Spinal Tap to Seinfeld Talent that changed Hollywood for ever

As a filmmaker, Rob Reiner championed humour, civility and intelligence - qualities you suppose would be out of step with the Hollywood of the 1980s where he made his name, and in the 1990s where he scored a series of extraordinary, far-reaching successes.

- Andrew Pulver

Reiner had a family interest in the workings of onscreen comedy: his father Carl played a key role on Sid Caesar's TV shows, which themselves were revolutionary, and Reiner helped birth a new generation of screen comics by directing Steve Martin's film debut, The Jerk. Reiner had become a household name as Meathead, the liberal foil to Carroll O'Connor's bigoted Archie Bunker in the 70s sitcom All in the Family (the equivalent to Mike Rawlins v Alf Garnett in the British original, Till Death Us Do Part). But it was as a director and producer that he really made his impact felt.

In 1984, Reiner released This Is Spinal Tap, a "mockumentary" about a fictitious heavy metal band from the UK that rewrote the rules on what comedy could do. It sent up rock'n'roll behaviour and codified its cliches (with Reiner himself doing a hilarious parody of Martin Scorsese's hosting role in The Last Waltz) and gave us zingers that haven't lost their comedy power more than 30 years on: "The numbers all go to 11", "it's such a fine line between stupid, and er ... clever."