{"id":421460,"date":"2026-01-21T20:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/421460\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T20:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:26:10","slug":"mel-brooks-breaks-silence-on-rob-reiners-terrible-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/421460\/","title":{"rendered":"Mel Brooks Breaks Silence on Rob Reiner\u2019s \u2018Terrible\u2019 Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"

Legendary comedy director Mel Brooks, 99, made his first public comments about family friend Rob Reiner\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

During a post-screening Q&A at the premiere for his biographical documentary, Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!, the Oscar-winning comedian said he was \u201cglad\u201d that his lifelong friend Carl Reiner was not alive to see his son\u2019s tragic death.<\/p>\n

\"RobRob Reiner, l, and Mel Brooks in 2014. Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway, with Carl, with what\u2019s happened, I\u2019m glad that he passed away when he did,\u201d Brooks said in the audience Q&A with director Judd Apatow<\/a>, as first reported by USA Today<\/a>. \u201cHe never could have survived this terrible, terrible thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JuddOn Tuesday, Mel Brooks said he was “glad” his friend Carl Reiner was not alive to see his son, Rob, befall a tragic death. Emma McIntyre\/Getty Images for HBO <\/p>\n

\u201cI loved him. I loved Carl,\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n

Brooks became friends with Carl Reiner in 1950 while working on Sid Caesar\u2019s Your Show of Shows. The two remained close friends and colleagues for 70 years before Carl passed away at 98. Brooks was with Reiner when he collapsed and died in his home in 2020. <\/p>\n

After Carl Reiner collapsed, the Blazing Saddles director spent more than an hour begging paramedics to resuscitate him. \u201cI just didn\u2019t want him to go. I wouldn\u2019t accept it. I loved him so much,\u201d Brooks recalls in the documentary. <\/p>\n

Rob Reiner, 78, who was murdered in his sleep alongside his wife Michelle, 70, appears posthumously in the documentary<\/a> to detail his father\u2019s friendship with Brooks. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven though Mel was only like four years younger than my dad, he looked to my dad as a father figure,\u201d Reiner says in the documentary. <\/p>\n

\"CarlMel Brooks saw his lifelong friend Carl Reiner nearly every single day until Reiner\u2019s death at 98 in 2020. Mel Brooks\/HBO <\/p>\n

Brooks, who lost his own father by the time he was two, says in the film, \u201cCarl, for all his schtick and insanity, was wise and loving. I just said, \u2018That\u2019s my father,\u2019 I felt that Carl was there. I was very close to him.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the premiere, Brooks said Carl was \u201cthe sweetest man who ever lived.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-part documentary, debuting on HBO Max on January 22, features posthumous interviews with Carl and Rob Reiner, as well as director David Lynch.<\/p>\n

The younger Reiner met Brooks when he was just four, and remained close family friends until his death in December. In the documentary, Rob Reiner graciously remembers Brooks\u2019s actions following his father\u2019s death. <\/p>\n

\"CarlCarl Reiner passed five years before his son, Rob, was murdered in his home. Axelle\/Bauer-Griffin\/FilmMagic <\/p>\n

\u201cFor months, months, months, Mel came by the house,\u201d Reiner says, recalling how Brooks continued the elderly comedians\u2019 ritual of watching TV and eating dinner together every night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was that close to my dad that he wanted to be close to him, even when my dad was gone,\u201d Reiner adds. <\/p>\n

On December 14, Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, were found dead in their home. The couple\u2019s son, Nick<\/a>, 36, has been charged with their double murder. He is set to appear for an arraignment hearing on February 23. <\/p>\n

Obsessed with pop culture and entertainment? Follow us on Substack<\/a> and YouTube<\/a> for even more coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary comedy director Mel Brooks, 99, made his first public comments about family friend Rob Reiner\u2019s murder. During…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,133856,83980,91565],"class_list":{"0":"post-421460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-judd-apatow","10":"tag-mel-brooks","11":"tag-rob-reiner"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421460","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=421460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}