LOS ANGELES: Hollywood giant Rob Reiner’s son was charged on Monday with murdering his father the famed director of hits including When Harry Met Sally and his mother in their Los Angeles home.
Nick Reiner, 32, was detained hours after the bodies of the 78-year-old actor-director and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were discovered in the upscale Brentwood neighbourhood on Sunday.
Police “worked throughout the night on this case and were able to take into custody Nick Reiner, a suspect in this case”, police chief Jim McDonnell told reporters.
“He was subsequently booked for murder and is being held on a $4 million bail.”
Nick Reiner had argued with his parents at a party on Saturday evening, the Los Angeles Times reported, adding he had been plagued by addiction struggles in the past.
US president unleashes attack on the filmmaker, saying he suffered from ‘Trump derangement syndrome’
Police sources told US media that the couple were stabbed, while celebrity news website TMZ, which broke the story, reported that their throats had been cut.
Reiner directed classic films 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.
‘Trump derangement syndrome’
Reiner was politically active, an outspoken supporter of leftist causes, and had warned that Trump was mounting an “authoritarian takeover”. As tributes poured in, Donald Trump unleashed an extraordinary broadside against Rob Reiner, appearing to blame the deaths on the director’s criticism of the US president.
Trump said Reiner died “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as ‘Trump derangement syndrome’”.
“He was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness,” the president posted. The comments were blasted by two prominent right-wing Republicans, including House Representative Thomas Massie, who called them “inappropriate and disrespectful”.
A beloved director
Democratic politicians and Hollywood figures expressed shock over the deaths.
Former US vice president Kamala Harris was friends with the couple and said on X she was “devastated to learn of their passing”, while former president Barack Obama said he and his wife Michelle were “heartbroken”.
Reiner gave television and movie viewers “some of our most cherished stories on screen. But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people”, Obama said on X.
Movie heavyweight John Cusack said he was “at a loss for any words that make sense” about the deaths.
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”.
Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2025
