Michele Singer Reiner: A Photographer Who Changed Movie History

Falling in love with her inspired the director Rob Reiner to give “When Harry Met Sally…” a new ending. The Reiners went on to work together on movies and political causes.

Michele Singer Reiner, who was found dead at age 70 at home in Los Angeles on Sunday, along with her husband, Rob Reiner, was working as a photographer in the late 1980s when she inadvertently changed the course of movie history.

One day, she visited the New York set of the romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally…” and was watching a scene in which Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal’s lovesick characters argue with each other when Mr. Reiner, the film’s director, spotted her in the distance.

“I look over and I see this girl, and ‘Whoo!’ I was attracted immediately,” he told The New York Times in 1989, recalling the pair’s meeting.

A few months later, the photographer and director married — and their relationship inspired Mr. Reiner to change the ending of his most famous movie. “Originally, Harry and Sally didn’t get together,” he told the Guardian in 2018. “But then I met Michele and I thought: ‘OK, I see how this works.’” Harry and Sally had to marry each other, too.

After the real-life pair wed, Ms. Reiner worked on some of her husband’s movies. She was a special photographer on “Misery,” his 1990 horror film, according to IMDb, the movie database. She was also a producer on this year’s “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” his heavy metal comedy.

She also became known for working on political projects with Mr. Reiner. In the 1990s, for instance, the pair started the “I Am Your Child” campaign to raise awareness about the importance of early child development and improve parental access to support services.

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