Rob Schneider announces his mom, who appeared in his films, has died
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Rob Schneider announced in a touching Instagram post that his mother — and favorite costar — Pilar Schneider has died at 91.
Pilar, who appeared in several of his films including “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” “passed away peacefully after spending a perfect Sunday evening family dinner with loved ones at her side,” Schneider wrote.
In the photo, the "Saturday Night Live" alum and his daughters Miranda, 8, and Madeline, 4, pose with their grandmother at Butterfly Wonderland in Arizona. (Schneider is also dad to 31-year-old singer Elle King.)
A World War II survivor of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, Pilar Schneider had a difficult childhood, her son said.
“Her mother had small pox and she was raised for the first 3 years by her aunt,” Schneider wrote. “Pilar grew up without a father (an American Soldier she never met until by accident 22 years later in San Francisco).”
Pilar’s brothers were killed by the Japanese, and she often went hungry due to food shortages.
“The family survived because of Pilar and her ingenuity. Her mother and sisters sewed pajamas from bedsheets and traded them with the farmers for sweet potatoes (kamotes), the ones that the Japanese didn’t steal from her," Schneider shared.
Pilar, who was born an American citizen, graduated from the University of Santo Tomas in Manila and returned the United States in the 1950s. She worked as a reading specialist for three decades.
Make the imagination leap that we are not a country divided by two parties of inseparable ideas and values but of one people and one nation indivisible by god.
In loving memory of Pilar Monroe Schneider, Feb 19 1929 - Jan 11 2021. #GodBlessYouMom pic.twitter.com/82SIQhMlga— Rob Schneider (@RobSchneider) January 12, 2021
“Pilar spoke often of joining her beloved husband of 39 years, my lovely father Marvin Schneider,” the Schneider wrote. “That day has come for them to be together. I am proud to be able to say that I am the son of Pilar Monroe Schneider.”
In the comments, many are responding with stories about Pilar and what she meant to them.
“I’m so sorry to hear of her passing. She was my kindergarten teacher at Sanchez and I’ve always remembered her,” wrote one person.
Added another, “I loved her in your movies but what I loved most of all was meeting her at my 8th grade spaghetti dinner, she was one of the sweetest ladies I had ever met.”
Schneider has talked about making a movie about Pilar’s life in the Philippines.
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