For decades, Rob Reiner and his father, Carl, had embodied a gentle, hopeful spirit in American culture.
Until Sunday’s shocking double killings, few families seemed more apart from the dark side of life than the Reiners.
For decades, Rob Reiner and his father, Carl, had embodied a gentle, hopeful spirit in American culture, whether Dick Van Dyke’s lovable antics on the show named for him and created by Carl, or the openly sentimental ending to Rob’s “When Harry Met Sally…”, now held up as the kind of romantic comedy they don’t seem to make anymore. Carl Reiner would call his son his favorite director, while Rob would recall being so awed by his father that he wanted to change his first name to Carl.
It was a dynasty seemingly spared of jealousy, cynicism and rage, or ambulances and police tape and 911 calls. Carl Reiner was married to his wife, Estelle, for more than 60 years; Rob to his wife, Michele, since 1989. Few would have imagined that “booked for murder” would appear in a sentence about any of them. But on Monday, Los Angeles police announced that 32-year-old Nick Reiner was in custody on suspicion of killing his parents, Rob and Michele.
“They were among my closest friends,” Maria Shriver wrote on Threads. “We laughed together, cried together, played together, dreamed together. We had dinner this past week, and they were in the best place in the their lives.
