Rob Reiner, the son of a comedy giant who became one himself as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation with movies such as \u201cThe Princess Bride,\u201d \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally \u2026\u201d and \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap,\u201d has died. He was 78.<\/p>\n
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 their identities but could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Authorities were investigating an \u201capparent homicide,\u201d 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. <\/p>\n
Reiner grew up thinking his father, Carl Reiner, didn’t understand him or find him funny. But the younger Reiner would in many ways follow in his father’s footsteps, working both in front and behind the camera, in comedies that stretched from broad sketch work to accomplished dramedies. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy father thought, \u2018Oh, my God, this poor kid is worried about being in the shadow of a famous father,\u2019\u201d Reiner said, recalling the temptation to change his name to \u201c60 Minutes\u201d in October. \u201cAnd he says, \u2018What do you want to change your name to?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Carl.\u2019 I just wanted to be like him.\u201d<\/p>\n
After starting out as a writer for \u201cThe Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,\u201d Reiner’s breakthrough came when he was, at age 23, cast in Norman Lear’s \u201cAll in the Family\u201d as Archie Bunker’s liberal son-in-law, Michael \u201cMeathead\u201d 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 \u201cThis Is Spinal Tap,\u201d remains the quintessential mockumentary. <\/p>\n
After the 1985 John Cusack summer comedy, \u201cThe Sure Thing,\u201d Reiner made \u201cStand By Me\u201d (1986), \u201cThe Princess Bride\u201d (1987) and \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally \u2026\u201d (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. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tA legacy on and off screen<\/p>\n
For 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 \u201cSeinfeld\u201d and \u201cThe Shawshank Redemption.\u201d 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 \u201cSpinal Tap II: The End Continues.\u201d<\/p>\n
All the while, Reiner was one of the film industry’s 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 California’s 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. <\/p>\n
That ran in the family, too. Reiner’s father opposed the Communist hunt of McCarthyism in the 1950s and his mother, Estelle Reiner, a singer and actor, protested the Vietnam War. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a nepo baby, doors will open,\u201d Reiner told the Guardian in 2024. \u201cBut you have to deliver. If you don\u2019t deliver, the door will close just as fast as it opened.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018All in the Family\u2019 to \u2018Stand By Me\u2019 <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But when Lear saw Reiner as a key cast member in \u201cAll in the Family,\u201d it came as a surprise to the elder Reiner.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorman says to my dad, \u2018You know, this kid is really funny.\u2019 And I think my dad said, \u2018What? That kid? That kid? He\u2019s sullen. He sits quiet. He doesn\u2019t, you know, he\u2019s not funny.\u2019 He didn\u2019t think I was anyway,\u201d Reiner told \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n
On \u201cAll in the Family,\u201d Reiner served as a pivotal foil to Carroll O\u2019Connor’s 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 \u201ca second father.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just that he hired me for \u2018All in the Family,\u2019\u201d Reiner told \u201cAmerican Masters\u201d in 2005. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lear also helped launch Reiner as a filmmaker. He put $7.5 million of his own money to help finance \u201cStand By Me,\u201d Reiner’s adaptation of the Stephen King novella \u201cThe Body.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
With his stock rising, Reiner devoted himself to adapting William Goldman’s 1973’s \u201cThe Princess Bride,\u201d a book Reiner had loved since his father gave him a copy as a gift. Everyone from Fran\u00e7ois Truffaut to Robert Redford had considered adapting Goldman’s book, but it ultimately fell to Reiner (from Goldman’s own script) to capture the unique comic tone of \u201cThe Princess Bride.\u201d But only once he had Goldman’s blessing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the door he greeted me and he said, \u2018This is my baby. I want this on my tombstone. This is my favorite thing I’ve ever written in my life. What are you going to do with it?’\u201d Reiner recalled in a Television Academy interview. \u201cAnd we sat down with him and started going through what I thought should be done with the film.\u201d <\/p>\n
Though only a modest success in theaters, the movie \u2014 starring Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Andr\u00e9 the Giant and Robin Wright \u2014 would grow in stature over the years, leading to countless impressions of Inigo Montoya’s vow of revenge and the risky nature of land wars in Asia. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t‘When Harry Met Sally …\u201d <\/p>\n
Reiner was married to Penny Marshall, the actor and filmmaker, for 10 years beginning in 1971. Like Reiner, Marshall experienced sitcom fame, with \u201cLaverne & Shirley,\u201d but found a more lasting legacy behind the camera. <\/p>\n
After their divorce, Reiner, at a lunch with Nora Ephron, suggested a comedy about dating. In writing what became \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally \u2026\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Along the way, the movie’s ending changed, as did some of the film\u2019s indelible moments. The famous line, \u201cI\u2019ll have what she\u2019s having,\u201d said after witnessing Ryan\u2019s fake orgasm at Katz\u2019s Delicatessen, was a suggestion by Crystal \u2014 delivered by none other than Reiner\u2019s mother, Estelle.<\/p>\n
The movie\u2019s happy ending also had some real-life basis. Reiner met Singer, a photographer, on the set of \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally \u2026\u201d In 1989, they were wed. They had three children together: Nick, Jake and Romy.<\/p>\n
Reiner\u2019s subsequent films included another King adaptation, \u201cMisery\u201d (1990) and a pair of Aaron Sorkin-penned dramas: the military courtroom tale \u201cA Few Good Men\u201d (1992) and 1995\u2019s \u201cThe American President.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the late \u201990s, Reiner\u2019s films (1996\u2019s \u201cGhosts of Mississippi,\u201d 2007\u2019s \u201cThe Bucket List\u201d) no longer had the same success rate. But he remained a frequent actor, often memorably enlivening films like \u201cSleepless in Seattle\u201d (1993) and \u201cThe Wolf of Wall Street\u201d (2013). In 2023, he directed the documentary \u201cAlbert Brooks: Defending My Life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview earlier this year with Seth Rogen, Reiner suggested everything in his career boiled down to one thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll I\u2019ve ever done is say, \u2018Is this something that is an extension of me?\u2019 For \u2018Stand by Me,\u2019 I didn\u2019t know if it was going to be successful or not. All I thought was, \u2018I like this because I know what it feels like.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rob Reiner, the son of a comedy giant who became one himself as one of the preeminent filmmakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[174498,157795,2724,88,206],"class_list":{"0":"post-350098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ap-entertainment","9":"tag-ap-u-s-news","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}