Rob Reiner Was a Brilliant Filmmaker Who Helped Shape My Love for Movies
I never imagined I would be writing this. Rob Reiner was one of those filmmakers who felt permanent to me, someone whose movies were always there waiting there for me and ready to be revisited like old friends.
On Sunday, December 14, at around 3:30 p.m., the Los Angeles Fire Department was called to a home to provide medical aid. When they arrived, they found a man, 78, and a woman, 68, deceased. The LAFD later confirmed the victims were Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner. Losing them both at once feels especially heartbreaking.
As a fan, it’s hard to put into words how much Reiner’s work has meant to me. His films weren’t just great movies, they were comfort, inspiration, and reminders of why storytelling matters.
I can’t count how many times I’ve watched This Is Spinal Tap, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, Misery, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, and Flipped. These are movies I return to again and again because they still work. They still hit me in the feels. They are perfect examples of strong storytelling.
There’s something strangely beautiful about the way his directing career came full circle. His first full length feature film as a director was This Is Spinal Tap, a movie that completely changed comedy and rewired how mockumentaries could work. That film still makes me laugh my ass off!
More than forty years later, his final directing contribution to cinema was its sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. It feels poetic in a quiet way, like closing a loop that helped define modern film comedy.
Born on March 6, 1947, in the Bronx, New York City, Reiner came from an entertainment family but carved his own path. His father was Carl Reiner, the 11 time Emmy Award winning creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
His mother, Estelle Reiner, was an actress and singer who delivered one of the most unforgettable moments in movie history in When Harry Met Sally at Katz’s Delicatessen when she said, “I’ll have what she’s having.” That sense of timing and truth clearly ran in the family.
Before becoming one of the most reliable and versatile directors in Hollywood, Reiner first rose to fame as an actor. He broke out as Michael “Meathead” Stivic on Norman Lear’s groundbreaking CBS sitcom All in the Family, which ran for nine seasons through much of the 1970s.
As the outspoken progressive husband to Sally Struthers’ Gloria, he went head to head with Carroll O’Connor’s Archie Bunker week after week, helping shape one of the most important shows in television history. The role was famously pursued by Richard Dreyfuss and turned down by Harrison Ford, but it was Reiner who made it iconic.
When he stepped behind the camera, something special happened. His directing career was defined by range and confidence. He could move from broad comedy to devastating drama without losing his voice.
After This Is Spinal Tap, he delivered Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and A Few Good Men, the latter earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. He followed those with films like The American President and Flipped.
Reiner never fully left acting either. He appeared in films like Sleepless in Seattle and The Wolf of Wall Street, and on television he popped up as himself on The Larry Sanders Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, and Wizards of Waverly Place. He also had roles on New Girl, Hollywood, The Good Fight, and most recently The Bear. Even late in his career, he stayed present and connected to filmmaking as an actor.
Long before all of that, Reiner paid his dues with early television roles on Manhunt, Batman, The Andy Griffith Show, That Girl, The Beverly Hillbillies, and The Partridge Family. After All in the Family, he continued working steadily with appearances on The Odd Couple and The Rockford Files. He understood the business from every angle because he lived in it.
Rob Reiner’s legacy isn’t just a list of classic films. It’s the feeling that hits when I watch his movies. I grew up on his films! I constantly rewatched them on lazy afternoons, quoted them with friends, and revisited as I got older and understood them in new ways.
His stories helped shape my taste, my sense of humor, and my emotional connection to movies. They made me laugh, broke my heart, and reminded me what great filmmaking and storytelling is.
I’ll keep watching his films because they’re stitched into who I am as a movie fan. Rob Reiner inspired me to love cinema, to appreciate character driven storytelling, and to believe that movies can be smart, heartfelt, and endlessly rewatchable. His work will live on through generations of fans like me who grew up with his films and never stopped carrying them forward.