Rob Reiner and Wife Killed in Brentwood Home: A Hollywood Tragedy

The director who showed us America's dysfunction couldn't escape his own family's demons.

Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found dead in their Brentwood home Sunday afternoon, stabbed to death. Multiple sources have told People magazine that their son Nick was allegedly responsible. Police have not confirmed this, and the investigation is ongoing.

The LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division is investigating. First responders were called to the home on South Chadbourne Avenue around 3:30 p.m. Pacific. They found the couple with knife wounds.

Hours later, Billy Crystal arrived at the scene. A neighbor said he looked like he was about to cry. Larry David came too. The comedy world’s heart was already breaking.

A Story He Told Us Nine Years Ago

If the reports prove accurate, this tragedy didn’t come from nowhere. Rob Reiner told us exactly what was happening in his family—he put it on screen for everyone to see.

In 2016, father and son collaborated on “Being Charlie,” a film based on Nick’s descent into addiction. The story was uncomfortably close to reality: Nick had battled drugs since age 15. He went through 17 rehab programs. He lived on the streets, homeless, while his father directed some of the most beloved films in American cinema.

“When I was out there, I could’ve died. It’s all luck. You roll the dice and you hope you make it,” Nick told People that year.

Rob called it the most personal film he ever made. On NPR, Nick admitted that in his using days, he’d “throw your morals out the window.” He acknowledged doing things similar to his character stealing pills from a dying woman.

The film was supposed to be cathartic. A climactic scene where the father apologizes for pushing too hard—”I’d rather you hate me and you be alive”—was taken verbatim from their real lives. Making the movie together, they said, helped them communicate.

Nine years later, we’re reading this news.

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