Actor, director, and activist Rob Reiner was killed alongside his wife, Michele Singer, December 14 in their home in Brentwood, California. Mr. Reiner was 78, and Ms. Singer was 68. A homicide investigation by the LAPD is currently underway, with their son Nick arrested in connection to the event.
The son of the legendary comic Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner was a prolific actor, appearing in nearly 100 film and television productions, as well as on stage. Raised alongside many of Carl Reiner's greatest television successes, including The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mr. Reiner first found his own footing in television as the live-in son-in-law Michael "Meathead" Stivic in the hit sitcom All in the Family. Mr. Reiner starred in 185 episodes of the program, establishing himself outside of his father's shadow before the pair would reunite creatively. In 1980, one year after All in the Family has completed its legendary run, Rob was directed by his father in his Broadway debut, 1980's short-lived The Roast.
In a culture-shaking surprise, however, Mr. Reiner managed to supercede his father's reputation throughout the final two decades of the 20th century, delivering an impressive lineup of immediately identifiable hits that rendered him one of the most influential directors of his generation. Beginning with This is Spinal Tap in 1984, Mr. Reiner experienced a seven-film hot streak as a defining director of the 1980s, delivering a mixture of comedies, dramas, coming of age stories, and romances with The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally..., Misery, and A Few Good Men.
While Mr. Reiner was only nominated for one Academy Award, for A Few Good Men, his films have become culturally immortal, offering up one-liners that are so embedded into the cultural zeitgeist that many do not realize they're delivering a Reiner line when they tell them. After all, how many have casually tossed out "I'll have what she's having," or "as you wish," or "you can't handle the truth?"
Due to this immense cultural staying power, many of his projects have made the leap to the stage in one way or another, with Misery playing Broadway in 2015, When Harry Met Sally... playing London in 2004, and a musical adaptation of The Princess Bride currently in the works by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.
Mr. Reiner met photographer Michele Singer while developing When Harry Met Sally... The pair quickly became inseparable, marrying in 1989. Many of the iconic behind-the-scenes photographs from Mr. Reiner's films were taken by Ms. Singer, and together, the pair championed a wide variety of liberal political causes, including the ''I Am Your Child'' campaign in favor of early childhood development initiatives, co-founding the American Foundation for Equal Rights non-profit that initiated the court challenge against California Proposition 8 that banned same-sex marriage in the state. In their battle against Prop 8, Mr. Reiner would return to the Broadway stage for a final time, reading the role of conservative political activist David Blankenhorn in the transcript play 8, which depicts the closing arguments of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal trial that led to the overturn of Proposition 8, verbatim.
Mr. and Ms. Reiner also supported countless other causes throughout their 36-year marriage, including environmental protections, children's education, anti-smoking laws, and pro-Democratic Party campaigns, with the Reiners standing as some of the most outspoken opponents of Donald Trump's presidency in Hollywood.
Mr. Reiner is survived by his stepdaughter from his previous marriage, Tracy, and both Mr. Reiner and Ms. Singer are survived by their three children together, Jake, Nick, and Romy. Mr. Reiner was predeceased by his first wife, Penny Marshall.
