Mel Brooks is opening up about the final moments of his best friend Carl Reiner’s life and spending them by his side.
In the new two-part HBO documentary Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!, Brooks and Reiner’s son, Rob Reiner, reflect on the legendary actor, producer and director’s death in 2020 at age 98.
“Mel was there when my dad died,” Rob said in an interview for the documentary before his own death on Dec. 14 at age 78. “He just collapsed in the bathroom, and Mel came back and realized, ‘Uh oh, something’s wrong.’ ”
Carl, Rob said in the documentary — which premieres on Jan. 22 — “died right after that” from a heart attack, but Brooks wasn’t ready to let go.
Brooks, who spent nearly every evening at Carl’s house sharing TV-tray dinners and watching movies after the deaths of their wives — Carl’s wife Estelle Reiner in 2008 and Brooks’ second wife, Anne Bancroft, in 2005 — recalls, “I was still hoping that they would put the stuff on him and boom, get him up. I kept yelling at them, ‘Keep it up, keep it up,’ and they thought I was crazy after an hour of yelling.”
Speaking about the man with whom he created his famous “2000 Year Old Man” comedy sketch, Brooks adds, “I just didn’t want him to go. I just couldn’t — I wouldn’t accept it. I loved him so much.”
The months following Carl’s death were especially difficult for Brooks, who considered the late director his closest friend. “After my father died, he would come to the house, sit there, watch television and have dinner, and he did that for months,” Rob recalled. “And he told us, the family, he said, ‘Let me know when you’re gonna sell the house.’ ”
Rob remembered trying to lighten the mood with Mel. “I said, ‘Maybe it would be better to stage the house with you in it.… It’ll up the value. You get Mel Brooks sitting here.’ ”
Rob said Brooks’ frequent visits were a testament to the depth of his bond with Carl. “He was that close to my dad, where he kept, he wanted to be close to him even when my dad was gone.” He added, “I always thought even though Mel was only like four years younger than my dad, I think he looked to my dad as a father figure.”
Interviewed for the documentary before his sudden death, Carl made it clear that the admiration was mutual. “There was no question that he’s gonna — whatever he decides to do, when he decides to do it, it was going to work,” Carl said of Brooks.
He added, “He hates the word, genius… and I use the word genius not lightly. I understand the word. Genius has to not only produce something really good, but a volume of it. And Mel, look at the volume he has produced. And if somebody wants to argue, they can, but they won’t win.”
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