Billy Crystal is opening up about his final conversation with longtime friend Rob Reiner.
The iconic actor appeared on Tuesday night’s installment of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he got candid about his late friend. After talking about his memorable Oscars In Memoriam tribute to Rob and Michele, who were tragically murdered in December, Billy revealed it was his idea to reunite cast members from the director’s films. Fighting back tears, he explained:
“It was shortly after the tragedy, and we had spent the night before together, talking about our careers together. I met him when I was a guest in All in the Family playing his best friend in 1975. It was a good year for me … and we just kept it going all of these years.”
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He continued:
“The night before, it was at Conan [O’Brien]’s Christmas party. We were talking about the movie business and how it’s changed, and how people don’t go to theaters like they used to. And we talked about the fact that you can’t control how a movie is going to do. What you can control is the experience of making it. And the experiences that we had together and that he had with his casts of his other movies was so extraordinary — he said that’s something you always have. Hits are great to have but it’s the people that you hold onto.”
Rob was such a people’s person… and SO beloved. Billy continued:
“And so I kept that in my heart, and I told Conan shortly after, and I said, ‘I have an idea for a tribute to them [because Conan was hosting the Oscars]. We just talked about how specifically, his first seven movies were incredibly different and so great. Spinal Tap, Sure Thing, Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men, American President, and Stand By Me, amazing movies. And I said, ‘If I can get the casts of those movies together to walk out with me, that would have made him really smile. So I got in touch with all of them. The Academy was great at getting most of them there.”
The segment memorably reunited Demi Moore, Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Michael McKean, Mandy Patinkin, Kathy Bates, Jerry O’Connell, Wil Wheaton, Kiefer Sutherland, and John Cusack, and others. See (below):
On what Rob meant to Billy personally as a friend, he dished:
“Hilarious, devoted, opinionated in the best way, fighting for the truth, for our country, and the greatest comedy taste, we could talk about everything. He was an uncle to my kids. There’s so many moments that when something good happens, I want to pick up the phone, because that’s what we would do.”
Awww. You can listen to more (below):
Our hearts continue to be with the Reiner family’s loved ones!
