Paul Glin
BBC culture
Rob Reiner, found dead with his wife Michelle, was one of Hollywood's most famous film directors.
The police arrested their son, Nick, for the murder of his parents.
Reiner rose to fame as an actor in the 1970s sitcom All in the family (All in the Family), and later appeared as the father of Leonardo DiCaprio's character in The Wolf of Wall Street.
He will be remembered primarily as a director.
He made a number of classics across genres over an eight-year period in the 1980s and 1990s, including the cult mockumentary This is Spinal Tap., When Harry met Sally i A few good people, including The princess bride, Stay with me i Misery.
We remember his life through the prism of some of his most beloved films.
This is Spinal Tap.
After the role in All in the family, for which he won two Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Michael Meathead Stivick, a 1960s hippie, Reiner, who was born in the Bronx, turned to directing in the 1974 television movie Sonny's fight.
But his first big success came with the 1984 mockumentary This is Spinal Tap., which chronicled the antics of a fictional British heavy metal band.
The film was created in collaboration with comedians such as Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean, while Reiner played documentarian Marty Di Bergi.
Much of the monotonous dialogue was improvised and the film became a cult classic, coining well-known expressions such as "turn it up to eleven".
Reiner said of the BFI in 2022 that Di Bergi is based on Martin Scorsese's work on the concert film The last waltz.
"Most of it is," he said.
"He threw himself into The last waltz and I thought, 'That's what I'm going to do.' When he first saw him, he was a little annoyed that I was making fun of him, but now, after all these years, he loves him. He's grown to love him."
Reiner once said that Sting told him how he watched This is Spinal Tap. 50 times, and the English singer commented: "Every time I watch it, I don't know whether to laugh or cry."
Just a few months ago, Rainer reprised Di Bergi's role in Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues, which he also directed.
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Stay with me
This was followed by the 1986 coming-of-age classic Stay with me.
The film, an adaptation of Stephen King's novel, tells the story of a group of young friends from Oregon in 1959 who go on a two-day journey to find the body of a missing boy.
Dealing with the bittersweet transition from childhood innocence to adulthood, the film helped launch River Phoenix and Kiefer Sutherland into movie stars.
"This one meant the most to me because it was the first time I did anything that was so different from anything my father (American comedian and writer Carl Reiner) would have done," said Rainer said on the podcast Armchair expert with Dex Shepard.
"This was the first time something truly reflected my personality. There was humor in it, but it also contained melancholy and nostalgia, and I thought: This is actually what I want to do."
The princess bride
His next hit was the 1987 fantasy fairy tale The princess bride based on the novel by William Goldman.
The film thrust actors Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, and Billy Crystal into a world of adventure, romance, and satire.
A woman once told Rainer that the movie saved her life, recounting how she and several other skiers were trapped in an avalanche, and she kept herself and others awake by reciting every line from the movie.
"That's the best review I've ever gotten: 'The Princess Bride saved my life.'" Reiner told Variety.
When Harry met Sally
In 1989, Reiner practically set the standard for the romantic comedy genre with the film When Harry met Sally.
He paired Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as two friends who fall in love with each other, only for the film to climax in one of Hollywood's most legendary restaurant scenes.
After Sally, played by Ryan, fakes an orgasm to make a point in an argument, it prompts another customer, played by Rainer's mother Estelle, to exclaim, "I'll take what she's eating!"
Sydney Sweeney recently said the same line in a Hellman Super Bowl commercial, which was filmed as a nostalgic parody of the film.
While directing the film, Reiner met photographer Michelle Singer.
Their fateful meeting influenced his decision to change the ending of the film.
"We started seeing each other during the filming, and little by little we got to the point where, you know, I changed the ending of the film," he said on the podcast Where everyone knows your name (Where Everybody Knows Your Name) Ted Danson.
"I didn't believe I'd ever be with anyone, I couldn't see how I could be with anyone, and I had an ending where Harry and Sally don't end up together. They run into each other in New York, have a little chat, and go in opposite directions."
"But I met Michelle and said, 'Well, now I see how this could work,' and I changed it. I reshot the ending where you see Billy running to see Meg at the New Year's party."
Rainer and Singer soon married and had three children.
He was previously married to actress and director Penny Marshall in 1971, adopting her daughter, actress Tracy.
Misery
The director's work took on a darker tone in 1990 with Misery, another adaptation of King's work.
It starred Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes, a madwoman who captures her beloved writer, played by James Caan.
Bates won the Oscar for Best Actress for her chilling and human role.
During an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, Reiner recalled how he had a feeling at the time that Misery could be the only thriller he'll ever make.
“But I studied Hitchcock,” he said.
"I studied every thriller I could to learn the grammar of thriller movies. 'Cut to the key in the lock.' 'Foot lands on the ground.'"
Bates, then a stage actress, feared she had blown her audition to transition to the big screen.
But its director had no such dilemmas.
"She read two lines, I think two or three lines, and I said, 'That's enough, you can do it,'" Rainer said. according to Entertainment Weekly.
"She said, 'What do you mean?' I interrupted her. I told her, 'No, no, you can do it. I know you can do it.'
"And she said to me, 'Really?'" he added.
"And as she was leaving the room, she said, 'Can I call my mother?'"
A few good people
Court drama from 1992 A few good people she spoke about the military trial of two Marines for the death of a fellow soldier.
Reiner has directed Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and Kevin Bacon, as well as Jack Nicholson.
Nicholson played the colonel, who, while testifying, uttered the immortal line: "You can't handle the truth!"
The actor enjoyed saying that line so much that he continued to do it with gusto even during every take in which he was not appearing, while Reiner filmed Cruise's character's reaction.
"Every time we shot a scene, Jack performed it perfectly," Reiner laughed..
“After a few takes, I said, ‘Jack, maybe you want to save yourself a little bit when the camera is on you.’ And he said, ‘Rob, you don’t understand – I love acting.’”
The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.
'Known for public engagement'
Away from the big screen, Reiner was also known for his political and social engagement, often speaking out publicly on issues such as climate change and gun control.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live on Monday, Los Angeles-based entertainment journalist KJ Matthews described him as "the big-hearted genius behind so many of the classic stories we love."
"So many people were touched by him and his generosity," she pointed out.
"He was truly known for his advocacy for the LGBTQ community and for his efforts to help lower-income people in various neighborhoods of Los Angeles."
"So he wasn't just a personality in front of the camera or someone who produced and brought us great films over the years... He was a true humanitarian."
Reiner campaigned for early childhood education and healthcare, as well as gay rights.
He also made films. North from 1994 with Ajaj Wood and American president from 1995 with Michael Douglas and Annette Bening; as well as the film Ghosts of Mississippi from 1996 about the trial of Byron De la Beckwith, who killed civil rights activist Medgar Evers.
The director returned to form after several commercial failures with A list of last wishes (The Bucket List) from 2007, in which Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play two terminally ill people who are determined to achieve all of their life's ambitions before they die.
The film helped popularize the now commonly accepted expression.
Semi-autobiographical Being Charlie (Being Charlie) from 2015, co-written by Reiner's son Nick, deals with the painful relationship between a young man in the jaws of addiction and his father.
Two years later, Reiner directed and appeared in the 2017 film Shock and awe (Shock and Awe), about a group of reporters covering the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
He also played the father of Zooey Deschanel's character in To the new girl and larger-than-life versions of themselves in television series Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, Television business (30 Rock) of the happyish.
Reiner, who also appeared as a film studio executive in the 2020 miniseries Hollywood, was once quoted as saying, "If you're a creative person, you try to create things that are an extension of yourself."
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