Rob Reiner's Long Island connections: Fire Island summers, more

Rob Reiner got his start in comedy — sort of — when he was 8 years old and summering with his family on Fire Island.

"My family and Norman’s [Lear] family used to have summer houses near each other on Fire Island, and Norman had a daughter, Ellen, who was around my age, so we used to play together," Reiner told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023, shortly after Lear's death at 101.

"One day Ellen and I were playing jacks — I was teaching her how, explaining the rules, showing her what to do," Reiner wrote in a piece for the trade publication. "Norman came over to watch and he started to laugh. Apparently, I was teaching her in a funny way, which he found hysterical. And he went over to my father [Carl Reiner] and said, 'Your kid, he’s really funny that kid!' And my father said, 'What are you talking about? He’s so sullen! He’s such a quiet kid! He never talks.' But Norman was like, 'No, no, he’s really funny.' "

"So Norman was the first guy who recognized that I had any talent," Rob Reiner wrote.

Reiner and Lear kept in touch during the ensuing years and about 15 years later, the former was cast as Mike Stivic, Archie Bunker's progressive son-in-law, on the groundbreaking sitcom "All in the Family."

Later, after becoming an acclaimed film director, Reiner spent time in the Hamptons, including a 2017 appearance at the Hamptons International Film Festival's "A Conversation With ... ," to promote his film, "LBJ," starring Woody Harrelson as President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

During his conversation with film critic Alison Willmore, Reiner spoke more about politics than movies, taking repeated shots at President Donald Trump and downplaying the idea that celebrities should stay silent on controversial issues, according to Newsday's Rafer Guzmán, who attended the session.

Three years earlier, East Hampton's Guild Hall was the site of the premiere of another Reiner film, "And So It Goes," starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Barbra Streisand, James Brolin, Martha Stewart, Howard Stern and Bob Balaban were among the celebrities who attended, according to reports.

Reiner also took part in a "Celebrity Autobiography" event at Guild Hall in 2019, where he read passages from the autobiography of actor Mr. T.

By Andy Edelstein

andy.edelstein@newsday.com

Andy Edelstein, Newsday's entertainment editor, supervises coverage of TV, celebrities, movies and pop music. He has written three books on popular culture, including "The Brady Bunch Book."