Rob Reiner’s younger son, Nick Reiner, is in police custody for what investigators believe was the fatal stabbing of the director-actor and his wife at their Los Angeles home a day earlier, police said.
Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Nick Reiner, 32, has been “booked for murder” and is being held on $4 million bail in connection with the deaths of his parents.
McDonnell said the department’s robbery and homicide division is handling the investigation.
“They worked throughout the night on this case and were able to take into custody Nick Reiner, a suspect in this case,” he said.
Nick Reiner has spoken publicly of his struggles with addiction and homelessness. He and his father collaborated on a semi-autobiographical 2016 film, “Being Charlie,” that included elements of their relationship and experience.
Representatives for Reiner’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it wasn’t immediately clear if Nick Reiner had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
The Los Angeles Fire Department said it responded to a medical aid request shortly after 3:30 p.m. and found a 78-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman dead inside. Reiner turned 78 in March.
Detectives with the Robbery Homicide Division were investigating an “apparent homicide” at Reiner’s home, said Capt. Mike Bland with the Los Angeles Police Department.
Reiner and son once explored troubled relationship in semi-autobiographical film
Nick Reiner, 32, the younger of Rob Reiner’s two sons, spoke publicly of his struggles with addiction. By 18, he had cycled in and out of nine treatment facilities with bouts of homelessness and relapses in between.
Rob Reiner said in a 2016 interview with The Associated Press that “I may not have handled it the best way. I listened to a lot of people who had a desk and a diploma. I didn’t really think about my kid and what he needed.”
Nick and Rob Reiner would collaborate on a semi-autobiographical 2016 film, “Being Charlie,” that included elements of their relationship and experience. Rob Reiner directed the movie, and Nick Reiner was a co-writer.
“We didn’t go into it thinking this is going to be therapeutic or bring us closer, but it did come out that way,” Rob Reiner told the AP. “It forced us to understand ourselves better than we had. I told Nick while we were making it, I said, ‘You know it doesn’t matter, whatever happens to this thing, we won already. This has already been good.'”
Rob Reiner’s revered career as a filmmaker
Reiner was long one of the most prolific directors in Hollywood, and his work included some of the most memorable movies of the 1980s and ’90s, including “This is Spinal Tap,” “A Few Good Men,” “When Harry Met Sally,” and “The Princess Bride.”
His role as Meathead in Norman Lear’s 1970s TV classic “All in the Family,” as a liberal foil to O’Connor’s Archie Bunker, catapulted him to fame and won him two Emmy Awards.
Relatives of Lear, the legendary producer who died in 2023, said the deaths left them bereft.
“Norman often referred to Rob as a son, and their close relationship was extraordinary, to us and the world,” said a Lear family statement. “Norman would have wanted to remind us that Rob and Michele spent every breath trying to make this country a better place, and they pursued that through their art, their activism, their philanthropy, and their love for family and friends.”
Messages to Reiner’s representatives were not immediately returned Sunday night.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called it a devastating loss for the city.
“Rob Reiner’s contributions reverberate throughout American culture and society, and he has improved countless lives through his creative work and advocacy fighting for social and economic justice,” Bass said in a statement. “An acclaimed actor, director, producer, writer, and engaged political activist, he always used his gifts in service of others.”
The son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner was married to photographer Michele Singer Reiner since 1989. The two met while he was directing “When Harry Met Sally” and have three children together.
Reiner was previously married to actor-director Penny Marshall from 1971 to 1981. He adopted her daughter, Tracy Reiner. Carl Reiner died in 2020 at age 98, and Marshall died in 2018.
Killings are rare in the Brentwood neighbourhood. The scene is about a mile from the home where O.J. Simpson’s wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman were killed in 1994.