Los Angeles, Dec 15: Veteran Hollywood director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead at their Los Angeles home in the Brentwood neighbourhood on Sunday, in what police are treating as an apparent double homicide, according to officials and media reports.
A law-enforcement official briefed on the case said the couple appeared to have suffered stab wounds. The official, who was not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed to the Associated Press that the bodies discovered at the residence belonged to the 78-year-old filmmaker and his 68-year-old wife. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), however, has so far only said that a man and woman of those ages were found dead and has not formally released their names.
The Los Angeles Fire Department responded to a medical emergency call at around 3.30 pm on Sunday and found the two victims inside the home. Detectives from the LAPD’s Robbery–Homicide Division have opened an investigation into what they described as an “apparent homicide”. A family member is being questioned, officials said, though no arrests have been announced yet.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the deaths a “devastating loss” for the city, praising Reiner as a towering cultural figure whose work and activism “reverberate throughout American culture and society”.
Son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner was one of Hollywood’s most influential filmmakers, directing modern classics such as This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men, after first becoming famous as “Meathead” in the 1970s sitcom All in the Family, a role that earned him two Emmys.
Reiner married photographer Michele Singer Reiner in 1989 after meeting her during the making of When Harry Met Sally. The couple had three children together. He was previously married to actor–director Penny Marshall from 1971 to 1981 and adopted her daughter, Tracy Reiner.
Killings are rare in affluent Brentwood, where the Reiners’ home is located roughly a mile from the site of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, a case that drew global attention. The LAPD investigation into the Reiners’ deaths is ongoing.
By – Juhi