Rob Reiner death live updates: Filmmaker's son Nick arrested amid investigation
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The filmmaker and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead Sunday in their Los Angeles home.
What to know about the ongoing investigation:
- Filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Los Angeles home Sunday, according to a source close to the Reiner family.
- Paramedics were called to Reiner’s home on the west side of Los Angeles around 3:30 p.m. A few minutes later, police officers were dispatched. A homicide investigation is ongoing.
- Nick Reiner, one of Rob Reiner's children, was arrested in connection with parents’ deaths, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation. The 32-year-old has a long history with drug addiction, which began in his teens.
- Reaction of grief and shock have poured in from the entertainment industry and the political world.
'Princess Bride' actor Cary Elwes shares photo to mourn Reiner
"Princess Bride" star Cary Elwes couldn't muster the words to convey his profound sadness over the director's shocking death.
Instead, he let a picture — which appeared to be from the set of their beloved 1987 fairytale, "The Princess Bride."
Rob Reiner introduced himself to younger viewers with late-career acting work
Rob Reiner was a familiar face on American television for more than 50 years, first as Archie Bunker's proudly progressive son-in-law on the landmark sitcom "All in the Family" — and more recently as a tough-minded business consultant on FX's "The Bear." It's a role that helped introduce the late actor and director to a new generation of viewers.
Reiner's late-career acting work also included a memorable supporting turn as Leonardo DiCaprio's father in Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street." In one scene, DiCaprio's ruthless stock broker explains that his father was nicknamed "Mad Max" because of "his hair-trigger temper, which could be set off by something as innocuous as a ringing telephone."
Then the phone rings, and Reiner launches into an expletive-laden tirade. Reiner later told an interviewer that he appreciated Scorsese's willingness to let him improvise his lines.
"He knows that if you can improvise, you’re going to wind up with something that has a greater internal spark to it than anything that could be written," Reiner told Slashfilm, a movie news website.
Harry Connick Jr. says he's 'gutted' by deaths
Reiner and his wife played crucial roles in the early career of Harry Connick Jr., the famed crooner said in an emotional tribute posted to his Instagram feed.
The 58-year-old musician said his “big break when I was a kid” was playing on the platinum soundtrack for Reiner’s 1989 classic “When Harry Met Sally.” Connick also fondly recalled Singer’s work as photographer for his 1990 album “Lofty’s Roach Souffle.”
"I’m just gutted, absolutely gutted," Connick said in the post. "I just have no words to describe how sad I am."
Rob and Michele Singer Reiner met during production of 'When Harry Met Sally...'
Rob Reiner wasn't sure whether he'd ever fall in love again after his divorce from his first wife, Penny Marshall. But then he met Michele Singer during the production of his 1989 romantic comedy "When Harry Met Sally...," and their relationship inspired him to alter the movie's ending.
In an earlier version of Nora Ephron’s screenplay, Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) did not end up together, "because at that time, I couldn’t figure out how I was going to get with anybody," Reiner told an interviewer in 2016.
But "then I met the woman who became my wife during the making of the movie, and I changed the ending," Reiner told the A.V. Club, a pop culture news website. In the movie's final scene, Harry declares his love for Sally at a New Year's Eve party, and the two go on to tie the knot.
In real life, Rob and Michele Singer Reiner married in 1989.
Rob Reiner worked on film with son Nick Reiner that touched on substance abuse
In an interview with “TODAY” in 2016, Rob Reiner spoke about making the film "Being Charlie" with his son Nick Reiner, who was one of the screenwriters.
The drama, released in 2015, follows the addicted son of a would-be governor who "goes down the long, rough road of rehab, fighting against recovery every inch of the way," according to its IMDB description.
Nick Reiner, arrested in connection with parents’ deaths, told People in an interview in 2016 that he had spent weeks sleeping rough on the streets and was in and out of rehab for addiction treatment that started when he was 15.
“[W]hat I didn’t understand was the depth of what he was going through," Rob Reiner said during a May 4, 2016, appearance on “TODAY.” "And the process of making this film not only forced me to see what he was experiencing but it forced him to see what I went through and what his mother went through, and hopefully the film was a reflection of that."
A look at Rob Reiner’s film legacy
NBC News’ Joe Fryer and Savannah Sellers spoke with entertainment journalist and television host Dave Karger about Reiner’s iconic career amid a devastating event.
Rob Reiner's son Nick Reiner arrested in connection with parents’ deaths
Nick Reiner, the son of movie director Rob Reiner, has been arrested in connection with the deaths of his parents, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.
Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead Sunday with stab wounds, a source close to the family told NBC News.
It was not immediately known if Nick Reiner has legal representation.
Reiner leaves behind a legacy of directing classic American films
Reiner was active in Hollywood for more than four decades and was best known for a string of films from the 1980s into the 1990s now considered modern classics: “Stand by Me,” “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally...,” “Misery” and “A Few Good Men,” among others.
Rob Reiner’s father was actor and comedian Carl Reiner, creator of one of the postwar era’s most successful television series, “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
The film that got Rob Reiner off the starting line was the satire “This Is Spinal Tap,” a look at an aging British hard rock band that has no self-awareness, an allegory for his generation, in ways. The 1984 release was hailed by critics and became enough of a cult classic that Reiner returned to the band this year with September’s release of “This is Spinal Tap II.”
Hollywood stars, politicians pay tribute to Rob Reiner and his wife
Hollywood luminaries and political heavyweights expressed their shock and sadness Sunday night after news broke that prolific filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, had been found dead in their Los Angeles home.
The outpouring of grief underscored Rob Reiner’s towering stature in the entertainment industry.
Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar for her leading role as a novelist’s deranged fan in Reiner’s “Misery,” described him as “brilliant and kind, a man who made films of every genre to challenge himself as an artist.”
“I’m horrified hearing this terrible news. Absolutely devastated. I loved Rob,” Bates said in a statement, adding that Reiner, a committed progressive activist, “fought courageously for his political beliefs.”
Bates also praised Michele Reiner, calling her a “gifted photographer.”
Rob Reiner and his wife found dead in their L.A. home from apparent stab wounds
Filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Los Angeles home Sunday, according to a source close to the Reiner family. The source said the couple appeared to have died from stab wounds.
Los Angeles police officials said Sunday they responded to a report of two deceased at Reiner’s Brentwood home but did not identify them. Police said a “death investigation” is underway.
Paramedics were called to Reiner’s home on the west side of Los Angeles around 3:30 p.m. A few minutes later, police officers were dispatched.
Deputy Police Chief Alan Hamilton told reporters that the investigation will continue through the night. He did not confirm the identities of the victims, saying the city coroner’s office will release that information later.
