this table was obtained from "Jason Isaacs: Filmography". Internet Movie Database (IMDb). http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005042/. Retrieved 28 November 2007. 

Theatre[link]

Video games[link]

Some of the information in this table was obtained from "Jason Isaacs: Filmography". Internet Movie Database (IMDb). http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005042/. Retrieved 28 November 2007.  Napoleon: Total War story teller from http://www.totalwar.com/napoleon/gallery/videos.php (Napoleon: Total War – Story Trailer).

References[link]

External links[link]

• Jason Isaacs at Twitter social networking service

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jason Isaacs

Biographies

• Jason Isaacs at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 23 June 2008. [Includes unsourced "Personal Quotes".]
• "Jason Isaacs Biography". Yahoo! Movies UK & Ireland. uk.movies.yahoo.com. Copyright Baseline 2006. http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/artists/i/Jason-Isaacs/biography-396683.html. Retrieved 24 June 2008. 
• Marx, Rebecca Flint. "Jason Isaacs: Biography". Moviefone. http://www.moviefone.com/celebrity/jason-isaacs/1802996/biography. Retrieved 23 June 2008. 

Interviews

• "Jason Isaacs Video Interview". The London Paper. thelondonpaper.com. http://www.thelondonpaper.com/cs/Satellite/london/videos/article/1157140705031?packedargs=suffix%3DSubSectionArticle. Retrieved 27 June 2008. ^{[dead link]} [Filmed on the set of Brotherhood; includes Isaacs' demonstration of a magic trick.]
• "Mark Kermode v Jason Isaacs on Johnny Depp". BBC Radio 5 Live. 16 April 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2fZbmdwszs. Retrieved 17 August 2008. 
• Lester, Paul (1 February 2008). "JC interview: Jason Isaacs". The Jewish Chronicle (thejc.com). Archived from the original on 4 February 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080204152349/http://www.thejc.com/home.aspx?ParentId=m12s28&SecId=28&AId=57814&ATypeId=1. Retrieved 29 June 2008. 
• Mitovich, Matt Webb (21 July 2006). "Interviews & Features: Jason Isaacs: More Than a Bad Brother". TV Guide (TVGuide.com). Archived from the original on 20 October 2008. http://www.jasonisaacsphotoalbumsonline.com/TV/Brotherhood/7_20_2006%20TVGuideInsider.htm. Retrieved 24 June 2008. 

Other articles

• Hootie & the Blowfish (19 December 2005). "2005 Monday After the Masters Celebrity Pro-Am Golf Tournament Sets Record with $425,000 in Donations". Press Release (hootiegolf.com). Archived from the original on 27 April 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060427073340/http://www.hootiegolf.com/palmer.asp. Retrieved 1 July 2008.  ["Players: See Past Participants."]
• Pfefferman, Naomi (30 June 2000). "More Than a Villain: With "The Patriot," Jason Isaacs, a British Jew, Cements His Reputation as One of Hollywood's Hottest Heavies". The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles (jewishjournal.com). http://www.jewishjournal.com/hollywood_jew/article/more_thana_villain_20000630/. Retrieved 29 June 2008. 
• –. "Once a 'wimp,' Actor Thrives On Portraying Villains". The Jewish News of Greater Phoenix (jewishaz.com). 14 July 2000. http://www.jewishaz.com/jewishnews/000714/wimp.shtml. Retrieved 29 June 2008. 
• Rees, Jasper (27 January 2007). "'There is a streak of cruelty in me': Jason Isaacs Says Life Prepared Him to Become a Specialist in Unattractive Characters". The Daily Telegraph, Review. http://web.archive.org/web/20081207142331/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/01/27/baisaacs127.xml. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Carl Reiner
Reiner in 1976
Born	(1922-03-20) March 20, 1922 (age 90) Bronx, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, director, producer, writer
Years active	1948–present
Spouse	Estelle Reiner (1914-2008; deceased)

Carl Reiner (born March 20, 1922)^[1] is an American actor, film director, producer, writer and comedian. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during his career.

Early life[link]

Reiner was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Bessie (née Mathias) and Irving Reiner, who was a watchmaker.^[2] His parents were Jewish immigrants, his father from Romania and his mother from Austria.^[3] 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.^[4]

Career[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Reiner at the Emmy Awards, September 1989

Reiner 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 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.

Starting in 1960, on the Steve Allen Show, Reiner teamed with Mel Brooks as a comedy duo. Their performances on stage and television included Reiner playing the straight man to Brooks' 2000 Year Old Man character. The routine eventually expanded into a series of five comedy albums and a 1975 animated TV special.

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, it was recast and retitled The Dick Van Dyke Show, and became an iconic series, making stars of his lead actors Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. In addition to writing many of the episodes, 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 both The Jerk and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

In 1989, he directed Bert Rigby, You're a Fool. 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 remake of 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 is the author of several books, including his 2004 memoir, My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir, and novels such as 2006's NNNNN: A Novel. In American Film, Reiner expressed his philosophy on writing comedy: "You have to imagine yourself as not somebody very special but somebody very ordinary. If you imagine yourself as somebody really normal and if it makes you laugh, it's going to make everybody laugh. If you think of yourself as something very special, you'll end up a pedant and a bore. If you start thinking about what's funny, you won't be funny, actually. It's like walking. How do you walk? If you start thinking about it, you'll trip."

In May 2009, Reiner guest starred as a clinic patient on the season finale of the Fox series House. He also lent his voice to the character of Santa Claus in the NBC Christmas special Merry Madagascar in November 2009, and reprised his role as Santa in The Penguins of Madagascar holiday special "The All Nighter Before Christmas. In December 2009, Reiner guest-starred as a television prodcuer on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men. In June 2010, Reiner guest starred in TV Land's new series "Hot in Cleveland" as Elka Ostrovsky's date and reprised the role in July 2010. Reiner also made appearances on The Cleveland Show as Murray and wrote the story for the episode "Your Show of Shows", named after the program that started his career.

Reiner has the distinction of being the only person to appear on The Tonight Show with each of its five hosts.

Personal life[link]

Reiner in April 2011

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 line "I'll have what she's having" in the deli scene of their son Rob's 1989 film When Harry Met Sally.^[1] She died on October 25, 2008, at age 94.^[5]

Reiner is the father of actor-turned-director Rob Reiner (b. 1947), poet, playwright and author Sylvia Anne (Annie) Reiner (b. 1957), and painter,^[6] actor, and director Lucas Reiner (b. 1960).^[1][7]

Reiner, who is Jewish, has described himself as a Jewish atheist.^[3] He says, "I have a very different take on who God is. Man invented God because he needed him. God is us."^[8]

Bibliography[link]

• Enter Laughing (1958)
• 2000 Years With: Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks (with Mel Brooks, 1960)
• All Kinds of Love (1993)
• Continue Laughing (1995)
• How Paul Robeson Saved My Life (and Other Mostly Happy Stories) (1999)
• The 2000 Year-Old Man in the Year 2000: The Book (1999)
• My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir (2003)
• NNNNN: A Novel (2006)
• Tell Me Another Scary Story... But Not Too Scary! (with James Bennett) (2009)
• Just Desserts: A Novellelah (2009)
• Tell Me a Silly Story (with James Bennett) (2010)

As screenwriter[link]

• The Thrill of It All (1963)
• The Art of Love (1965)
• Enter Laughing (with Joseph Stein, 1967)
• The Comic (with Aaron Ruben, 1968)
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (with Steve Martin and George Gipe, 1982)
• The Man with Two Brains (with Steve Martin and George Gipe, 1983)
• Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989)

As director[link]

• Enter Laughing (1967)
• The Comic (1969)
• Where's Poppa? (1970)
• Oh, God! (1977)
• The One and Only (1978)
• The Jerk (1979)
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
• The Man with Two Brains (1983)
• All of Me (1984)
• Summer Rental (1985)
• Summer School (1987)
• Bert Rigby, You're a Fool (1989)
• Sibling Rivalry (1990)
• Fatal Instinct (1992)
• That Old Feeling (1997)

Plays[link]

• Something Different (1967)

Television[link]

• Your Show of Shows (1950-54)
• Caesar's Hour (1954-1957)
• Sid Caesar Invites You (1958)
• The Dinah Shore Chevy Show (1959-1960)
• The Comedy Spot (1960)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66, also Creator)
• The Judy Garland Show (1963)
• The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special (1967)
• The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971-1974)
• Lotsa Luck (1973) (also Creator)
• The Alan Brady Show (2003)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show Revisited (2004)
• The Bernie Mac Show (2001-2006)
• Two and a Half Men (2009-2010)- 3 Episodes
• Hot In Cleveland (2010-present)
• Parks and Recreation (2012)

Acting credits[link]

• Your Show of Shows (1950-1954) (TV)
• Caesar's Hour (1954-1957) (TV)
• The Sid Caesar Show (1958) (TV)
• The Gazebo (1959)
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
• The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)
• The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) (TV)
• The 2000 Year Old Man (1975)
• Good Heavens (1976) (TV)
• The End (1978)
• The Jerk (1979)
• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
• The Spirit of '76 (1990)
• Mad About You (1995) (TV)
• King of the Hill (1997-2000) (TV)
• Ocean's Eleven (2001)
• Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
• The Bernie Mac Show (2002) (TV)
• Ally McBeal (2002) (TV)
• Crossing Jordan (2002) (TV) - Episode 1x19 - Harry Macy
• Ocean's Twelve (2004)
• Father of the Pride (2004) (TV)
• Boston Legal (2005) (TV)
• Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
• House M.D. (2008) (TV)
• Two and a Half Men (2009) (TV)
• Merry Madagascar (2009) (TV)
• The Penguins of Madagascar (2010) (TV)
• Hot in Cleveland (2010) (TV)

Other[link]

• Carl Reiner: An American Film Institute Seminar on His Work, Microfilming Corporation of America, (1977)*
• Faerie Tale Theatre Pinocchio (1984) - Geppetto
• World War Z - Max Brooks (2007)

Awards[link]

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6421 Hollywood Blvd.

• Emmy Award, 1957, Best supporting actor in a comedy series (Caesar's Hour)
• Emmy Award, 1958, Best supporting actor in a comedy series (Sid Caesar Invites You)
• Outstanding writing achievement in comedy, 1962, 1963, and 1964 (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
• Outstanding program achievement in entertainment, 1965 (The Dick Van Dyke Show)
• Outstanding writing achievement in a variety, 1967 (The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special)
• Grammy Award nomination, 1960, (2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks)
• Grammy Award (The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000)
• Elected to Emmy Award Hall of Fame
• Grammy nomination for best spoken word album, 2001 (Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings from Mark Twain)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, (2007).

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carl Reiner

• Carl Reiner at the Internet Movie Database
• Carl Reiner at the Internet Broadway Database
• Carl Reiner at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Carl Reiner collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• See Carl Reiner's interview for the Archive of American Television
• "Remembering the Dick Van Dyke Show" (Carl Reiner)
• Profile of Carl Reiner at Jewish Times