Rob Reiner, iconic Jewish director and actor, found dead with wife Michele in their home

by Andrew Lapin

(JTA) — Rob Reiner, the beloved Jewish film director, actor and liberal activist, was found dead in his Brentwood, California, home with his wife, the producer and photographer Michele Singer Reiner, late Sunday, both with multiple stab wounds.

The deaths of Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, whose work brought lighthearted comedies and weighty dramas with some Jewish sensibilities to the mainstream, has shocked Hollywood.

The pair’s 32-year-old son Nick has been arrested in connection to the homicide investigation. The Reiners were reportedly found by their daughter Romy.

Rob and Nick Reiner had partnered a decade ago to make the autobiographical drama “Being Charlie,” inspired by Nick’s longtime struggles with drug addiction. Nick co-scripted the film, which follows the troubled son of a famous actor in and out of rehab as his dad prepares a run for governor.

Rob Reiner himself was a vocal Democratic Party activist and flirted with running for public office; though he never did, he was a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump.

Following news of the Reiners’ death, Trump responded by insulting them on his social network Truth Social, saying that Reiner had died “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”  The president added, “He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession.”

Reiner’s profile as a Hollywood liberal was in part stoked by his most formative role, as a star of the sitcom “All in the Family” as a young liberal foil to Archie Bunker.

After leaving the show, Reiner struck out on his own as a director and screenwriter. His vast filmography encompasses some of the most generation-defining movies of the 1980s and 1990s, including “When Harry Met Sally…,” “This is Spinal Tap,” “The Princess Bride,” “Misery,” “The Sure Thing,” “Stand By Me” and “A Few Good Men.”

The son of Carl Reiner, a legendary Jewish comedian and director in his own right, and actor and singer Estelle Reiner, Rob Reiner grew up on the sets of TV comedies like “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Rob had a bar mitzvah, but the family was not observantly Jewish, with Carl declaring had become an atheist after the Holocaust. Rob himself would also identify as an atheist throughout his life.

His big break came when he was cast as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the left-wing Polish-American son-in-law of Irish-American bigot Archie Bunker, on “All in the Family” in 1971. While the character was not Jewish, under the guidance of the show’s button-pushing Jewish creator Norman Lear, Reiner still embodied the emerging spirit of American Jewish liberalism in his endless sparring matches with Carroll O’Connor’s Bunker.

The two fought about politics and the country’s changing social mores, helping to turn “All in the Family” into a massive hit. Reiner’s character regularly appeared in eight of the show’s nine seasons.

Reiner left the show in 1978, striking out as a writer and director of films while continuing to appear in front of the camera. Some, like the mostly improvised rock-band mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” and family fantasy comedy “The Princess Bride,” were not immediate hits but became widely beloved cult classics over time, spawning some of the most-quoted lines in cinema history. “A Few Good Men,” his 1993 military drama starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, was nominated for best picture at the Oscars.

Of particular note was “When Harry Met Sally…,” Reiner’s 1989 romantic comedy (scripted by equally beloved Jewish writer Nora Ephron) starring Jewish actor Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as lifelong friends navigating a mutual attraction. Rob met Michele, a photographer and his future second wife, on the set when she happened to be walking past. Their mutual attraction inspired him to change the movie’s ending, allowing Crystal and Ryan’s characters to get together; Michele would later work with Rob, producing some of his films.

Rob also cast his mother, Estelle, to deliver the famous line “I’ll have what she’s having,” in a scene that took place in New York’s Jewish culinary landmark Katz’s Deli. The catchphrase, spoken after Ryan’s character faked an orgasm nearby, helped make the deli a major tourist draw.

The moment was one of the most overtly Jewish of Reiner’s directorial work — though even when the director was working in a more mainstream register, Jewish humor still informed his approach. Crystal, a frequent collaborator, also brought Borscht Belt stylings to “The Princess Bride” and reportedly was among the first people to visit the Reiners’ home after news of their deaths emerged. Jewish actor Harry Shearer, who co-starred in “Spinal Tap,” said in a statement that Reiner “was a mensch.”

He also channeled the Yiddish of his childhood when paying tribute to Lear following his death at 101 during the Emmys in 2024.

“There’s a Yiddish word that describes Norman’s genius: It’s kochleffel,” Reiner said. “For all you non-Jews out there, kochleffel is a ladle, a ladle that stirs the pot. And when Norman the kochleffel stirred that pot, he wound up changing American culture.”

Michele’s family also has pronounced Jewish roots. She is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and the sister of Rabbi Suzanne Singer, a prominent Reform rabbi who spent 15 years at Temple Beth El in Riverside, California, before retiring in 2023. A former documentary producer, Rabbi Singer has also held several leadership roles within the Union for Reform Judaism, and had worked with progressive Jewish groups like T’ruah. She is a part-time rabbi at Temple Sinai in Palm Springs.

Among Rob Reiner’s final films were a documentary about his Jewish comedian friend Albert Brooks and another documentary about the rise of Christian nationalism.

“My aunt was in Auschwitz, she survived. My wife’s mother survived Auschwitz but her entire family was killed at Auschwitz, and I visited recently there,” Reiner told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the film. “I’m very well aware of what can happen when an autocrat takes over a country.”