Actor, producer, director Rob Reiner went on to helm a string of hugely successful films that would be the envy of any director.
Born 6th March 1947 Robert Reiner was born in the Bronx, New York to father who was a successful comedian and writer and a mother who was an actor and singer. It seems obvious that he would follow their footsteps into showbiz especially as his father, Carl, wrote with Mel Brooks for the hugely popular ‘Your show of shows’. T’he Dick Van Dyke show’ and the influential ‘2000 year old man’ recordings.
The family moved to LA and having been involved with his school drama club he would make his TV debut aged 14 in TV series, ‘Manhunt’. But by his late teens Rob Reiner had formed a double act with Larry Bishop at a San Francisco club. But he also managed to secure small roles in TV shows as diverse as ‘Batman’ and ‘The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’ and this acting work continued through the 1960’s and 1970’s where he landed a regular role in TV series, ‘All in the family’ where he won two Emmy’s as Best Supporting Actor in a comedy.
1971 also saw him marry Penny Marshall who he had been neighbours with back in the Bronx but it only lasted 10 years before they divorced in 1981. But the mid-seventies also began directing but it was 1981 where he really began an extraordinary run of films that started with the documentary (‘if you will, rockumenatary’) ‘This is Spinal Tap’ which he would also appear as director Marty Debergi (a send up of Martin Scorsese) as he followed the band on a disastrous tour. It became one of the most influential comedies ever made regularly in films lists as such. What would follow was a string of critically and commercially successful films with ‘The Sure Thing’ (1985) followed by ‘Stand By Me’, ‘The Princess Bride’, ‘When Harry met Sally’, ‘Misery’ and finally ‘A Few Good Men’ in 1992. It was an extraordinary run of films that took in comedy, fantasy, drama, rom-coms and horror all executed superbly.
When Harry met Sally had been inspired partly by his own dating experience having divorced and it was on the set that he met Michelle Singer who he would go on to marry in 1989. He also forged a close and respected working relationship with Stephen King having made Stand by me, arguably one of the greatest coming of age films ever made and includes one of films great truisms , ‘I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve’.
And King would trust Reiner with many of his properties such as Misery which would win Kathy Bates an Oscar and Reiner would form his own production company ‘Castle Rock’ that would adapt King’s stories The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Clairborne and The Green Mile for the big screen before he eventually sold the company in 1993 not wanting to be a business man and preferring the creative side of his industry.
After A Few Good Men he never really made a film that compared to his heyday and 2015 saw him make ‘Being Charlie’ based on a semi autobiographical script by his own deeply troubled and troublesome son Nick Reiner. But it flopped badly. By now he was already heavily involved in politics as a Democrat supporter founding the American Foundation for Equal Rights that overturned California’s ban on same sex marriage and at one point he was even rumoured to be running for California governor against Schwarzenegger but declined to stand. His later films were also political with ‘LBJ’ (2016) and ‘Shock and Awe’ (2017) but both were huge flops. His politics also extended into a podcast about ‘Who killed JFK?’ a subject that had fascinated him for years.
His final film bookended his career mirroring his first film with a sequel to Spinal Tap an impossible task to top and earned only half of the money the original film had made.
Reiner and his wife attended a Christmas party held by Conan O’Brien where it was rumoured his son argued with his father before leaving. On 14th December when a member of Reiner’s staff attended the house for an appointment and received no answer. His daughter , who lived nearby, was contacted and arrived at the house letting herself into the house only to find both her parents dead having reportedly been repeatedly stabbed. Their son Nick Reiner was later arrested and charged with their murder.
Rob Reiner was 78 years of age
related feature : Penny Marshall – Obituary
related feature : Kerry Godliman and her role as manager in Spinal Tap 2
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