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The director, who died on Sunday evening, spent the summer of 1985 in Oregon directing “Stand By Me” and listening to blues bands in Eugene.
In the summer of 1985, Rob Reiner took a tour of the Willamette Valley.
While the film director worked on “Stand by Me,” an adaptation of a Stephen King novella originally set in Maine, he filmed in Brownsville’s historic downtown, chosen for its bygone midcentury feel. He took in the famed “Blue Goose” steam train in Cottage Grove. He directed a group of young actors as they discovered a fictional dead body in Pleasant Hill, and another as they played “mailbox baseball” in Veneta. In his downtime, he listened to the blues in Eugene.
Now, as the 40th anniversary of the 1986 release of “Stand by Me” approaches next year, those associated with the film’s production in Oregon have memories that have taken on a new layer of grief.
Reiner was found dead on Sunday, Dec. 14, in his Los Angeles home, alongside his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. He was 78 years old, and she was 70. Their 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, was booked into a Los Angeles County jail on suspicion of murder later that night.
“He was a mensch, like they call them in Hollywood,” said Katherine Wilson, a longtime fixture of the Oregon film industry who worked on the film’s in-state casting. “He was just so beautiful.”
When Rob Reiner came to Oregon
A beloved actor-turned-director of films across genres, Reiner’s directing output in the 1980s and 1990s includes all-time favorites like “Stand by Me,” the romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally” and family fantasy “The Princess Bride.”
But by the time he came to Oregon, the 38-year-old director had been behind the helm of two other films, rock mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” and the romantic comedy “The Sure Thing.”
“People expected him to be Meathead,” Wilson said, referring to the character Reiner played in the sitcom “All in the Family.”
Instead, she said, he was generous and talented.
Wilson worked with Reiner mostly during the film’s audition process. Casting an actor to play David “Lard Ass” Hogan, the bullied overweight child who instigates the film’s Barf-O-Rama sequence, had been a challenge in Los Angeles for the film’s casting director, Jane Jenkins.
But Wilson, who had a knack for casting “real people” after “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Animal House,” found him in Oregon, casting Andy Lindberg. After that, she said, Reiner trusted her judgment and even turned to her to find the first assistant director on the film. That was her friend Irby Smith, who had the same role on 1975’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
For the Barf-O-Rama pie eating contest, Wilson recalled, she and Smith had a difference in opinion on the ages of the Benevolent Order of Antelopes, the antler-wearing fraternal group who gets barfed on by the Women’s Auxiliary. Wilson cast them as older, as her grandfather had been a member, but Smith wanted them younger; the older extras were dismissed.
“Reiner shows up on set, and he goes, ‘Well, what happened to these great old guys?’” Wilson recalled. “I said, ‘Well, Irby wanted younger ones.’ He said, ‘No, call them back.’”
Reiner’s warmth working with the film’s younger actors left an impression on Wilson, even in sillier moments like coaching Lindberg on the physical comedy he wanted to see during the Barf-O-Rama.
Another Oregon casting choice was key for the Barf-O-Rama: the barf itself. Wilson had been a member of the Oregon Film Factory, a Ken-and-Chuck Kesey crew that first put a camera in her hand. So it was natural to use Nancy’s Yogurt (mixed with blueberries) as the barf.
Some of that Pacific Northwest energy may have creeped into Reiner that summer, with Wilson recalling his relaxed presence during filming.
“The Reiner that got off the plane and checked into the Hilton was not the Reiner that was on set,” she said. “He was wearing sweatpants. I swear to God, it was like Eugene laid-back.”
‘The magic was over’
Though filming took Reiner, cast and crew across the region, production was ultimately based in Eugene, where Reiner and the others stayed in the Hilton Eugene. In his downtime, Reiner would often go to Taylor’s Bar and Grill, where “The Blues Brothers” inspiration Curtis Salgado often played.
Wilson remembers the last time she saw Reiner, at the Hilton Eugene, with producer Andrew Scheinman, and screenwriters-slash-producers Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans. They were standing on the veranda before leaving for the airport and crying.
“We cried because it was over,” she said. “The magic was over.”
Wilson is part of a team organizing a 40th anniversary celebration of the film’s 1986 release for next year, like their 50th anniversary celebration for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” earlier this month.
Reiner wasn’t able to attend an anniversary party in 2006, so Wilson was looking forward to the 40th for the chance to see him again. She said that the hope of bringing Reiner back to Oregon to celebrate four decades since the film meant his sudden death on Sunday evening hit her hard.
“It just feels like what was going to be a celebration, and hopefully a reunion, is not,” she said. “It’s going to be a memorial.”
“Stand by Me” is streaming on Netflix, Fubo and Philo. The film is also available for rental on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and for purchase on YouTube and Google Play.
