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Billy Crystal, the star of When Harry Met Sally, one of Rob Reiner’s most enduring movies, has paid emotional tribute to the late director and his wife, Michele, at the Academy Awards in Hollywood.
Crystal, whose friendship with Reiner formed much of the basis for the film, which was scripted by Nora Ephron, was one of the first people on the scene when the bodies of the couple were found on 14 December.
Their son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder; the case is continuing. This year’s Oscars host, Conan O’Brien, hosted a party which it is understood Rob, Michele and Nick attended the night before the killings.
“I met Mr Rob Reiner when I was cast as his best friend in an episode of All in the Family,” said Crystal, “and it went so well that Rob said, ‘It was fun playing your best friend. Why don’t we keep it going?’
“And it was a thrill to see him evolve from a great comic actor to a master storyteller,” he continued, running through his filmography, including This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, Misery and more.
Crystal added: “My friend Rob’s movies will last for lifetimes because they were about what makes us laugh and cry and what we aspire to be: Far better in his eyes, far kinder, far funnier, and far more human …
“To the millions who have enjoyed his films all these years, I want you to know here and around the world, how many times Rob told me that it meant everything to him that his work meant something to you. And for us who had the privilege of working with and knowing him and loving him, all we can say is, buddy, what fun we had storming the castle.”
He was then joined on stage by Meg Ryan, as well as many of the stars of The Princess Bride, Stand By Me and This Is Spinal Tap, including Kathy Bates, Demi Moore and Jerry O’Connell.
In a joint statement with Larry David, Martin Short and Albert Brooks soon after the killings, Crystal said of his long-term collaborator: “His comedic touch was beyond compare, his love of getting the music of the dialogue just right, and his sharpening of the edge of a drama was simply elegant. For the actors, he loved them. For the writers he made them better. His greatest gift was freedom. If you had an idea, he listened, he brought you into the process. They always felt they were working as a team. To be in his hands as a film-maker was a privilege but that is only part of his legacy.”
Ryan, meanwhile, with whom Reiner also worked on 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle, wrote on Instagram, alongside a picture of them together: “Oh how we will miss this man. Thank you, Rob and Michelle [sic], for the way you believe in true love, in fairytales, and in laughter. Thank you for your faith in the best in people, and for your profound love of our country.”
When Harry Met Sally was a critical and commercial hit when it was released in 1989, making more than $93m at the box office and scoring Ephron an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. Crystal has also hosted the Oscars ceremony nine times. The ending of the film was altered to be more romantic and optimistic after Reiner met his wife to be, Michele Singer, while making the film.
“I’ll never forget it,” he told the New York Times. “It was a scene on a stoop in front of a brownstone. Billy and Meg are having an argument. And I look over, and I see this girl, and whoo! I was attracted immediately. And Barry [Sonnenfeld] says, ‘That’s Michele.’ I said: ‘That’s Michele?’”
He added: “She has helped raise me. The thing I talk about, how women show you what’s important, she has done for me.”
The pair were married for 36 years and had three children: Jake, Nick and Romy. Rob’s eldest daughter, Tracy, had a small part in When Harry Met Sally, as did his mother, Estelle, as the diner at Katz’s deli who requests to have whatever Sally is having, after her faked orgasm.
The 2021 Oscars paid tribute to Reiner’s father, Carl.
English (US) ·