Rob Reiner’s close friend Billy Crystal has broken his silence to pay tribute to the famed director and his wife Michele after their brutal murders.
The When Harry Met Sally star was seen with his wife Janice outside the Reiners’ LA mansion on Sunday after being called to the home by the couple’s daughter, Romy, who found her parents’ bodies.
Crystal, 77, was seen wiping away tears as he left after seeing the bodies while law enforcement descended on the location.
Reiner and his wife were found knifed to death in their bedroom and their youngest child, son Nick Reiner, 32, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Crystal joined with other notable comedy legends and stars in a statement shared with the Associated Press on Tuesday evening.
The friends and colleagues who included Albert Brooks, Larry David, Martin Short and director Barry Levinson, among others, praised Reiner, 78, as ‘a great comic actor’ and ‘a master storyteller’.
‘There is no other director who has his range.’
The statement paid homage to Reiner’s incredible film career as well as to his ‘special’ 36-year marriage to ‘perfect partner’ Michele, with whom he had three children.
‘Going to the movies in a dark theater filled with strangers having a common experience, laughing, crying, screaming in fear, or watching an intense drama unfold is still an unforgettable thrill,’ the statement began.
‘Tell us a story audiences demand of us. Absorbing all he had learned from his father Carl and his mentor Norman Lear, Rob Reiner not only was a great comic actor, he became a master storyteller. There is no other director who has his range.
‘From comedy to drama to ‘mockumentary’ to documentary, he was always at the top of his game. He charmed audiences. They trusted him. They lined up to see his films,’ the statement continued.
‘His comedic touch was beyond compare, his love of getting the music of the dialogue just right, and his sharpening of the edge of a drama was simply elegant. For the actors, he loved them. For the writers, he made them better. His greatest gift was freedom. If you had an idea, he listened, he brought you into the process. They always felt they were working as a team.
‘To be in his hands as a filmmaker was a privilege but that is only part of his legacy.’
The friends went on to describe the late director as ‘a passionate, brave citizen, who not only cared for this country he loved, he did everything he could to make it better and with his loving wife Michele, he had the perfect partner.
‘Strong and determined, Michele and Rob Reiner devoted a great deal of their lives for the betterment of our fellow citizens… They were a special force together – dynamic, unselfish and inspiring. We were their friends, and we will miss them forever.
The heartfelt statement ended with a poignant quote from one of Reiner’s favorite films.
‘There is a line from one of Rob’s favorite films, It’s a Wonderful Life.
“Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” You have no idea.’
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Reiner and Crystal had a decades-long friendship as they first met on the set of classic sitcom All In The Family in 1975 when the two were cast as best friends.
In 2016, Crystal reflected on their closeness in a column for The Hollywood Reporter and explained that their chemistry on screen was so palpable, they decided to be friends away from the camera.
‘We became the closest of friends. And when I moved out here (from New York), we just spent all kinds of time together,’ he said.
Their most famous collaboration was the 1989 classic When Harry Met Sally in which Crystal starred with Meg Ryan in a romantic comedy penned by the late Nora Ephron.
Crystal shared that one of his favorite moments in their friendship was at the first screening of the movie: ‘Rob and I were sitting in the back next to each other. Then the orgasm scene happens, and the place goes berserk. When Rob’s mother, Estelle, says, ‘I’ll have what she’s having,’ it was thunderous, a laugh you can only hear with the best of jokes in a concert hall.’
‘It’s those moments that make movies so spectacular: You set up the joke in September, and you don’t hear the punch line until May. We just grabbed each other’s hands because we knew something exciting was about to happen with this movie.’
On Tuesday, it emerged that Reiner and his wife Michele had been dead for hours when they were found, with their bodies already showing signs of rigor mortis, according to police sources.
The Hollywood director and his wife were knifed to death between Saturday night and 3.30pm Sunday, when their daughter Romy stumbled into the grim scene after going to check on them at their LA home.
Their throats had been cut and they may have been asleep in their bed when they were murdered, a source close to the investigation claimed to the Daily Mail.
The couple’s son Nick was later arrested after reports stated he had been ‘acting crazy’ at a holiday party he attended with his parents on Saturday.
Although he has been formally charged with the violent slayings of his mother and father, Nick has yet to be arraigned in court on the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole or the death penalty.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said no decision had been made yet whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
Earlier on Tuesday, Nick’s lawyer Alan Jackson said his client had not been medically cleared to be transferred from the jail to the courthouse, but did not disclose any further details about his condition or the case, according to the New York Times.
Nick currently remains in jail without bail and is being held on suicide watch in administrative segregation at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles.
At the time of Nick’s arrest, his sister Romy, 27, who discovered their parents bodies, told investigators her brother ‘should be a suspect’ because he was ‘dangerous’.
Curb Your Enthusiasm and writer of Seinfeld, Larry David, was also spotted close to the Reiners’ home on Sunday evening after the news broke about their deaths.
Reiner famously worked with David on his iconic sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm as he played himself in one of the best-known episodes, titled The Thong, which was broadcast in October 2001.
The two are both legends in the comedy world, with Reiner having directed some of the most iconic films of the genre and David being a comedic force behind Seinfeld and his aforementioned HBO series.
In September, Reiner released Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, the sequel to his iconic 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, which he co-wrote, directed and appeared in.
Reiner followed his father, the comic actor and filmmaker Carl Reiner, into Hollywood. Reiner died in 2020 at 98.
Reiner first emerged as an actor and is best known for his role as Michael ‘Meathead’ Stivic on the previously mentioned All In The Family.
He won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for five Golden Globes during his stint on the series from 1971 to 1978.
Reiner helped reinvent his career in the 1980s with his forward-looking comedy This Is Spinal Tap, which would go on to inspire countless mockumentaries.
He became one of Hollywood’s most in-demand directors for the next two decades due to classics and box office hits such as Stand By Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), Misery (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), The American President (1995) and The Bucket List (2007).
