Rob Reiner’s family: left, his wife Michele; on the right his son Nick, suspicious
Rob Reiner, a major Hollywood director responsible for films such as “Harry and Sally,” “Stand by Me” and “Misery,” died at the age of 78 in an event that shocked the film industry: he and his wife Michele were found dead in their home, stabbed, and police have arrested his youngest son Nick, a suspect in the crime.
Nick Reiner, 32, has been “charged with murder” and is being held on $4 million bail in connection with his parents’ deaths. Those around him immediately remembered Nick’s struggle with addiction problems, which he himself had spoken about publicly: by the age of 18, he had already gone through cycles of going in and out of rehabilitation centers, with episodes away from home and relapses in between. Rob and Nick Reiner explored their rocky relationship and Nick Reiner’s struggles with drugs in a 2016 semi-autobiographical film, “Being Charlie.”
Rob, the son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, grew up thinking that his father, Carl Reiner, didn’t understand him or find him funny. “My dad was like, ‘Oh my God, this poor kid is afraid of being in the shadow of a famous dad,'” Reiner told “60 Minutes” in October, recalling the temptation to change his name. “And he says, ‘What do you want to change your name to?’ And I said, “Carl.” “I just wanted to be like him.”
After starting out as a writer for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” Reiner’s big break came when, at age 23, he was cast in Norman Lear’s “All in the Family” as Archie Bunker’s progressive son-in-law, Michael “Meathead” Stivic. But in the 1980s, Reiner began working as a feature film director, producing some of the most popular films of that or any other era. His first film, the largely improvised 1984 cult classic “Spinal Tap,” remains the founding text of the mockumentary.
After John Cusack’s 1985 summer comedy “The Sure Thing,” Reiner directed “Stand by Me” (1986), “The Princess Bride” (1987) and “When Harry Met Sally” (1989), a four-year effort that resulted in a trio of American classics, all of which were among the most cited films of the 20th century.
Nick Reiner is the only person arrested in connection with his parents’ deaths
He went on to direct the memorable films Misery and A Matter of Honor and continued working as an actor with roles in films such as Love Tuning and The Wolf of Wall Street. But in an interview with Seth Rogen earlier this year, Reiner hinted that everything in his career came down to one thing: “All I did was say, ‘Is this something that’s an extension of me?'” With “Count on Me,” I didn’t know if it would be successful or not. I just thought, ‘I like this because I know what it feels like.'”
Rob Reiner was married to the photographer Michele Singer Reiner since 1989. The two met while he was directing “Harry and Sally” and had three children together. Reiner was previously married to actress and director Penny Marshall, director of “I Want to Be Big” and “A Very Special Team,” from 1971 to 1981. He adopted his daughter Tracy Reiner. Carl Reiner died in 2020 at the age of 98 and Marshall died in 2018.
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