The Final Hours and Shocking End to Rob and Michele Reiner’s Efforts to Save Their Son
The Reiners supported their son through stints in rehab, made a movie about addiction with him and let him live in a guesthouse. Prosecutors say he killed them.
This was supposed to be another week packed with politics and power for Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner: seeing Barack and Michelle Obama, a mixer with celebrities fighting for free speech, a book signing in Palm Springs, dinner with “Men in Black” director Barry Sonnenfeld.
But the final social event of the filmmakers and activists’ lives was on Saturday night, when they brought their long-troubled son Nick to a party at Conan O’Brien’s house, according to a person to whom the gathering was described. Nick, who struggled with substance abuse issues for more than half his life, interrupted comedian Bill Hader—whom Rob had introduced Nick to earlier at the party—with a series of strange questions: What’s your name? What’s your last name? Are you famous?
Nick, 32, had been asking other partygoers the same questions, the person said—behavior that would be unusual at any party, but was particularly so at a gathering of entertainment A-listers. He was eventually asked to leave, the person said. It was the last time Rob and Michele Reiner’s friends in Hollywood would see them alive.
The couple were found dead in their home Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the party. Nick is facing two charges of first-degree murder in their deaths, which followed a knife attack, prosecutors said Tuesday. His lawyer declined to comment on the allegations and a representative for the family didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Reiners’ death was a shocking end to some two decades of unsuccessful attempts to help Nick tame the demon of addiction, according to people close to the couple. Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, supported their son through more than a dozen stints in rehabilitation facilities, made a movie about addiction with him, and let him live in a guesthouse on the property where prosecutors said he killed them.
“Nick was always troubled, even in his early teens,” said Alan Horn, who co-founded the production company Castle Rock Entertainment with Rob Reiner and most recently saw the couple last month. “Rob and Michele kept all this very private, but they did share with us and others that they struggled with Nick’s addiction issues, tried everything and were really at a loss as to what else to do.”
Reiner, who rose to fame in the CBS sitcom “All in the Family” and directed still-beloved films like “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally…” and “Misery,” embodied late 20th century Hollywood. His career was followed by a decadeslong stretch of political activism. In both entertainment and politics, people he met through work often became friends with him and Michele, from Billy Crystal to Larry David to Nancy Pelosi.
The couple stayed busy bringing people together on film projects and political causes even as Rob’s career making commercially successful movies faded.
Reiner was open about his son’s struggles. In 2016, he told the New Yorker that he had a mantra as Nick was growing up: “Keep him alive until he’s 25.” The article included Nick’s “amused but firm” aside: “I never liked him saying that. It’s just a rhyme, arbitrary and ridiculous.”
Like many people struggling with addiction, Nick went through cycles of improvement and despair. He began using drugs before he turned 15 and said in an interview on “Dopey,” a podcast about substance use and recovery, that he had been in and out of rehab programs at his parents’ urging. He said his parents saw him do hard drugs and that he once woke them up during an acid trip.
But the Reiners didn’t let their son’s difficulties consume their lives. Both parents continued to work, Rob in front of and behind the camera and Michele as a producer.
“They kept their family life very separate from work,” said Horn.
In 2015, the Reiner family found themselves in a familiar place: a movie set. But this film, “Being Charlie,” was a dramatized retelling of Nick’s struggles with addiction and mental illness, and it was directed by his father.
Barry Markowitz, the movie’s cinematographer, said his work on the film kicked off a decade of friendship with the Reiners. When Markowitz was in Los Angeles for business, he said the couple insisted he stay at their home in L.A.’s wealthy Brentwood neighborhood.
“We have the best toilet paper in town,” Reiner would assure him.
Markowitz got to know a family that often ate dinner together and then gathered around the television to yell at the screen, whether it was over a lousy basketball game, an upsetting political story or a movie they all agreed was terrible.
“It was a lovefest,” he said.
The Reiners were close to their children, including daughter Romy, who lived across the street. Romy at times posted videos talking and joking with her father on social media, and in late November shared photos of a trip where they stood side-by-side in turquoise water.
Since the late 1990s, politics played an increasingly central role in the couple’s lives. Reiner was an outspoken advocate for Democrats and helped push progressive causes to the center of the party.
He was a driving force behind a 1998 campaign to tax tobacco products to fund early childhood development in California. Reiner immersed himself in public policy research and, after the tax passed, delighted in visiting child-care centers that received funding through the initiative, First 5, said Ben Austin, one of Reiner’s top deputies there.
The Reiners approached screenwriter Dustin Lance Black after he spoke in support of equal rights for gay people and lesbians in his 2009 Academy Award acceptance speech for “Milk.” The Reiners asked him to turn his words into action. Together they played key roles in the successful legal fight to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage, which helped lead to the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
Black said he was aware of Nick’s struggles and saw the Reiners attempt to support him without interfering in his life. It was a marked change from the time Nick lived on the streets after he refused to re-enter a recovery program at age 19.
“In typical Reiner fashion, they wanted to keep their kid close and do everything they can to help make it better,” said Black.
Reiner was an early supporter of Kamala Harris’s bid for president in 2019, alongside other prominent Hollywood liberals. His longstanding presence as a major Democratic donor—and cheerleader for the party on political talk shows—came to bear during last year’s race between Joe Biden and Trump. Reiner was among the first major Democratic donors to call on Biden to drop out of the race following a disastrous debate performance.
In early 2024, Reiner began shooting a sequel to the 1984 rock ’n’ roll comedy classic “This Is Spinal Tap.” Michele, a producer of the new film, shared a photo on social media of herself, Reiner and children Romy, Nick and Jake on set with Paul McCartney.
Reiner spent the fall promoting the film on late night shows and on stage, with his family posing for photos in front of the step-and-repeat at the L.A. premiere.
As of three weeks ago, Nick seemed to be doing well, said Markowitz, who stayed with the Reiners during a visit to Los Angeles. He saw Nick playing tennis and his parents treating him “like an adult.”
Sunday’s tragedy has left the many people who considered the Reiners friends and mentors reeling.
Richard Linklater made his “Before Sunrise” movie trilogy with Castle Rock, which sparked a decadeslong friendship with Rob. The “Boyhood” director expected Reiner to spend his later years much like his famous father, comedy legend Carl Reiner, who died in 2020 at age 98.
“Rob and Michele, they were going to be that cool old couple, and Rob was going to be…like his own wonderful father, an old guy who’s wise and funny and happy to be there,” Linklater said. “We’ve all been robbed of 15 or 20 years of having Rob around.”
Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com, John Jurgensen at John.Jurgensen@wsj.com, Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com and Laura J. Nelson at laura.nelson@wsj.com
This was supposed to be another week packed with politics and power for Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner: seeing Barack and Michelle Obama, a mixer with celebrities fighting for free speech, a book signing in Palm Springs, dinner with “Men in Black” director Barry Sonnenfeld.
But the final social event of the filmmakers and activists’ lives was on Saturday night, when they brought their long-troubled son Nick to a party at Conan O’Brien’s house, according to a person to whom the gathering was described. Nick, who struggled with substance abuse issues for more than half his life, interrupted comedian Bill Hader—whom Rob had introduced Nick to earlier at the party—with a series of strange questions: What’s your name? What’s your last name? Are you famous?
Nick, 32, had been asking other partygoers the same questions, the person said—behavior that would be unusual at any party, but was particularly so at a gathering of entertainment A-listers. He was eventually asked to leave, the person said. It was the last time Rob and Michele Reiner’s friends in Hollywood would see them alive.
The couple were found dead in their home Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the party. Nick is facing two charges of first-degree murder in their deaths, which followed a knife attack, prosecutors said Tuesday. His lawyer declined to comment on the allegations and a representative for the family didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Reiners’ death was a shocking end to some two decades of unsuccessful attempts to help Nick tame the demon of addiction, according to people close to the couple. Rob, 78, and Michele, 70, supported their son through more than a dozen stints in rehabilitation facilities, made a movie about addiction with him, and let him live in a guesthouse on the property where prosecutors said he killed them.
“Nick was always troubled, even in his early teens,” said Alan Horn, who co-founded the production company Castle Rock Entertainment with Rob Reiner and most recently saw the couple last month. “Rob and Michele kept all this very private, but they did share with us and others that they struggled with Nick’s addiction issues, tried everything and were really at a loss as to what else to do.”
Reiner, who rose to fame in the CBS sitcom “All in the Family” and directed still-beloved films like “The Princess Bride,” “When Harry Met Sally…” and “Misery,” embodied late 20th century Hollywood. His career was followed by a decadeslong stretch of political activism. In both entertainment and politics, people he met through work often became friends with him and Michele, from Billy Crystal to Larry David to Nancy Pelosi.
The couple stayed busy bringing people together on film projects and political causes even as Rob’s career making commercially successful movies faded.
Reiner was open about his son’s struggles. In 2016, he told the New Yorker that he had a mantra as Nick was growing up: “Keep him alive until he’s 25.” The article included Nick’s “amused but firm” aside: “I never liked him saying that. It’s just a rhyme, arbitrary and ridiculous.”
Like many people struggling with addiction, Nick went through cycles of improvement and despair. He began using drugs before he turned 15 and said in an interview on “Dopey,” a podcast about substance use and recovery, that he had been in and out of rehab programs at his parents’ urging. He said his parents saw him do hard drugs and that he once woke them up during an acid trip.
But the Reiners didn’t let their son’s difficulties consume their lives. Both parents continued to work, Rob in front of and behind the camera and Michele as a producer.
“They kept their family life very separate from work,” said Horn.
In 2015, the Reiner family found themselves in a familiar place: a movie set. But this film, “Being Charlie,” was a dramatized retelling of Nick’s struggles with addiction and mental illness, and it was directed by his father.
Barry Markowitz, the movie’s cinematographer, said his work on the film kicked off a decade of friendship with the Reiners. When Markowitz was in Los Angeles for business, he said the couple insisted he stay at their home in L.A.’s wealthy Brentwood neighborhood.
“We have the best toilet paper in town,” Reiner would assure him.
Markowitz got to know a family that often ate dinner together and then gathered around the television to yell at the screen, whether it was over a lousy basketball game, an upsetting political story or a movie they all agreed was terrible.
“It was a lovefest,” he said.
The Reiners were close to their children, including daughter Romy, who lived across the street. Romy at times posted videos talking and joking with her father on social media, and in late November shared photos of a trip where they stood side-by-side in turquoise water.
Since the late 1990s, politics played an increasingly central role in the couple’s lives. Reiner was an outspoken advocate for Democrats and helped push progressive causes to the center of the party.
He was a driving force behind a 1998 campaign to tax tobacco products to fund early childhood development in California. Reiner immersed himself in public policy research and, after the tax passed, delighted in visiting child-care centers that received funding through the initiative, First 5, said Ben Austin, one of Reiner’s top deputies there.
The Reiners approached screenwriter Dustin Lance Black after he spoke in support of equal rights for gay people and lesbians in his 2009 Academy Award acceptance speech for “Milk.” The Reiners asked him to turn his words into action. Together they played key roles in the successful legal fight to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage, which helped lead to the U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
Black said he was aware of Nick’s struggles and saw the Reiners attempt to support him without interfering in his life. It was a marked change from the time Nick lived on the streets after he refused to re-enter a recovery program at age 19.
“In typical Reiner fashion, they wanted to keep their kid close and do everything they can to help make it better,” said Black.
Reiner was an early supporter of Kamala Harris’s bid for president in 2019, alongside other prominent Hollywood liberals. His longstanding presence as a major Democratic donor—and cheerleader for the party on political talk shows—came to bear during last year’s race between Joe Biden and Trump. Reiner was among the first major Democratic donors to call on Biden to drop out of the race following a disastrous debate performance.
In early 2024, Reiner began shooting a sequel to the 1984 rock ’n’ roll comedy classic “This Is Spinal Tap.” Michele, a producer of the new film, shared a photo on social media of herself, Reiner and children Romy, Nick and Jake on set with Paul McCartney.
Reiner spent the fall promoting the film on late night shows and on stage, with his family posing for photos in front of the step-and-repeat at the L.A. premiere.
As of three weeks ago, Nick seemed to be doing well, said Markowitz, who stayed with the Reiners during a visit to Los Angeles. He saw Nick playing tennis and his parents treating him “like an adult.”
Sunday’s tragedy has left the many people who considered the Reiners friends and mentors reeling.
Richard Linklater made his “Before Sunrise” movie trilogy with Castle Rock, which sparked a decadeslong friendship with Rob. The “Boyhood” director expected Reiner to spend his later years much like his famous father, comedy legend Carl Reiner, who died in 2020 at age 98.
“Rob and Michele, they were going to be that cool old couple, and Rob was going to be…like his own wonderful father, an old guy who’s wise and funny and happy to be there,” Linklater said. “We’ve all been robbed of 15 or 20 years of having Rob around.”
Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com, John Jurgensen at John.Jurgensen@wsj.com, Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com and Laura J. Nelson at laura.nelson@wsj.com
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