Rob Reiner's son Nick arrested after deaths of Hollywood director and his wife Michele

NICK REINER, THE son of film director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, has been arrested after the couple were found dead in their home in the early hours of this morning.

The Hollywood director and his wife were found dead in their Los Angeles home with what appeared to be stab wounds. 

Police said they were treating the case as an “apparent homicide.”

According to Los Angeles Police Department records, Nick Reiner was arrested at 9.15pm local time and booked at 5.04am.

The records do not give details about the cause of his arrest, but lists the charge level as ‘felony’. 

The 32-year-old is being held in custody on $4m (€3.4m) bail. 

While authorities are yet to announce the identities of the two bodies, a spokesman for the family has confirmed the death of the filmmaker and his wife of more than 35 years in a statement reported by US publications.

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Yesterday, Los Angeles police did not confirm the identities of the deceased but said homicide detectives were dispatched to the Reiners’ home.

“At this time, no further details are available as this is an ongoing… investigation, into an apparent homicide,” the Los Angeles Police Department said on social media.

At a briefing on Sunday, LAPD deputy chief Alan Hamilton would not confirm to reporters whether they were interviewing a suspect, but said: “We’re going to try to speak to every family member that we can to get to the facts of this investigation.”

Tributes

Tributes have poured in for the Reiners from across Hollywood since news broke of their deaths, including from former US president Barack Obama, Monty Python star Eric Idle and actor John Cusack.

Former US vice president Kamala Harris was friends with the couple and said on X she was “devastated to learn of their passing.

Horror and thriller writer Stephen King, whose novella The Body was the basis for Reiner’s 1986 coming-of-age classic Stand By Me, lauded a “wonderful friend.”

Amid the tributes, US president Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to criticise Reiner, claiming without evidence that the two “reportedly” died “due to the anger he caused others” with his “Trump Derangement Syndrome”. 

“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness,” Trump posted.

His remarks have been criticised on social media, with many labelling them distasteful. 

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Reiner was a prolific filmmaker and actor, directing some of the most well known films from the 1980s and 1990s, including 1984′s rock music mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, fantasy gem The Princess Bride from 1987, and the 1992 courtroom drama A Few Good Men.

He directed the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, and famously cast his real-life mother Estelle Reiner to utter the line “I’ll have what she’s having” after Ryan’s classic fake orgasm scene in Katz’s Delicatessen.

His 1992 thriller A Few Good Men, starring Hollywood heavyweights Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

Reiner backed efforts to secure equal marriage rights for LGBTQ people and create California’s First 5 programme, which provides child development programs funded by taxes on tobacco products.

He also helped fundraise for Democratic presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton.

He was the son of legendary comedian Carl Reiner, who won 11 Emmy Awards for his television performances and wrote screenplays with movie greats Mel Brooks and Neil Simon.

With reporting from © AFP 2025 

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