Rob Reiner’s son Nick was booked into the Los Angeles County jail on suspicion of murder, records show, hours after the Hollywood legend and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead at their Brentwood home Sunday.
Jail records provide few details but say Nick Reiner, 32, was held on $4 million bail. The records do not give any details about the cause for the arrest but said he was taken into custody at 9:15 p.m. Sunday and booked at 5:04 a.m.
Family friends told The Times that Rob and Nick got into an argument on Saturday evening at a party at Conan O’Brien’s home and that many people noticed Nick acting strangely at the party.
Nick Reiner cycled in and out of rehab centers and experienced bouts of homelessness as a teenager. He recounted his struggles in interviews.
He had gotten clean by 2015, when he worked with his father on “Being Charlie,” a semi-autobiographical film about addiction and recovery. Rob Reiner directed and Nick co-wrote the film about a successful actor with political ambitions and a son addicted to drugs.
At the time of the premiere, The Times reported that Rob Reiner and his wife at their worst moments “wondered if there was an end in sight, and whether it would be the tragic one that a voice in the back of their heads kept telling them was coming.”
Rob Reiner said the filming brought up tough memories.
“It was very, very hard going through it the first time, with these painful and difficult highs and lows,” he said. “And then making the movie dredged it all up again.”
But he said the process of making the movie was therapeutic, allowing them to work through a lot of past trauma and develop a closer relationship.
Los Angeles police were investigating the deaths as a homicide after the couple’s bodies were found at their home in the 200 block of Chadbourne Avenue, police said. Reiner, 78, was a legendary actor, director and, later, political activist, and his wife was a photographer and producer.
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Law enforcement sources told The Times that there was no sign of forced entry into the home. The source also said the Reiners had injuries consistent with being stabbed.
The sources said that some time after the attack, one of the couple’s children found them and law enforcement was called.
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Earlier Sunday, Margaret Stewart, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman, said the department was called to the residence around 3:30 p.m. for medical aid.
Reiner had a five-decade-long career in Hollywood.
Early in his career, he played Michael “Meathead” Stivic on the sitcom “All in the Family” from 1971 to 1979, alongside Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker.
As a director, Reiner helmed a string of hits including “When Harry Met Sally,” “The Princess Bride” and “This Is Spinal Tap.” His work took a dramatic turn when he directed “Stand by Me,” the 1986 adaptation of a Stephen King novella.
Reiner was nominated for an Academy Award for 1992’s “A Few Good Men,” which starred Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise, though the movie lost to Clint Eastwood’s western “Unforgiven.”
Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, attend the 46th Kennedy Center Honors gala in Washington in December 2023.
(Kent Nishimura / AFP / Getty Images)
Reiner also was a leading political voice in Hollywood.
He was a co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the organization that led the fight to overturn Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. He’s also been active in children’s issues through the years, having led the campaign to pass Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Initiative, which created an ambitious program of early childhood development services.
Proposition 10 was considered landmark policy. Reiner enlisted help in the effort from Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, and his own father, comedy legend Carl Reiner.
Reiner was married to Penny Marshall, star of “Laverne & Shirley,” from 1971 to 1981. He met photographer Michele Singer on the set of “When Harry Met Sally” and the two married in 1989, the year the movie came out.
Michele Singer Reiner began producing films over the last decade, including “Shock and Awe,” “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” and “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” all directed by her husband. She also produced “God & Country,” a look at Christian nationalism in the U.S.
A police officer rolls out crime scene tape outside the home of Rob Reiner in Brentwood on Sunday night.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
By Sunday evening, law enforcement had swarmed Reiner’s sprawling estate in Brentwood, though an eerie quiet hung over Chadbourne Avenue, which had been sealed from the public with yellow crime scene tape.
Police cars were stationed at either end of the block where the Reiner residence is located while a chopper circled overhead.
Officers spoke to a young man inside the sealed-off area who left the scene around 7:30 p.m. in a white Tesla and declined to speak to the media.
Councilmember Traci Park, whose Westside district includes Brentwood, said in a statement that the LAPD had increased patrols in the neighborhood “out of an abundance of caution.”
“As we continue to wait for more updates, I want to express my profound concern and sadness at the news coming out of Brentwood,” Park wrote in the statement. “We are in close contact with LAPD as the homicide unit continues their investigation.”
Chief of Detectives Alan Hamilton speaks to the media at a news conference Sunday night in Brentwood.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that she was “heartbroken by the tragic loss of Rob and his wife Michele.”
“Rob Reiner’s contributions reverberate throughout American culture and society, and he has improved countless lives through his creative work and advocacy fighting for social and economic justice,” Bass said. “An acclaimed actor, director, producer, writer, and engaged political activist, he always used his gifts in service of others.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom remembered Rob Reiner as a “renowned director, writer, and activist” and his wife as an “accomplished producer and photographer.”
“Rob was the big-hearted genius behind so many of the classic stories we love,” the governor and first partner wrote in a statement late Sunday. “His boundless empathy made his stories timeless, teaching generations how to see goodness and righteousness in others — and encouraging us to dream bigger. That empathy extended well beyond his films. … He made California a better place through his good works.”