Rob Reiner, Actor Who Went on to Direct Classic Films, Dies at 78

Rob Reiner, the son of a pioneering television comedian who became a popular sitcom actor himself before directing a slate of beloved films — including “This Is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally …” and “The Princess Bride” — and becoming a prominent voice in liberal politics, died on Sunday at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. He was 78.

The Los Angeles police said that Mr. Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, were found stabbed to death in the home on Sunday afternoon. Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles announced the deaths. The Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, said on Monday that the couple’s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, had been “booked for murder” and was being held on $4 million bail.

Mr. Reiner initially found fame on the sitcom “All in the Family” in the 1970s, playing Mike Stivic, the son-in-law of the curmudgeon Archie Bunker (who called him Meathead). He went on to become a remarkably versatile film director, equally adept at the mockumentary (“Spinal Tap,” 1984), the coming-of-age film (“Stand by Me,” 1986), the children’s classic (“Princess Bride,” 1987), the romantic comedy (“When Harry Met Sally … ,” 1989) and the courtroom drama (“A Few Good Men,” 1992).

Throughout his career as a director and a producer, Mr. Reiner continued to act on television and in films by others, making himself that rare Hollywood figure who is known for work both behind the camera and in front of it. At the same time, he led a vibrant political life, lending his celebrity to a variety of liberal causes, including gay marriage.

Mr. Reiner’s family was rooted in show business. His father, Carl Reiner, created “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” transplanting the family from New York to Los Angeles in the 1950s and at times drawing inspiration for his scripts from his own family life. His mother, Estelle (Lebost) Reiner, was an actress and a singer.

Drawn to acting in a high school drama class, Rob Reiner went on to work in small theaters and to start his own improv group before the producer Norman Lear cast him in “All in the Family,” a groundbreaking and defining sitcom of the 1970s that took on social issues of the day.

Mr. Reiner appeared on the show for almost its entire run, from 1971 to 1978 (it ended in 1979), winning two Emmy Awards for best supporting actor. He also began spending time in the writers’ room, picking up an education in behind-the-scenes work.

He had wanted to direct since he was a teenager, and while still in the cast of “All in the Family,” he directed a little-known television movie. Five years after the show ended, in 1984, he made his directorial debut with “This Is Spinal Tap,” a mockumentary about a British band past its prime. It became a cult classic.

After directing “The Sure Thing,” a 1985 romantic comedy starring John Cusack, Mr. Reiner decided to adapt a fantasy-adventure novel by William Goldman that he had loved, “The Princess Bride.” A charming mix of satire, adventure and romance, the movie received broad critical praise.

“People take a look at ‘Princess Bride,’ and exclaim, ‘God, this is such an odd conglomeration!’” Mr. Reiner told The New York Times shortly after the movie was released in 1987. “‘How could you balance all those things?’”

“But it didn’t seem all that strange to me," he went on, “because those are all parts of my personality. I’ve definitely got this satirical side to me, and this romantic side, and this more realistic way of looking at things.”

Hints of Autobiography

Mr. Reiner liked to say that most of his films, and certainly his favorites, include a strong element of himself, occasionally verging on the autobiographical.

Gordie, the lead character in Mr. Reiner’s coming-of-age drama “Stand by Me” (1986), played by Will Wheaton, struggles with an overbearing father, echoing Mr. Reiner’s own difficulties growing up with famous parents.

“I grew up thinking my father thought I didn’t have any talent,” he told The Chicago Tribune in 1986. “I love him now, and I adored him as a kid, but I felt inferior. And conquering these kinds of feelings is what ‘Stand by Me’ is all about.”

In 1971, Mr. Reiner married the actress Penny Marshall, who later co-starred in the sitcom “Laverne & Shirley” and became a film director herself. It was after they divorced and Mr. Reiner re-entered the dating world that he had the idea for a romantic comedy that posed the question of whether men and women could truly be friends without sex getting in the way.

The idea drew the interest of the writer Nora Ephron, who interviewed Mr. Reiner about his dating life as she wrote the screenplay. Starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, “When Harry Met Sally … ” would become one of the most enduring romantic comedies of all time.

In its most memorable scene, Ms. Ryan shows how convincingly she can fake an orgasm, in front of Mr. Crystal and a roomful of other diners at a New York deli, among them a woman played by Mr. Reiner’s mother. Her oft-repeated punchline: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

While Mr. Reiner was making the movie, its director of photography introduced him to Michele Singer, a New York photographer. They married seven months later, in 1989. Mr. Reiner said the romance had led him to change the ending of the film, giving it a happy spin. An earlier version had ended with Harry and Sally walking away from each other.

Mr. Reiner continued directing at a brisk pace in the 1990s, releasing “Misery,” an adaptation of a Stephen King novel starring Kathy Bates and James Caan; “A Few Good Men,” a courtroom drama starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise that received an Oscar nomination for best picture; and “The American President,” in which Michael Douglas plays a widowed commander in chief who falls for a lobbyist, portrayed by Annette Bening.

Mr. Reiner and his wife had three children together: Jake, Nick and Romy. When Mr. Reiner was married to Ms. Marshall, he adopted her daughter, Tracy, who, as Tracy Reiner, became an actress, appearing in films such as “A League of Their Own” and “Apollo 13.”

A devoted Democrat, Mr. Reiner was a longtime activist and an outspoken supporter of candidates and political causes. In California, he spearheaded a 1998 ballot initiative that increased taxes on tobacco to pay for early childhood programs. He backed a legal campaign aimed at persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to establish a constitutional right of same-sex marriage.

In more recent years, he was a vocal critic of the Trump administration, making headlines when he said the president was a threat to democracy. Shortly after his death was announced, prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, released statements paying tribute to him. President Trump, however, writing on social media, suggested that Mr. Reiner’s criticism of him may have led to his murder, adding that Mr. Reiner had been afflicted with “Trump derangement syndrome.”

Long after he became a director, Mr. Reiner continued to act in films and on television shows. He appeared in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013); played a protective father in the sitcom “New Girl” (2012-18); and this year made a cameo in the fourth season of “The Bear.”

Last year, as Mr. Reiner was preparing to shoot the sequel to “Spinal Tap,” he spoke to The New York Times about some of the things that were most important to him. The first things he mentioned were “my wife and kids.”

“That’s the most important to me,” he said. “There’s that joke — nobody on their death bed ever said, ‘I should have spent more time at the office.’ Nobody says that.”

Born a New Yorker

Robert Reiner was born on March 6, 1947, in the Bronx. He was 7 when the comedian Sid Caesar hired Carl Reiner to act on his variety program “Your Show of Shows,” and the family moved to New Rochelle, N.Y., in Westchester County.

Rob grew up surrounded by comedy legends. Mel Brooks and Mr. Lear were regular guests at the Reiner dinner table. He learned to swim in Mr. Caesar’s pool.

From an early age, he knew that he wanted to follow his father’s career, but he was intimidated by the success of a man widely ranked among the greatest comic voices in television history.

“I always felt like I was competing with my dad, and losing,” Mr. Reiner told The Daily News of New York in 1986.

The Reiners moved to Los Angeles in 1960, and it was there that Carl Reiner wrote for “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Dinah Shore Show.”

Rob Reiner later said that his teenage years at Beverly Hills High School were filled with anxiety and loneliness, until, as a senior, he found his footing in the school’s theater club. He followed that passion to the University of California, Los Angeles, as a theater arts major.

As a college student, he helped form an improv troupe called The Session, which included the future Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss. But he left after his junior year, unhappy, he said, with the way his professors emphasized analysis of theater over its performance.

He landed a number of small parts in popular TV sitcoms, like “Gomer Pyle,” “The Partridge Family” and “The Beverly Hillbillies,” often cast as a hippie. He also wrote for the Smothers Brothers’ variety show, another vehicle for topical humor, alongside Steve Martin.

But Mr. Reiner hated the work, he said. He eventually moved home, and over a three-month period, he and his father were able to find common ground.

“Six months ago was the first time in my life that I was able to tell him I loved him,” he told The Los Angeles Times in 1969.

Mr. Reiner had a small role in the 1970 film “Where’s Poppa?,” directed by his father, and the next year Mr. Lear cast him as Mike Stivic in “All in the Family.”

The show, in which he played the young, liberal foil to Carroll O’Connor’s reactionary Archie Bunker, made Mr. Reiner a household name. He won his two Emmys in 1974 and 1978, both for best supporting actor in a comedy series.

He also got involved behind the camera, contributing to scripts and watching how directors worked. It was, he later said, the only way he could stay interested in the series.

After “All in the Family” ended in 1979, he turned down an offer to star in a spinoff. He was tired of being known as Meathead, he said, and tired of being in front of the camera. He went on to star in a few plays and on television, including in the 1978 TV movie “More than Friends,” opposite his wife at the time, Ms. Marshall, but he otherwise set his sights on directing.

He and three friends — Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer — had worked on a variety comedy series called “The TV Show,” during which Mr. Guest would occasionally play a character spoofing British rock stars.

With that as the seed, the four developed the idea for “This Is Spinal Tap,” a fake documentary in which Mr. Reiner, playing the filmmaker Marty DiBergi, follows an aging rock trio — “the world’s loudest and stupidest heavy metal band” — on a U.S. tour.

The film took six years to make, in part because it was a novel concept, and in part because no one could believe that Mr. Reiner wanted to make it.

Mr. Reiner put up the initial funding himself, and he eventually secured the rest of its $2.1 million budget from Mr. Lear.

Building a Reputation

“This Is Spinal Tap” was a commercial success and developed a cult following, thanks to its largely improvised jokes and Mr. Reiner’s straight-faced delivery.

In one of its most memorable scenes, Mr. Guest, playing the guitarist Nigel Tufnel, explains that the band has special amps that “go to 11,” letting Spinal Tap go one notch louder than other bands.

“Why don’t you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number?” Mr. Reiner asks.

Mr. Guest pauses a beat, then replies, “These go to 11.”

Mr. Reiner followed “Spinal Tap” with a string of films that cemented his reputation as a director with a wide range but also a firm grounding in crafting sympathetic, thoroughly realized characters — all while delivering strong box-office receipts.

His films enjoyed consistent critical acclaim, though he received just one Academy Award nomination, for best director, of “A Few Good Men.”

Along with his children, Mr. Reiner is survived by his brother, Lucas; his sister, Annie Reiner; and five grandchildren.

By the mid-1990s, he and his wife had become interested in public policy issues. They establish a charitable organization, the Reiner Foundation, and hired a former White House official, Chad Griffin, to run it. Mr. Reiner pored through policy papers and was able to rattle off statistics to support his call for expanded early-childhood development.

The Reiners provided the driving force behind Proposition 10, a California voter initiative to use new taxes on tobacco to pay for expanded pre-K education.

The initiative passed, and Gov. Gray Davis of California named Mr. Reiner chairman of the commission overseeing disbursement of the funds.

“He has literally changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of families,” Kris Perry, his first executive director, said in an interview.

The Reiners lost a follow-up push to raise taxes on high-income earners to expand coverage even further. But they found a new issue in marriage equality after California banned gay marriage in 2009.

They enlisted Ms. Perry as a plaintiff and brought on Theodore B. Olson, a conservative lawyer, to lead the legal team. The case made it to the Supreme Court, which in 2013 left in place a lower court’s ruling that California’s law was invalid, setting the stage for the courts landmark decision recognizing the right to marry in 2015.

Mr. Reiner continued to make movies, though many of them were critical and commercial disappointments, including “LBJ” (2016), starring Woody Harrelson, and “Shock and Awe” (2017), which, despite a star-studded cast, earned just $182,415 at the box office.

One small film that stood out was “Being Charlie” (2016), co-written by his son Nick and loosely based on Nick’s experiences with drug addiction. It was, the entertainment website the A.V. Club wrote, “Rob Reiner’s best film in at least two decades.”

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