On Sunday, legendary director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Los Angeles home in what police described as a homicide. Family members told the Associated Press they were found with stab wounds, and, on Wednesday, the couple’s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, was charged on two counts of first-degree murder for their deaths.
Nick was arrested on Sunday night and is being held without bond, according to jail records viewed by The Cut. In a police statement posted Monday afternoon, the LAPD shared that, based on its investigation, Nick was “responsible” for his parents’ deaths. His charges carry a maximum sentence of the death penalty or of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Nick was scheduled to make an appearance at the Superior Court of Los Angeles County on Tuesday, but his lawyer, Alan Jackson — who has represented Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Karen Read — said that he was not medically cleared to be transferred from jail, per the New York Times. He appeared briefly in court on Wednesday, where he was reportedly wearing a suicide-prevention smock. Jackson said it was “too early” for a plea deal, according to the New York Times, and his arraignment has been scheduled for January 7.
Nick co-wrote a 2015 movie, Being Charlie, based on his struggle with drug addiction, which his father directed. He has been open about his real-life experiences that inspired the movie, telling People in 2016 that he went to rehab for the first time at 15, went back at least 17 times after that, and at times was homeless and living on the streets. In an interview for AOL’s Build series in 2016, Rob Reiner opened up about what it was like making the movie with his son. “It forced me to have to see more clearly, and understand more deeply, what Nick had gone through,” he said. “And I think it forced him to see things that I had experienced during this process.”
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A night before the alleged murders, according to the New York Times, Nick and his father had gotten into an argument at a holiday party at Conan O’Brien’s home, where Nick had reportedly been acting strangely. The next morning, the couple’s daughter, Romy Reiner, reportedly found her father’s body after being contacted by a massage therapist who was there for a scheduled appointment but received no answer at the gate.
Rob Reiner, 78, started his career as an actor, first coming to prominence on the sitcom All in the Family. He made his directorial debut in 1984 with This Is Spinal Tap and went on to direct several beloved films, including The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Stand by Me, and Misery. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture for A Few Good Men in 1992.
He met his wife, Michele Singer, a photographer, on the set of When Harry Met Sally in the late 1980s and said he fell for her the moment he saw her. The iconic romantic comedy had originally ended with Harry and Sally parting ways, but falling in love with his future wife convinced Reiner to change the ending to a happy one, he told the New York Times in 1989. ”It’s like Nora [Ephron] told me: ‘It’s a fitting conclusion to the film,”’ he said at the time. Reiner and Singer married in 1989 and later had three children together; Rob also had an adopted daughter from his first marriage. The couple worked together on some of Reiner’s movies; Michelle served as a special photographer on Misery and a producer on Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, which came out earlier this year.
