The son of Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner has been arrested after the couple was found fatally stabbed at their California home Sunday.
Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested Sunday evening and booked into the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center early Monday. He is being held without bail, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department records show.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that Nick Reiner was responsible for the deaths of his father, 78, and his mother, 68, whose bodies were discovered by their daughter Romy, who lives nearby, according to reports.
“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,” a spokesperson for the family said. “We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.”
Tributes have poured in from across the entertainment industry, with former President Barack Obama, California Governor Gavin Newsom and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi also paying their respects to the lifelong Democrat and outspoken political activist.
What happened?
Police were called to the Reiner family home on Chadbourne Avenue in Brentwood around 3:40 p.m. Sunday where they found the bodies of the famed director and his wife.
There was no sign of forced entry at the Reiners’ sprawling Brentwood home and the couple had injuries consistent with being stabbed, sources told the Los Angeles Times.
TMZ reported that the couple’s throats were “slit” following an argument.
Family friends later said that Reiner and his middle son Nick got into an argument at a party at Conan O’Brien’s home on Saturday night, family friends told the Los Angeles Times.
The same friends also said that several people had noticed that Nick was acting strangely at the party.
Reiner and wife Michele were found dead at their home the next day.
Nick Reiner is arrested for murder
Nick Reiner, 32, has been arrested and booked for murder, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell confirmed at a Monday press conference.
The couple’s middle son was taken unto custody around 9:15 p.m. Sunday and booked into a Los Angeles County jail at 5:05 a.m. Monday.
The LAPD said in a statement that an investigation revealed that Nick was “responsible for their deaths.”
He was initially held on $4 million bail but is now being detained on no bail, records showed late Monday morning.
"As a result of the initial investigation, it was determined that the Reiners were the victims of homicide," the LAPD statement reads. The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office for filing consideration Tuesday, the same day Reiner is due to appear in court for the first time.
“Our hearts go out to the family and friends of the Reiners, a tragic incident,” McDonnell added.
Nick, who was open about his struggles with addiction, co-wrote the 2015 film “Being Charlie.” The movie, directed by his father, was inspired by his own experiences with drug addiction, rehab, and homelessness.
“I was homeless in Maine. I was homeless in New Jersey. I was homeless in Texas,” he has said. “I spent nights on the street. I spent weeks on the street. It was not fun.”
After becoming sober, he told People in 2016: “I’ve been home for a really long time, and I’ve sort of gotten acclimated back to being in L.A. and being around my family.”
He subsequently channeled his experiences into an autobiographical screenplay, “Being Charlie.”
“You don’t set out to have a cathartic experience or be therapeutic in some way,” Rob Reiner said when he appeared on the AOL program “Build” with Nick in 2015.
“The fact that we were dealing with things that Nick had gone through and how I had related to it and how his mother had related to it … it forced me to have to see more clearly and understand more deeply what Nick had gone through, and I think it forced him to see things that I had experienced during this process.”
“I mean, we did get into fights over things, but ultimately it forced us to make the film better,” Rob Reiner added.
“The whole process for me – I can just speak for myself – it did make me understand him a lot more, and it did make me a better father. Hopefully it did.”
Who were the Reiners?
Reiner, who was born in the Bronx in 1947, was the son of legendary comedy performer and director Carl Reiner, known for his decades-long partnership with Mel Brooks.
Reiner got his start in acting in the 1970s sitcom, All in the Family, where he played Michael "Meathead" Stivic.
He began his career as a filmmaker with the cult mockumentary This is Spinal Tap (1984) and subsequently directed one hit after another, across genres — Stand By Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally, Misery (1990), and A Few Good Men (1992).
He directed 23 feature films in all. A long-awaited sequel to his breakthrough hit, This is Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, was released earlier this year, with Michele Singer serving as producer.
Reiner also co-founded the successful production company Castle Rock Entertainment. He was a gifted character actor, playing the Scorsese-esque director Marty DiBergi in Tap and stealing scenes in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) as Leonardo DiCaprio’s temperamental father Max Belfort.
His first wife was fellow director Penny Marshall. He met photographer Michele Singer while making When Harry Met Sally when they were introduced by cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld.
Reiner, who had recently gone through his divorce from Penny Marshall, ultimately altered the ending of the 1989 classic after meeting Michele Singer, according to a report that claimed he served as writer Nora Ephron’s inspiration for Harry — the skeptical male lead.
During pre-production of the film, Reiner said told the film’s director of photography that he planned to give actress Michelle Pfeiffer a call, after spotting her on the cover of Premiere magazine and reading that she was getting a divorce. He had met her a few months earlier and thought she seemed like a “nice person,” he told The Guardian in 2018.
The director of photography suggested that he instead call Michele Singer. The rest is history. Most of the way through the film shoot, he noticed a “very attractive woman” on set. It was Singer.
“Originally, Harry and Sally didn’t get together. But then I met Michele and I thought: ‘OK, I see how this works,’” he told the outlet.
The couple married in 1989 and have three children, sons Jake, 34, and Nick, 32, and daughter Romy, 28. Reiner also had another daughter, Tracy, 61, from his first marriage with Marshall.
A neighbor told ABC7 that comedy icons Larry David and Billy Crystal — who starred in Reiner’s beloved romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally — visited the crime scene separately. Crystal was seen leaving the home on Sunday night looking distraught.
On Monday, police removed crime scene tape and reopened the street in front of the couple’s Brentwood home. Fans have left flowers and notes to the legendary director in front of his home and on his Walk of Fame star.
California Governor Gavin Newsom released a statement about Reiner, saying: “Rob was the big-hearted genius behind so many of the classic stories we love, with projects as wide-ranging as ‘The Princess Bride’ to ‘A Few Good Men.’ His boundless empathy made his stories timeless, teaching generations how to see goodness and righteousness in others – and encouraging us to dream bigger.”
Tracy Reiner, the biological daughter of Reiner’s ex-wife Penny Marshall and his adopted daughter, told NBC News that she was in “shock” after hearing about their deaths.
“I came from the greatest family ever,” she told the outlet Sunday. “I don’t know what to say, I’m in shock.”
