Rob Reiner, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker and actor behind films including This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me and The Princess Bride, is alleged to have told friends he feared his son could harm him in the hours before he and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead at their home in Los Angeles.
Page Six, citing an account attributed to a mourner at a memorial service, reported that Reiner had been heard saying he was “petrified” of his son, Nick Reiner, at comedian Conan O’Brien’s holiday party on 13 December, a day before the couple were discovered dead at their Brentwood property.
According to the report, a celebrity attendee at the memorial service described what they said were Reiner’s final words at the party. The account included Reiner saying he was “afraid” of his son and believed Nick could “hurt” him. The report did not identify the person alleged to have repeated the remark, and the description was attributed to a source said to have been present. Reiner’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment, Page Six said.
Los Angeles police have said little publicly about the killings and have not announced a motive. Nick Reiner, who is in his early 30s, has been arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, according to multiple US outlets. Court records and reporting indicate he is due to be arraigned in January.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has ruled the deaths homicides and listed the cause for both victims as “multiple sharp force injuries”, language typically used to describe wounds inflicted by a sharp object. The couple were found on 14 December, and investigators have described the scene as a suspected homicide investigation.
Reiner was 78 and Michele Singer Reiner was 70, according to the reporting of the medical examiner’s findings and the initial police accounts. Friends and colleagues across Hollywood have issued tributes in the days since their deaths, while the case has also drawn attention because of references to alleged tensions in the family in the run-up to the killings.
The Page Six report places new emphasis on an exchange said to have taken place at O’Brien’s Christmas party, which was attended by prominent figures in comedy and film. The outlet reported that guests included Billy Crystal and his wife Janice, Larry David, Bill Hader and O’Brien himself. The report said Reiner’s alleged remark about being frightened of his son was later repeated at a memorial service held at the home of actor and comedian Albert Brooks.
Police have not said whether any remarks made at the party are considered evidence in the case. What has been reported is that there was an argument involving the couple and their son in the hours before the killings, and that some people around the family had become worried about Nick Reiner’s behaviour.
Page Six also reported that people at the party described Nick Reiner acting in a way that unsettled guests. One account, attributed to a prior report by People and referenced by Page Six, described him “asking people if they were famous”. Other descriptions reported by Page Six characterised his behaviour as erratic and said there was a tense exchange involving Bill Hader.
The report further cited a family friend describing Reiner and his wife as increasingly concerned about their son’s mental state. Those descriptions have not been confirmed by police, and investigators have not released detailed findings about the events between the party and the deaths the following day.
Nick Reiner was taken into custody on the evening the bodies were discovered, according to US broadcasters and national outlets reporting on the arrest. Authorities have said he was arrested later the same day and subsequently charged.
In his first court appearance, Nick Reiner did not enter a plea, and reports said he appeared in restraints. The case has been scheduled for further hearings in early January.
Rob Reiner rose to prominence initially as an actor, before establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s most commercially successful directors of the late 1980s and early 1990s. He directed This Is Spinal Tap, the mockumentary that became a landmark comedy, and later made a string of films that helped define mainstream American cinema, including When Harry Met Sally…, Misery, A Few Good Men and The American President.
Michele Singer Reiner was a photographer and author who was often seen alongside her husband at public events over several decades, and the couple were prominent in political and philanthropic circles in Los Angeles.
The circumstances of their deaths have also intersected with public appearances and projects that were underway shortly beforehand. The Associated Press reported that a prerecorded video message from Reiner was played at a Hanukkah event in Jerusalem, with Reiner urging Holocaust survivors to “be resilient”. The AP report said the message was recorded before the couple were killed.
The case is expected to move through the Los Angeles County courts in the coming weeks. Prosecutors have not publicly outlined the evidence underpinning the first-degree murder charges beyond confirming the counts filed, and police have continued to withhold detail about potential motive and the sequence of events inside the home.
For now, the public record consists largely of the medical examiner’s determination, the charges filed, and accounts from people described as sources close to the family. The Page Six report’s allegation, that Reiner privately voiced fear of his son at a gathering of friends, adds a new and disturbing dimension to those accounts, but it remains an unverified claim outside court proceedings.
As the investigation continues, police have urged anyone with information about the deaths to come forward. The Reiners’ surviving family members have not provided detailed public statements about the alleged events at the party, but reporting has described a grieving community around the couple and a renewed focus on the warning signs friends say they noticed beforehand.