Woman Who Delivered One Of Film’s Most Famous Lines Dies At 94

You probably wouldn’t have recognized her if you passed her on the street. She wasn’t a famous actress and she didn’t have a high profile.

In fact, she became well known for just two things – her family and one of the most memorable lines in movie history.

Her name was Estelle Reiner and when she died on the weekend, it didn’t get a lot of publicity.

But she’ll live on because of a single classic on screen moment.

It came in the romantic 1989 comedy ” When Harry Met Sally,” and you certainly know the scene. It’s the one that takes place in Katz’s Deli and involves an argument between Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal about whether women can realistically fake an orgasm during sex.

As Ryan dramatically grunts and groans at the table to demonstrate that it can be done, a woman at another booth peers over at the commotion and pointedly tells the waiter, “I’ll have what she’s having.”

It’s one of the most memorable lines in the movie and it was delivered with perfect aplomb by Reiner. How did she get cast for her moment of fame? She was the mother of the director, Rob Reiner, and the husband of comedy veteran Carl Reiner (she can be seen with him in 2005, top left.)

The famous unknown also had bit parts in other movies, including “The Man With Two Brains,” (directed by her husband) and “Fatso,” helmed by her friend, the late Anne Bancroft.

Reiner actually had several careers. During the Vietnam War in the 60s, she helped organize “Another Mother for Peace,” an activist group that tried to stop the conflict.

When she was 65, she shifted gears again, starting a new career as a jazz singer. She wound up recording seven albums over the next 28 years, and performed in nightclubs in both L.A. and New York.

But moviegoers who never really knew her name would have been delighted to ‘have what she was having’ – a great life filled with success and a lot fun.

Reiner died of old age on Saturday. She was 94.

Photo credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images