He also had a famous son, Rob (you may have heard of him), who entered the biz, just like his dad. The actor-director took to Twitter on June 30 to react to his father’s passing. “Last night my dad passed away. As I write this, my heart is hurting. He was my guiding light,” Rob tweeted.

Rob was born into show business, and grew up around comedy legends such as Dick Van Dyke, Sid Caesar and Mel Brooks. “As a young person, I was drawn to it like crazy,” he said during a 2016 interview with The AV Club. “I love Mel Brooks, and the way he and my dad were able to play off of each other. I just loved all that stuff. I’m sure it had a tremendous influence on me.”

During a 2019 interview on 50PlusPrime, Rob also recalled a time where he told his parents he wanted to change his name when he was eight years old. He said his father felt bad about him always being “Carl’s son,” and asked what he’d prefer his name to be. Rob simply answered, “Carl.”

The Princes Bride director also told Collider in 2012 that Carl was an amazing father, and balanced family and fame well. “Of the show business fathers that you could have, he was probably the best situation I could ever have because he was a real father. He was a home kind of guy,” he said. Reiner recalled how Carl was on Show of Shows, and the program took a break over the summer. This allowed his family to take a long summer vacation together.

Rob also fondly reflected on how Carl used to let him watch the magic happen. “In the summers, he’d let me come down to the studio and hang out with him which for a young teenage boy, it was like who wants him around when you’re doing your work, but he let me watch how he worked with the actors, how he rewrote scripts and things like that. I learned a lot from that. I spent a lot of time with him and it was as good a situation as you could have.”

He also joked that his father didn’t think he was talented as a kid. “As a matter of fact, when I was a young kid, eight years old, I used to play with [writer] Norman Lear’s daughter. I don’t even remember, but he tells me we were playing a game of jacks and I was announcing the game and doing some schtick or whatever,” Rob told Collider in 2012.

The When Harry Met Sally director continued, “Norman went to my dad and said ‘Your son is really funny’, and my dad said, ‘That kid? He’s not funny. He’s not funny at all’.” However, when Rob started doing improv theater, Carl’s thoughts on his writing and acting talent turned around. “He got behind me. He jumped on the bandwagon.”

Rob also famously marveled how his father was on Twitter years before him during a 2018 Associated Press interview. “The guy’s amazing. He Tweets everyday, he writes everyday. He was on Twitter years before me.” Rob only joined the social media platform in 2016.

Rob’s admiration for Carl was mutual. During a 2019 interview on 50PlusPrime, Carl called his son the best movie maker to work with. “He makes movies that are irrefutably brilliant,” Carl gushed.

In addition to Rob, Carl is survived by his daughter Sylvia Anne and son Lucas.