Rob Reiner Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Rob Reiner, who directed such beloved Hollywood classics as This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me and When Harry Met Sally after starring in the trailblazing sitcom All in the Family, died Sunday along with his wife, Michele, in their Brentwood home, TMZ reported. He was 78. Reiner and his wife, 70, were found dead in their home on Chadbourne Avenue, with the couple "suffering lacerations consistent with a knife," law enforcement sources told TMZ. The Los Angeles Fire Department had been called to their house at about 3:30 p.m., and LAPD Robbery Homicide Division detectives were investigating. Related Stories Music Abraham Quintanilla Jr., Selena's Father and Manager, Dies at 86 Movies Peter Greene, 'Pulp Fiction' and 'The Mask' Actor, Dies at 60 The Princess Bride (1987), Misery (1990), the Oscar best picture nominee A Few Good Men (1992), The American President (1995) and The Bucket List (2007) also were among Reiner's 20-plus directing credits. Reiner was also a co-founder of Castle Rock Entertainment, the production company behind such films as City Slickers (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Waiting for Guffman (1996), Miss Congeniality (2000), Best in Show (2000), Michael Clayton (2007) and Seinfeld, one of the most lucrative television properties of all time. From the outset of his feature directorial career with This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Reiner seemed to reimagine Hollywood standards, creating and starring in the first mainstream mockumentary - a rock 'n' roll satire so dead-on, film critic Roger Ebert called it "one of the funniest movies ever made." From there, he would move seamlessly from comedy to drama, from fantasy to horror, as few directors ever have. Reiner would establish yet another benchmark - this time for romantic comedies - with When Harry Met Sally (1989), screenwriter Nora Ephron's ode to true love (based loosely on her and Reiner's lives) that starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. His biggest box office hit, the gripping courtroom drama A Few Good Men, based on Aaron Sorkin's 1989 play and starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, could not have been more different. Some of Reiner's movies took a while to capture the world's attention. The Princess Bride, his timeless fairy tale adventure that was based on the William Goldman novel and starred Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin and Peter Falk, was one of several films that grew in popularity over decades on the way to cult status. On television, Reiner played to some of the biggest audiences in history, first in the role of Michael "Meathead" Stivic, the liberal antagonist of Carroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker, on CBS' All in the Family, and then as a ground-floor executive on NBC's Seinfeld, which he fought to keep on the air. "We knew we had a great show," Reiner told Howard Stern in 2016. But after a rocky launch in the summer of 1989, the network was concerned that Seinfeld - famously a show "about nothing" - was a misfire. After four episodes, it was on the brink of cancellation. "I went in there and had a screaming crazy thing with [NBC president] Brandon Tartikoff," Reiner said. "And I promised him - there will be stories!" In 1993, Reiner and Castle Rock partners Andrew Scheinman, Alan Horn, Glenn Padnick and Martin Shafer sold their company to broadcast mogul Ted Turner for about $160 million. (It became part of Time Warner when it acquired Turner Broadcasting in 1996.) The principals stayed on, holding to their original ideal: to make independent movies outside the traditional studio system. But after a run of poorly performing films starting in the late '90s, Castle Rock initiated layoffs and eventually was absorbed into Warner Bros. In 2020, Reiner relaunched the company and revived its film division a year later, with Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025) among its offerings. "There's not one film that I've ever made that could get made today by a studio, not one - even A Few Good Men," Reiner said. "Every movie that I make, have made and will make is always going to be independently financed." Throughout his behind-the-camera career, Reiner continued as a working actor. He played the well-intentioned plastic surgeon Dr. Morris Packman, who affectionately spars with Goldie Hawn, in The First Wives Club (1996); Tom Hanks' pal in Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle (1993); and the father of Zooey Deschanel on the 2011-18 Fox sitcom New Girl. He was particularly memorable in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) as stockbroker Max Belfort in scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill that were largely improvised. Rob Reiner with wife Michele Singer Reiner (left) and daughter Rony Reiner at the 2019 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood. Joe Scarnici/Getty