A giant heart to match his TV chops

Rob Reiner got started on the small screen, where his signature humanity took shape.

- ROBERT LLOYD TELEVISION CRITIC

PATRICK MCELHENNEY FOX REINER played Zooey Deschanel's dad in the sitcom "New Girl."

Rob Reiner was a movie director who began as an actor who wanted to direct movies.

The bridge between these careers was “This Is Spinal Tap” in 1984, his first proper film, in which he also acted. His original inclination, based on the music documentaries he had studied, had been not to appear onscreen, but he decided there was practical value in greeting the audience with a face familiar from eight seasons of “All in the Family” as Archie Bunker's left-wing son-in-law, Michael “Meathead” Stivic.

Reiner's television career began at 21, partnered with Steve Martin, writing for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” As an actor, his early years were characterized by the small parts and guest shots that describe the early career of many performers we come to know well. He played multiple characters on episodes of “That Girl” and “Gomer Pyle, USMC,” a delivery on “Batman,” and appeared on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Room 222.”

His last such role, in 1971, the same year “All in the Family” premiered, was on “The Partridge Family” as a tenderhearted, poetry-writing, tattooed biker who becomes attached to Susan Dey’s character and somewhat improbably takes her to a school dance.It's a performance that prefigures the tenderness and humanity that would become a signature of his work as a writer, director and performer — and, seemingly, a person.

RAY MICKSHAW FOX REINER, top left, played Michael "Meathead" Stivic in "All in the Family" alongside Sally Struthers, Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton. Above, he and Jamie Lee Curtis portrayed the divorced parents of Zooey Deschanel in "New Girl."