Rob Reiner, one of Hollywood’s prolific directors, was found dead along with his wife, Michele, on Sunday night (December 14). The police have ruled it a homicide and detained their middle son, Nick, as a suspect.“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner. We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time,” his family said in a statement.Reiner’s sudden demise has triggered an outpouring of grief from Hollywood elites, several of whom he worked with.Origins in comedyRob was born to the illustrious comedian couple Carl and Estelle Reiner in 1947 in the Bronx, New York. He made his TV debut as a 14-year-old in crime drama Manhunt, and went on to attend UCLA Film School. He acted in small roles during the 1960s and began his TV writing for the Smithers Comedy Hour in 1968-69, alongside Steve Martin.Reiner would become famous for his role as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the hippie antithesis and son-in-law to the brash conservative Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor, in All In The Family (1971-79), a CBS sitcom. The show was adapted from the 1960s BBC sitcom Till Death Do Us Part. For the longest time, Reiner was best remembered as “Meathead”, the name his TV father-in-law hurled at him, and won Emmys for Best Supporting Actor in a comedy in 1974 and 1978.During this period, Reiner also wrote the pilot for the rival sitcom, Happy Days, which aired on ABC. The show was created by Garry Marshall, the brother of Penny Marshall, whom Reiner had married in 1971 (the couple separated in 1981). In a Facebook post, Happy Days actor Anson Williams recalled Reiner as a “great director” and “one of the original architects of Happy Days”, as well as a “tremendous athlete”.Having proven his credentials as an actor and writer, Reiner shifted his focus to the big screen. He made his directorial debut in 1984 with the critically acclaimed This is Spinal Tap, about a fictitious British heavy metal band. Spinal Tap undoubtedly birthed the mockumentary genre as we know it today, while relying on improvisational comedy to deliver timeless quips such as “The numbers all go to 11” and “it’s such a fine line between stupid and… clever.” Its depiction of rock’n’roll excesses, while exaggerated for film, was convincing enough for the likes of Ozzy Osbourne.Story continues below this adReiner features in the film as fictional director Matty diBergi, parodying Martin Scorsese’s appearance as the host in The Last Waltz (1978), itself a concert film depicting the final show of The Band, the Canadian rock group.Spinal Tap (the band) went on to take a real life of its own, appearing on Saturday Night Live in 1984 and releasing music as well as touring. The sequel Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, also directed and starring Reiner, was released this year and features music legends Elton John and Paul McCartney.Director behind seminal filmsReiner adapted Stephen King’s The Body for the big screen, resulting in the 1986 film Stand By Me, which featured Kiefer Sutherland and River Phoenix. Set in 1959, the film traces the journey of a young group of friends in Oregon who set out to find the body of a missing boy. In a 2024 podcast appearance, Reiner described the film as the one that meant the most to him, marking the first time he did “something really reflective of my personality”.Reiner followed this up with The Princess Bride (1987), adapted from William Goldman’s eponymous novel. The film artfully blended themes of comedy and teen romance, while putting a fresh spin on the damsel-in-distress trope with an articulate female protagonist, played by Robin Wright. Quotes from the film, such as “as you wish” and “inconceivable!” have lent to its cult status.Story continues below this adWhen Harry Met Sally…(1989), starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in the titular roles, and based on a story by Nora Ephron, arguably the creator of the modern Hollywood rom-com, would prove to be his runaway success. The film focused on two close friends who fall in love, culminating in a climax for the ages in a restaurant featuring a heartfelt confession. Reiner recalled in a podcast appearance this September that he had rewritten the original ending, having met his now-wife Michele Singer on the film set.“I didn’t figure I was ever going to be with anybody, I couldn’t figure out how to be with anybody, and I had it where Harry and Sally don’t get together. They run into each other in New York, they talk a little bit, and then they walk in opposite directions,” he told actor Ted Danson on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast. “But I meet Michele, and I said, ‘Well, I see how this works,’ and I changed it. I reshot the ending where you see Billy running and seeing Meg at the New Year’s Eve party.”Reiner went on to direct the Academy Award-winning Misery (1990), starring Kathy Bates in an Oscar-winning turn in the Stephen King adaptation. His film A Few Good Men (1992), a court martial drama starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon, was also nominated for an Oscar.His subsequent projects, such as North (1994) and The American President (1995), were less commercially successful. He was unfazed by this, telling The Guardian in 2008, “I’m making the movies I want to make. Studios are looking for hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in profit and you’re not going to get it with a little movie…But I came into this business to express myself and tell stories, not just churn out a product.”Story continues below this adHe continued to act in films like Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and TV over the following years. Through his production company, Castle Rock Entertainment, Reiner was also involved in the creation of Seinfeld (1989-98), one of the highest-grossing TV comedies, and The Shawshank Redemption (1994), regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.Continued advocacyBeyond the world of film, Reiner was a progressive advocate who spoke out on causes ranging from gun control to climate change. His later films reflected this: Being Charlie (2015), about a drug addicted teenager, was loosely based on his son Nick’s struggles with addiction.He backed a campaign to legalise same-sex marriage in 2013 and endorsed several Democratic Party candidates. In recent years, he was an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, calling him a threat to democracy.