American screen actor best known for his comedy film roles as Eddie Murphy’s dim-witted sidekick in the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy (1984, 1987, 1994), Dr. Neal Miller in The Santa Clause trilogy (1994, 2002, 2006), and a bumbling kidnapper in Ruthless People (1986) with Danny DeVito and Bette Midler.
He was nicknamed Judge at the age of two weeks because he looked like a somber high prelate. He never had a warm relationship with his stern father, Edward Sr., who worked as a labor relations attorney for Du Pont. His close relationship with his mother, Regina, still continues. After sitting in on drama classes in four East Coast colleges, the tall, lean and gawky Reinhold performed in local and regional theaters, including Burt Reynolds’ Dinner Theater in Florida. He moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and began to get bits on TV.
He started working in films in 1979 with a debut in Running Scared. For the most part, he was either ignored, as in Stripes or cut, as in Gremlins. After going unnoticed in five movies, he suddenly turned scene-stealer as Eddie Murphy’s simple-witted sidekick in Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and its sequels. His film, Off Beat, with Meg Tilly enjoyed only modest success. In 1986 he played an unlikely kidnapper in Ruthless People and became known as a marketable commodity.
On the set, Reinhold is so concentrated, so intent on giving his utmost that he seldom hangs out, not to mention joke around. “I’m a worrier,” he says with a smile, “and I’ve finally learned to accept it as part of my creative process – that’s how I work myself up to a place where I’m open to all the possibilities.”
Reinhold married casting director Carrie Frazier in November 1985. It was she who helped get him the part of the gawky kid in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. “Deep down,” he admitted, “I’m a hopeless romantic.” After a divorce, he married 30-year-old model Amy Miller on 8 January 2000 in Scott, Arkansas.
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