Robert Klane, the irreverent thoughts behind “Weekend at Bernie’s,” has died.
The author handed away from kidney failure on Aug. 29 at his dwelling in Woodland Hills, his son Jon Klane confirmed. He was 81.
The elder Klane is greatest referred to as the author and government producer of “Weekend at Bernie’s,” the iconic 1989 comedy that finds two males placing a pair of sun shades on their useless boss — the titular Bernie — to make it appear as if he’s nonetheless alive.
Klane additionally wrote and directed the sequel, “Weekend at Bernie’s II,” and labored on quite a lot of different options all through the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s together with “Nationwide Lampoon’s European Trip,” “The place’s Poppa?” and “Of us!”
“His factor was, there’s received to be amusing a web page,” the youthful Klane stated of his father’s course of.
“We by no means had Little League or Cub Scouts,” he added. “However a few years in the past, we did collaborate on a reboot of ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ for MGM, the place the unique script was developed and the place the rights reside. And that’s like my biggest reminiscence, is spending, I feel it was the month of August, that we simply sort of wore out the carpet and got here up with gags.”
(A regime change at MGM in the end led the father-son duo’s script to get shelved; it was by no means produced.)
In an announcement shared by Klane’s son, the actor and director Rob Reiner — who appeared in “The place’s Poppa?” — recalled Klane’s “sensible comedy thoughts” and recommended the writers’ lack of self-censorship.
“That’s what made him nice and set him aside,” Reiner stated. “He was fearless.”
Klane was born on Oct. 17, 1941, in Port Jefferson, Lengthy Island, the son of a homemaker and a doctor. He received an English diploma on the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earlier than going into copywriting.
“However after work, he stayed up late at evening writing his first novel,” the obituary reads. “In 1967, Random Home printed ‘The Horse Is Lifeless,’ [a] proudly tasteless story a couple of nebbish camp counselor who’s picked on by his campers.”
Klane offered the rights to the guide to a producer, the cash from which allowed him to go away the world of promoting and focus totally on writing. The end result was a second novel, “The place’s Poppa?,” the movie adaptation of which in the end led Klane to maneuver to Los Angeles.
Klane tailored his subsequent novel, “Hearth Sale,” into a movie directed by and starring Alan Arkin, co-starring Rob Reiner and Sid Caesar.
In 1989, “Weekend at Bernie’s” got here out. Although initially divisive, the darkish comedy has since turn out to be Klane’s most mainstream success, sticking firmly within the public consciousness.
In 1984, Klane married J.C. Scott; the couple had been collectively till his dying. He’d beforehand been married to Linda Tesh (from 1962 till 1975) and Anjanette Comer (from 1976 till 1983).
He’s survived by Scott in addition to his brother Larry; sons David and Jon; daughter Caitlin; and 5 grandchildren. His daughter Tracy, in 2011, preceded him in dying.
