The Tragic Death and Enduring Legacy of Rob Reiner

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Andrew Ross Sorkin 0:00
This is Andrew Ross Sorkin, the founder of Dealbook. Every year, I interview some of the world's most influential leaders across politics, culture, and business at the Dealbook Summit, a live event in New York City. On this year's podcast, you'll hear my unfiltered conversations with Gavin Newsom, the CEO of Palantir and Anthropic, and Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk. Listen to Dealbook Summit wherever you get your podcasts.
Michael Barbaro 0:31
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. On Tuesday, prosecutors investigating the death of Rob and Michelle Reiner said they planned to charge the couple's son, Nick, with first-degree murder. Today. Today. Julia Jacobs on what we're learning about the death of a Hollywood legend. And Wesley Morris on why so many of Reiner's films are among the most beloved movies ever made. It's Wednesday, December 17th.
Michael Barbaro 1:25
Julia, I appreciate you coming in today.
Julia Jacobs 1:28
Thanks for having me.
Michael Barbaro 1:30
I just want to say at the outset, perhaps this is obvious, but the death of Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, is a very gruesome and tragic situation. And we do not want to linger on it for a long time in this conversation. In fact, I hope we don't have to linger on it much at all. But I do think... we should briefly talk about what we know at this point about what actually happened.
Julia Jacobs 1:56
You're right. It's an absolute tragedy, and there are a lot of questions right now. But what we do know is that on Sunday, the authorities were called to Rob Reiner's home in Brentwood, a neighborhood in Los Angeles. And the first information that came out was that there were two people deceased individuals inside. And they listed the ages, but not initially the identities. But the ages matched up roughly with those of Rob Reiner, the Hollywood director, and his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, who is a photographer and a producer. And later that night, on Sunday night, their son, Nick, was arrested. And eventually, police said they were investigating his role in their deaths.
Michael Barbaro 2:42
Right, which was a shocking piece of information.
Julia Jacobs 2:45
Yes. And then on Tuesday, prosecutors announced that they intended to charge Nick Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder.
Michael Barbaro 2:53
Right, making very official this genuinely horrible scenario in which a child had killed both of his parents.
Julia Jacobs 3:02
Correct. And the son, Nick Reiner, had a long documented history of drug addiction. And, you know, that story had been out there for years. He had struggled since he was a teenager. He had been in and out of rehab. He had gone through bouts of homelessness when he didn't want to be in the rehab that his parents wanted him to be in. But he eventually made his way back home and started living in his parents' guest house. And what I'm told is they had a very tight knit, warm household.

What happened in the tragic death of Rob and Michele Reiner?

Julia Jacobs 3:33
They spent a lot of time together. And in fact, on Saturday night, some of my colleagues were told that Rob Reiner and Nick Reiner were at the house of Conan O'Brien for a Christmas party.
Michael Barbaro 3:45
The night before.
Julia Jacobs 3:47
The night before. And that, you know, one person told my colleague that... Rob Reiner said something about his son's behavior, something to the effect of, you can't act this way. And this was the night before Rob and his wife Michelle were found stabbed to death, allegedly by Nick.
Michael Barbaro 4:04
And what we all had to reckon with thereafter was that this huge force in Hollywood, this enormously successful and influential director and producer, who himself had quite famously escaped the shadow of his own father, had allegedly, as you said, been killed by his own son. And I wonder if you can tell us that story of Reiner and how he became what he became.
Julia Jacobs 4:42
So after the news of Rob Reiner's tragic death, everyone automatically started reliving his career. And something that he talked about a lot is his father, Carl Reiner. He was a giant of 20th century television. He helped define the medium of television comedy.

Who is Julia Jacobs and what insights does she provide?

Julia Jacobs 5:01
He was a performer, a writer, director. He created The Dick Van Dyke Show, one of the most celebrated comedies of all time. He won nine Emmys and directed many movies.

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