Read this: Martin Scorsese remembers his friend Rob Reiner

With Reiner having been born in the Bronx, Scorsese writes that he felt like they were both transplants on the west coast, sharing a New York sensibility and humor. “Right away, I loved hanging out with Rob. We had a natural affinity for each other,” writes Scorsese. “He was hilarious and sometimes bitingly funny, but he was never the kind of guy who would take over the room. He had a beautiful sense of uninhibited freedom, fully enjoying the life of the moment, and he had a great barreling laugh.” 

Scorsese also details directing Reiner in The Wolf Of Wall Street, writing that it was immediately clear that Reiner “understood the human predicament of his character: The man loved his son, he was happy with his success, but he knew that he was destined for a fall.” Continues Scorsese, “I was moved by the delicacy and openness of his performance when we shot it, moved once again as we brought the scene together in the edit and moved as I watched the finished picture. Now, it breaks my heart to even think of the tenderness of Rob’s performance in this and other scenes.” 

Elsewhere in the essay, Scorsese shares his favorite work from Reiner (it’s Misery, though he does call This Is Spinal Tap an “immaculate creation” “in a class of its own”) and offers some memories of the Los Angeles comedy scene of the 1970s. You can read the whole essay here.