Let's Be Sad About Rob Reiner Together

A horrible end to a terrible weekend.

Rob Reiner, left, and wife Michele Singer Reiner

It was another another horrible weekend of violence in America, including the murder of director and political activist Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, allegedly by their son Nick, 32, who has been arrested for stabbing them both. Just one of the most personal and gruesome of ways to murder someone. And their daughter Romy discovered their bodies, Jesus Fucking Christ. Nick had spoken over the years about his struggles with drug abuse starting from age 15, and bouts of homelessness. Incomprehensible levels of tragedy.

But Rob Reiner should not be remembered that way. He was a liberal icon for decades and one of the most successful directors of all time, who brought joy and laughter to millions, and made them think a little bit, too.

Reiner was an all-American success story.

He was born in the Bronx, and when he was 12, his comedian dad Carl and singer mom Estelle Lebost moved the family to Los Angeles. After graduating from Beverly Hills High and film school at UCLA, Rob landed bit TV parts, and a gig as Steve Martin’s writing partner for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Then in 1971 he got famous with his role as Michael Casimir “Meathead” Stivic, the Yippie comic foil of bigot Archie Bunker on the iconic sitcom All In The Family, which earned him two Emmys. The same year he married Penny Marshall, later to also become famous herself playing Laverne DeFazio (ask your mom).

Reiner later remarked, “I could win the Nobel Prize and they’d write ‘Meathead wins the Nobel Prize’.”

After All in the Family went off-air after only nine seasons (believe it or not!), Reiner and Marshall divorced amicably, a noteworthy achievement in itself, for anyone. And then Reiner became one of the most successful film directors of all time.

What an incredible list!

In 1984, This Is Spinal Tap.

In 1985, The Sure Thing, and in 1986, Stand By Me, which Reiner once said was the film that personally meant the most to him.

Then the very next year, The Princess Bride AND a cameo in Throw Momma From The Train.

And in 1989, When Harry Met Sally …, where he met his future wife, Michele Singer. Originally Harry and Sally weren’t supposed to get together, as Rob was feeling cynical after a decade of romantic drought. “I had been married for 10 years, I’d been single for 10 years and I couldn’t figure out how I was ever going to be with anybody.”

But then “Michele came to the set one day, with Susan, [cinematographer] Barry [Sonnenfeld]’s then-fiancee, now wife. I’ll never forget it. 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.” Rob invited himself to lunch, he and Michele got married within months, and Rob rewrote the script to have a (spoiler alert) happy ending, aw! He and Michele had three children, and stayed married for the rest of their lives.

But Rob did not let his happiness get in the way of his job! In 1990 he directed Kathy Bates to be so harrowing in Misery it earned her an Oscar.

Trigger warning for this clip!

And in 1992 he directed A Few Good Men.

Accountability in the military, those were the days.

After that, he directed or was involved in many more blockbuster hits, including Sleepless In Seattle, The American President, The Bucket List, Ghosts of the Mississippi, First Wives Club, Bullets Over Broadway, and The Wolf Of Wall Street, where he outshined the cast as Jordan Belfort’s father.

$26,000 for sides?!

In 2015 he directed Being Charlie, co-written by his son Nick.

Somehow Reiner found time in there for liberal causes. In 2008 he cofounded the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which initiated the successful court challenge against California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage. Reiner’s fundraising from deep-pocketed pals like Norman Lear, Steve Bing and David Geffen paid the bills for the pricy legal team of conservative former United States Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson and also David Boies (who worked on opposite sides in Bush v. Gore).

After that, he worked on causes like early childhood education, the environment, and anti-smoking efforts, campaigned for Al Gore and Howard Dean, endorsed Hillary Clinton, and in 2017 helped launch a bipartisan group that included conservative windbags like Charlie Sykes and Norman Ornstein — who are admittedly less windbaggy these days! — called the Committee to Investigate Russia, to raise awareness about Russia’s meddling in US politics. They tried!

Reiner became such a liberal icon that snotty little bastard Donald Trump mourned with a disgusting-even-for-him ramble on Truth Social that Reiner died from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” That man has never seen a tragedy he cannot make all about himself. We’d like to spare you, because fuck that guy and his bottomless neediness, but this is a political blog, we guess.

Unlike that guy, Rob Reiner’s memory will indeed forever be a blessing. May we all live our lives so well it breaks Donald Trump’s demented brain.

OPEN THREAD.

[New York Times / The Hollywood Reporter]

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