Rob Reiner, Legendary TV Star and Movie Director, Dead at 78

A Hollywood icon for over 50 years has died. According to TMZ, the two victims found dead in the home of TV star and film director Rob Reiner are indeed Reiner and his wife Michele. TMZ writes, per sources, that “the two suffered lacerations consistent with a knife.” According to CNN, police are now investigating “an apparent homicide” at the home after “a family member of Reiner’s went to the house today and discovered two people dead, according to a law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the investigation.”

Reiner was 78 years old. His most recent film, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, was released just three months ago back in September.

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Reiner, son of the famed comedian and filmmaker Carl Reiner, was born in 1947. After attending UCLA Film School, he started getting small roles in television and also worked as a writer on the hugely popular Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. He first rose to fame in his own right playing Archie Bunker’s “Meathead” son-in-law on the icon ’70s sitcom All in the Family. Reiner won two Emmy Awards during his eight seasons on the show.

While Reiner continued acting until the end of his life — he recently had a key recurring role on Season 4 of The Bear — he largely shifted his focus to working behind the camera after leaving All in the Family. His feature directorial debut was This Is Spinal Tap, the groundbreaking faux documentary about a floundering heavy metal band.

Reiner directed the film and appeared in it as documentarian Marty Di Bergi; he conceived the movie along with its stars, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer, who played the members of the fictional band Spinal Tap. Although not a major hit at the time, This Is Spinal Tap is now considered one of the greatest movie comedies ever, and it helped invent the “mockumentary” genre by utilizing on-camera improvisation in ways few films had ever attempted before.

Three years later, Reiner directed The Princess Bride, another 1980s classic and now a generational children’s film. Written by legendary screenwriter William Goldman, the film pokes gentle fun at fairy tales and features wonderful performances from Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Andre the Giant, and especially Mandy Patikin.

Two years later, Reiner put his stamp on another genre. His When Harry Met Sally…, starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, remains one of the greatest romantic comedies ever made. Decades later, it is still quoted and imitated, especially the infamous scene set in Katz’s Deli. One can only imagine the sheer number of pastrami sandwiches this sequence has sold at Katz’s through the decades.

Reiner’s other works as a director include the Stephen King adaptations Stand By Me and Misery, the political romantic comedy The American President, and the Oscar-nominated legal drama A Few Good Men, among many others.

Although his commercial peak came in the 1990s, Reiner has stayed busy all through the 21st century; he directed three films in the last three years alone, including the documentary Albert Brooks: Defending My Life, and the sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, which reunited him with his collaborators on the first film for another faux documentary about “England’s loudest band.”

This is a sudden, shocking, terrible loss for Reiner’s friends and family, for Hollywood, for film and TV fans the world over.