Meg Ryan has posted a tribute to the late Rob Reiner, who directed her in hit romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally.
Reiner was found dead with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, at their Los Angeles home at the weekend.
“Oh how we will miss this man…” Ryan wrote on Instagram, alongside a picture of them together. “Thank you, Rob and Michelle [sic], for the way you believe in true love, in fairy tales, and in laughter. Thank you for your faith in the best in people, and for your profound love of our country.”
Reiner’s son Nick, 32, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and appeared in court today. He’s being held without bail. It’s been reported that Reiner’s daugher Romy found her father’s body.
“I have to believe that their story will not end with this impossible tragedy, that some good may come, some awareness raised,” Ryan went on to write. “I don’t know, but my guess is that they would want that to be hopeful and humane, to be something that brings us all to a greater understanding of one another and to some peace.”
Reiner’s children Jake and Romy shared a statement with People today. “Words cannot even begin to describe the unimaginable pain we are experiencing every moment of the day,” they said. “The horrific and devastating loss of our parents, Rob and Michele Reiner, is something that no one should ever experience. They weren’t just our parents; they were our best friends.”
Ryan’s co-star, Billy Crystal, also paid tribute to Reiner with a statement shared yesterday along with names including Larry David, Martin Short and Albert Brooks.
“His comedic touch was beyond compare, his love of getting the music of the dialogue just right, and his sharpening of the edge of a drama was simply elegant,” it read. “For the actors, he loved them. For the writers he made them better. His greatest gift was freedom. If you had an idea, he listened, he brought you into the process. They always felt they were working as a team. To be in his hands as a film-maker was a privilege but that is only part of his legacy.”
When Harry Met Sally was a critical and commercial success in 1989, making over $93m at the box office and scoring Nora Ephron an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.
Rob Reiner met Michele Singer Reiner while making the film. The pair were introduced by Barry Sonnenfeld, a director and friend. “I’ll never forget it,” he said to the New York Times. “It was a scene on a stoop in front of a brownstone. Billy and Meg are having an argument. And I look over, and I see this girl, and whoo! I was attracted immediately. And Barry says, ‘That’s Michele.’ I said, ‘That’s Michele?’”
He added: “She has helped raise me. The thing I talk about, how women show you what’s important, she has done for me.”
The pair were married for 36 years.
Reiner’s films also included Misery, Stand by Me and The Princess Bride.
