TEAR. Danny Leiner, director of Harold And Kumar and Dude, Where is my car?

Danny Leiner is dead. The director of two of Stoner's most famous comedy stoner comrades, as well as episodes from several of the most critically-acclaimed comedy shows of the last 20 years, Leiner was 57 years old. Harold and Kumar go to the White Castle, Dude where is my car?, Arrested development, Office, The tick, Gilmore Girls, Sports evening, Freaks and Geeks, The Sopranos, and Strangers with sweetsThat is, if you watched television or became amazed in the early 2000s, you probably know at least tangibly what you're doing.

Leiner made his debut in the short film industry, realizing in 1992 Time is up, about a former inmate whose former roommate (a young John Leguizamo) is trying to revive their relationship outside. (The co-star of the film, Edie Falco, will appear in several Leiner projects over the years.) After making her first feature film, Jeremy Piven Layin 'LowLeiner entered the world of television; his credits from this period include the episode "inner beauty" of foreigners and "we have the mind" – a.k.a the giant and terrifying episode of the head of a viking mascot – from Freaks and Geeks.

At the same time, Leiner was working on Dude where is my car?, who managed to make a virtue of his own affable idiocy, and the natural bone charisma of stars Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott. The film was a moderate success, far exceeding its modest budget of $ 13 million. The box office was less nice with the similar follow-up to Leiner's theme, Harold and Kumar, but that does not stop him from becoming a cult classic, creating an improbable frankness of three films and massively improving the profile of John Cho, Kal Penn and, strangely, Neil Patrick Harris, whose self-portrait even bothered, degenerate uber-horny has helped throw this old Doogie Howser picture.

Leiner's next film, The great new wonderful, aiming for something more highbrow, telling the semi-comic stories of various New Yorkers living in the city on the occasion of the first anniversary of September 11th. Despite an excellent cast (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Shalhoub Tony, Judy Greer, Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan), the film was shot directly on DVD, but many critics (including ours) were more kind. that this low-impact release strategy might suggest.

Looking through Leiner's filmography, which stops more or less here, although he continued on television for several years, it is striking to see the number of repeaters. Scott, Falco, Cho (of which selfie He hired Leiner for an episode in 2014, his latest credit) Colbert, and much more, returning him throughout his career, suggesting an ability to inspire the loyalty and camaraderie of the actors he was working with. That's quite appropriate, given the films that are probably his legacy: Two amazingly sweet movies about guys hanging out and being friends, even if ridiculous circumstances (and the occasional cheetah) conspire to get in their way path.