Rob Reiner, son of a comedy giant who became one, too, dies at 78
Writer-director Rob Reiner poses for a portrait, May 2, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Brian Ach/Invision/AP, File)2025-12-15T05:27:22Z Rob Reiner, the son of a comedy giant who went on to become one, himself, as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation with movies such as The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally and This Is Spinal Tap, has died. He was 78. Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were found dead Sunday at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. A law enforcement official briefed on the investigation confirmed that Reiner and Singer were the victims. The official could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. RELATED COVERAGE Rob Reiner and his wife found dead in Los Angeles home, AP source says Authorities were investigating an apparent homicide, said Capt. Mike Bland with the Los Angeles Police Department. The Los Angeles Fire Department said it responded to a medical aid request shortly after 3:30 p.m. Reiner grew up thinking his father, Carl Reiner, didnt understand him or find him funny. But the younger Reiner would in many ways follow in his fathers footsteps, working both in front and behind the camera, in comedies that stretched from broad sketch work to accomplished dramedies. Sally Struthers plants a kiss on the cheek of Rob Reiner, right, Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton hold hands during a reunion of the cast of "All in the Family," at O'Conner restaurant, Feb. 12, 1991, in Beverly Hill, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Martinez, File) Sally Struthers plants a kiss on the cheek of Rob Reiner, right, Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton hold hands during a reunion of the cast of "All in the Family," at O'Conner restaurant, Feb. 12, 1991, in Beverly Hill, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Martinez, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Rob Reiner talks on the phone at his office at Castle Rock Enterprises, seeking donations for anti-smoking campaigns, July 29, 1988, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File) Rob Reiner talks on the phone at his office at Castle Rock Enterprises, seeking donations for anti-smoking campaigns, July 29, 1988, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More My father thought, Oh, my God, this poor kid is worried about being in the shadow of a famous father, Reiner said, recalling the temptation to change his name to 60 Minutes in October. 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, Reiners breakthrough came when he was, at age 23, cast in Norman Lears All in the Family as Archie Bunkers liberal son-in-law, Michael Meathead Stivic. But by the 1980s, Reiner began as a feature film director, churning out some of the most beloved films of that, or any, era. His first film, the largely improvised 1984 cult classic This Is Spinal Tap, remains the urtext mockumentary. After the 1985 John Cusack summer comedy, The Sure Thing, Reiner made Stand By Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987) and When Harry Met Sally (1989), a four-year stretch that resulted in a trio of American classics, all of them among the most often quoted movies of the 20th century. Rob Reiner arrives at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Networks Respect Awards, in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File) Rob Reiner arrives at the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Networks Respect Awards, in Beverly Hills, Calif., Friday, Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A legacy on and off screenFor the next four decades, Reiner, a warm and gregarious presence on screen and an outspoken liberal advocate off it, remained a constant fixture in Hollywood. The production company he co-founded, Castle Rock Entertainment, launched an enviable string of hits, including Seinfeld and The Shawshank Redemption. By the turn of the century, its success rate had fallen considerably, but Reiner revived it earlier this decade. This fall, Reiner and Castle Rock released the long-in-coming sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. All the while, Reiner was one of the film industrys most passionate Democrat activists, regularly hosting fundraisers and campaigning for liberal issues. He was co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which challenged in court Californias ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. He also chaired the campaign for Prop 10, a California initiative to fund early childhood development services with a tax on tobacco products. Reiner was also a critic of President Donald Trump. That ran in the family, too. Reiners father opposed the Communist hunt of McCarthyism in the 1950s and his mother, Estelle Reiner, a singer and actor, protested the Vietnam War. If youre a nepo baby, doors will open, Reiner told the Guardian in 2024. But you have to deliver. If you dont deliver, the door will close just as fast as it opened.All in the Family to Stand By Me Robert Reiner was born in the Bronx on March 6, 1947. As a young man, he quickly set out to follow his father into entertainment. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles film school and, in the 1960s, began appearing in small parts in various television shows. Carl Reiner, left, and his son Rob Reiner pose together following their hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre, April 7, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File) Carl Reiner, left, and his son Rob Reiner pose together following their hand and footprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre, April 7, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More But when Lear saw Reiner as a key cast member in All in the Family, it came as a surprise to the elder Reiner.Norman says to my dad, You know, this kid is really funny. And I think my dad said, What? That kid? That kid? Hes sullen. He sits quiet. He doesnt, you know, hes not funny. He didnt think I was anyway, Reiner told 60 Minutes. On All in the Family, Reiner served as a pivotal foil to Carroll OConnors bigoted, conservative Archie Bunker. Reiner was five times nominated for an Emmy for his performance on the show, winning in 1974 and 1978. In Lear, Reiner also found a mentor. He called him a second father. It wasnt just that he hired me for All in the Family, Reiner told American Masters in 2005. It was that I saw, in how he conducted his life, that there was room to be an activist as well. That you could use your celebrity, your good fortune, to help make some change.Lear also helped launch Reiner as a filmmaker. He put $7.5 million of his own money to help finance Stand By Me, Reiners adaptation of the Stephen King novella The Body. The movie, about four boys who go looking for the dead body of a missing boy, became a coming-of-age classic, made breakthroughs of its young cast (particularly River Phoenix) and even earned the praise of King. With his stock rising, Reiner devoted himself to adapting William Goldmans 1973s The Princess Bride, a book Reiner had loved since his father gave him a copy as a gift. Everyone from Franois Truffaut to Robert Redford had considered adapting Goldmans book, but it ultimately fell to Reiner (from Goldmans own script) to capture the unique comic tone of The Princess Bride. But only once he had Goldmans blessing.At the door he greeted me and he said, This is my baby. I want this on my tombstone. This is my favorite thing Ive ever written in my life. What are you going to do with it? Reiner recalled in a Television Academy interview. And we sat down with him and started going through what I thought should be done with the film. Actor and director Rob Reiner, center, poses for photographs while stumping along with actor Martin Sheen, not seen, for Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, Jan. 14, 2004, at the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (Rick Chase/The Courier via AP, File) Actor and director Rob Reiner, center, poses for photographs while stumping along with actor Martin Sheen, not seen, for Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, Jan. 14, 2004, at the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. (Rick Chase/The Courier via AP, File) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Though only a modest success in theaters, the movie starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Andr the Giant and Robin Wright would grow in stature over the years, leading to countless impressions of Inigo Montoyas vow of revenge and the risky nature of land wars in Asia. When Harry Met Sally ... Reiner was married to Penny Marshall, the actor and filmmaker, for 10 years beginning in 1971. Like Reiner, Marshall experienced sitcom fame, with Laverne & Shirley, but found a more lasting legacy behind the camera. After their divorce, Reiner, at a lunch with Nora Ephron, suggested a comedy about dating. In writing what became When Harry Met Sally Ephron and Reiner charted a relationship between a man and a woman (played in the film by Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan) over the course of 12 years.Along the way, the movies ending changed, as did some of the films indelible moments. The famous line, Ill have what shes having, said after witnessing Ryans fake orgasm at Katzs Delicatessen, was a suggestion by Crystal delivered by none other than Reiners mother, Estelle. The movies happy ending also had some real-life basis. Reiner met Singer, a photographer, on the set of When Harry Met Sally In 1989, they were wed. They had three children together: Nick, Jake and Romy.Reiners subsequent films included another King adaptation, Misery (1990) and a pair of Aaron Sorkin-penned dramas: the military courtroom tale A Few Good Men (1992) and 1995s The American President.By the late 90s, Reiners films (1996s Ghosts of Mississippi, 2007s The Bucket List) no longer had the same success rate. But he remained a frequent actor, often memorably enlivening films like Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). In 2023, he directed the documentary Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.In an interview earlier this year with Seth Rogen, Reiner suggested everything in his career boiled down to one thing.All Ive ever done is say, Is this something that is an extension of me? For Stand by Me, I didnt know if it was going to be successful or not. All I thought was, I like this because I know what it feels like. JAKE COYLE Coyle has been a film critic and covered the movie industry for The Associated Press since 2013. He is based in New York City. twitter mailto
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