Michele Singer Reiner, who was killed alongside together with her husband, filmmaker Rob Reiner, on Sunday at their dwelling in Los Angeles, was a photographer who moved from nonetheless photographs into filmmaking and later into producing, with work that blended efficiency, politics and persuasion. She was 70.
Singer Reiner was gigging as a photographer within the late Eighties, visiting movie units as a part of her earnings. A type of units was “When Harry Met Sally …,” the romantic comedy Rob Reiner was directing in New York, a movie that will go on to change into one of many period’s defining hits. Having divorced actor and director Penny Marshall eight years earlier, Reiner stated he observed his future spouse throughout the set and was instantly drawn to her.
Scripted by Nora Ephron, the movie was initially written to depart its central couple, performed by Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, separate, crossing paths over time with out ending up collectively. However after assembly Singer Reiner, Reiner reconsidered. He rewrote the ultimate scene so the characters reunite and marry, an ending that helped make the movie a beloved traditional.
The 2 married in 1989, months after the movie’s launch. They went on to have three kids: Jake, born in 1991; Nick, born in 1993; and Romy, born in 1997.
Hours after the couple have been discovered lifeless at their Brentwood dwelling, Nick Reiner — who had struggled for years with substance-abuse points — was taken into custody and booked into Los Angeles County jail on suspicion of homicide, in keeping with jail data. He had spoken publicly about getting sober by 2015, when he labored along with his father on “Being Charlie,” a semi-autobiographical movie about dependancy and restoration that Rob Reiner directed and Nick co-wrote.
After their marriage, Singer Reiner labored on a number of of Reiner’s movies, as a particular photographer on “Distress,” his 1990 adaptation of the Stephen King novel, amongst others. Their marriage additionally grew to become a working partnership. As Reiner’s profession expanded past studio movies into documentaries and political tasks, Singer Reiner — who earlier in her profession had photographed the quilt of Donald Trump on the photograph of his 1987 bestseller “The Artwork of the Deal” — was carefully related to these efforts, collaborating on movies and advocacy campaigns that more and more overlapped.
Their civic strand emerged early. Within the Nineteen Nineties, she and Reiner began the I Am Your Youngster challenge, an effort geared toward elevating consciousness about early childhood improvement and increasing entry to help providers for folks.
The initiative coincided with Reiner’s emergence as one among Hollywood’s most distinguished political voices. He was a founding board member of the American Basis for Equal Rights, which led the authorized battle to overturn Proposition 8, the California poll measure that banned same-sex marriage. He was additionally a central determine behind Proposition 10, the California Youngsters and Households Initiative, a landmark coverage that created an formidable statewide early childhood improvement program.
Within the final decade, Singer Reiner moved extra totally into producing. Her credit included such Reiner-directed tasks as “Shock and Awe” (2017), “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” (2023) and this yr’s “Spinal Faucet II: The Finish Continues,” in addition to “God & Nation,” a 2024 documentary analyzing Christian nationalism in america.
As information of their deaths unfold, tributes emphasised the Reiners’ shared public life. Laurie David, an environmental activist and documentary filmmaker who was an in depth buddy of the couple, wrote on Threads that “Rob & Michele — at all times known as Rob & Michele — have been a unprecedented couple who labored aspect by aspect to make the world a safer, fairer and extra simply society.”
Former President Invoice Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton additionally issued a joint assertion calling the couple’s deaths “heartbreaking” and pointing to what they described because the Reiners’ “energetic citizenship” in protection of “inclusive” democracy. “They have been good, beneficiant individuals who made everybody who knew them higher,” the assertion stated.
Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi known as the loss “devastating,” writing that whereas Reiner was inventive, humorous and beloved, Singer Reiner was his “indispensable companion, mental useful resource and loving spouse” in all of their endeavors.
