The news of the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner in an apparent homicide has propelled the entertainment industry into a state of shock. Reiner was 78. His wife was 68.
The unclassifiable film-maker, who began his career as an actor, delivered, from 1984 to 1992, one of the most extraordinary directorial runs in Hollywood history.
His debut, This is Spinal Tap, a hugely original “mockumentary” about a fictional rock band, is frequently listed among the funniest films ever made. That was followed by The Sure Thing, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally ..., Misery and A Few Good Men.
Subsequent films included LBJ, The American President and, released earlier this year, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, an amusing sequel to his first film.
RM Block
Son of Carl Reiner, the enormously influential comic who worked with Woody Allen and Mel Brooks on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows, Rob Reiner began his career with small roles on shows such as Batman and The Beverly Hillbillies. Fame came as Michael Stivic, liberal son-in-law to Carroll O’Connor’s bigoted Archie Bunker, on the ground-breaking situation comedy All in the Family.
Based on the BBC series ’Till Death Us Do Part (he essentially played the part originated by Anthony Booth, Tony Blair’s father in law), the show broke new ground in its depiction of racism in 1970s America. He was nominated for five Emmy Awards and won the prize twice for the role.
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Eight years after the show ended in 1976, Reiner turned up, naval cap on head, viewfinder round neck, as the weak-brained Marty DiBergi, fictional director of This is Spinal Tap.
It is hard to conjure up, now that mock documentaries are commonplace, how astonishing that film seemed in 1984. The American cast delivered perfect English accents. The songs were perfect comic facsimiles of an increasingly ubiquitous pop metal. So original was the film that audiences and critics were initially baffled, but it went on to become one of the most quotable ever comedies.
The variety of Reiner’s hits that followed defies belief. Stand by Me, adapted from a Stephen King story, was a poignant tale of a childhood in the 1960s. The Princess Bride – featuring a famous cameo by the Cliffs of Moher – worked heart-stopping romance in with fantasy and his trademark comedy.
When Harry Met Sally ... – shot on location in New York City from a script by Nora Ephron – took some inspiration from his romance with Michele Singer Reiner. It is said he inserted a happy ending into Ephron’s screenplay as acknowledgment of his own happy relationship.
He was frank about how being the son of Carl Reiner helped him into the business. “If you’re a nepo baby, doors will open,” he told the Guardian in 2024. “But you have to deliver. If you don’t deliver, the door will close just as fast as it opened.”
Few delivered quite so much at such a breathtaking pace. A Few Good Men from 1992, a legal thriller written by a rising Aaron Sorkin, scored four Oscar nominations. Kathy Bates won the award for her turn as a deranged fan in Misery.
Reiner had all the gifts. He was a strong storyteller. He worked well with actors. He had a good, clean eye for a workable shot.
“Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen,” former US president Barack Obama wrote on hearing of his death. “But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people – and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action.”
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Reiner was, indeed, a deeply political person. Given any opportunity, he would express his antipathy to the current US president. “Do we want to continue 249 years of self-rule and American democracy?” he said last year. “Or do we want to turn it over to somebody like Donald Trump who has said that he wants to destroy the constitution?”
Reiner was among the founders of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which campaigned successfully for the lifting of the ban on same-sex marriage in California. He was urged to run against Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor of California in 2006, but ultimately decided against it.
“I have young children, and they really are not all that keen on me doing this right now,” he said. “They know what’s involved, and they know how difficult it can be.”
His campaigns against tobacco smoking eventually led to a rare honour: savage satirical depiction in the TV show South Park.
Reiner continued to act and direct into his seventies. He had a role in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013. His 2016 film LBJ starred Woody Harrelson as US president Lyndon B Johnson. Marty DiBergi (roughly inspired by Scorsese in The Last Waltz) was back on screen for the Spinal Tap sequel.
The late couple are survived by their three children.
Married to Penny Marshall, also a respected director, from 1971 until 1981, Rob Reiner was the adoptive father of her daughter, Tracy Reiner.
He leaves the world as one of the great entertainers of his era.
Christopher Guest, star of Spinal Tap, was among those devastated at the news. “Our only focus and care right now is for their children and immediate families,” he said in a statement with his wife, Jamie Lee Curtis. “We have lost great friends. Please give us time to grieve.”
