A version of the following commentary first appeared in The Breakdown newsletter. To subscribe, click here.
____
My lord, what a year. After fires, ICE raids, and troop deployments, Los Angeles faces another horror. On Sunday evening, tragedy struck again after Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found stabbed to death at their home in Brentwood. Reiner was 78 years old. His wife was 68. The couple’s son, Nick, is reportedly the assailant. He was arrested Monday morning as a suspect in the case.
As for the victims, Reiner may have been almost 80, but he likely had a whole chapter of his life to live. His father, the television pioneer Carl Reiner, lived until he was 98. And in many ways, Rob’s career and activism were as legendary as his father’s.
Reiner was one of the first television actors to transition to a prized position not in front of the big screen but behind it. He was a key cast member of the seminal 1970s television comedy “All In The Family,” but then became a quintessential filmmaker of the 1980s and 90s. Beginning with the influential mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984) and then “Stand by Me” (1985), “The Princess Bride” (1987), “When Harry Met Sally…” (1989), “Misery” (1990), “A Few Good Men” (1992), and eventually “The American President” (1995), and “Ghosts of Mississippi” (1996). And, yes, he had a string of financial and creative disappointments during this particular century, but most filmmakers would dream of having two, let alone three, beloved, “modern” classics. Reiner arguably had seven. Moreover, in 2007, he surprised many with “The Bucket List,” one of Jack Nicholson’s last on-screen roles. While it wasn’t beloved by critics, it still earned a very impressive $175 million worldwide.
He directed Katy Bates to a Best Actress win for “Misery,” Nicholson to a Supporting Actor nomination for “A Few Good Men,” James Woods to a Supporting Actor nod for “Ghosts,” and his friend Nora Ephron was nominated for an Original Screenplay for “When Harry Met Sally…” He was recognized with three DGA Awards Feature nominations, but was overlooked by his peers in The Academy’s Directing branch time and time again. However, Reiner landed one sole Oscar nomination, as a producer in the Best Picture category, for “A Few Good Men.” It’s honestly hard to imagine why or how Reiner never received an honorary Oscar before today’s events. Maybe the Board of Governors assumed there was more time. Maybe he turned it down, but if anyone deserved the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it was Reiner. And that is, perhaps, where this loss will be felt the most.
Considering how often he worked, most recently on back-to-back documentaries, and this year’s “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” it often seemed, from an outsider’s perspective, that Reiner had two jobs. Over the past forty years, it’s hard to imagine anyone in Hollywood who has been as active politically as Reiner. So much so that his activism will be a model for anyone in entertainment who wants to use their platform or influence to help make a difference in the future.
Reiner advocated for environmental issues before it was hip to do so. He co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights, an advocacy group that helped fund the challenge to Proposition 8 and the lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court legalizing Gay Marriage (Michelle was the treasurer of the organization). His anti-tobacco initiatives helped create First 5 California, a program of early childhood development services, funded by state tobacco taxes. And he wasn’t afraid to be a talking head on seemingly controversial issues. He was on he right side of history when he vehemently campaigned against the Iraq War. And he was a very vocal opponent of the current president over the past decade (to be fair, he wasn’t in love with Ronald Reagan or the Bush presidencies, either).
He was a staunch SAG and DGA union member and walked the picket lines. He would speak at No Kings marches and would debate conservative commentators over equal rights and free speech. He was part of a generation of Hollywood Democrats who made it part of their life mission to raise as much money for liberal or progressive candidates across the country as they could. That calling was often more important in some decades than others. And while there are relatively younger actors, filmmakers, producers, and agents who have joined the fight, Reiner was one of a kind. It’s why some of the first consolances came from statewide Democratic figures such as Karen Bass, Gavin Newsom, and Nancy Pelosi. He meant that much, and he was often everywhere all at once. Seemingly doing all that he could. And that’s just what the public could witness from a distance.
Others will wax more profoundly over Reiner’s cinematic contributions than we have here. But in many ways, in 2025, in 2026, and beyond, America and the world will miss Rob Reiner the man the most. The fighter with seemingly no fear. Ready to take on anyone attempting to impede on anyone else’s human rights. A testament to the empathy and perseverance of this industry. A cliche, but genuinely, a one-of-a-kind American hero. Maybe that would make Reiner wince, but it’s true.
And you know that somewhere in the back of his head, he had one last home run of a movie in him. Or, at least that’s what we’ll believe. Sigh, simply too soon, and not like this. Not like this.
Follow Gregory Ellwood on Bluesky
Follow Gregory Ellwood on Threads
Follow Gregory Ellwood on Instagram
Sign Up For The Breakdown Newsletter
