In January 2018, conservative Fox Information host Laura Ingraham was having dinner at Toscana, an Italian restaurant in Brentwood, when she noticed the famend Hollywood director — and unabashed liberal — Rob Reiner.
She requested him to return on her present, “The Ingraham Angle.” He was on set the subsequent day.
After introducing him as “an excellent director,” who made her favourite film, “That is Spinal Faucet,” Ingraham mentioned: “Final night time, the very first thing Reiner says is: ‘Are they gonna shut the federal government down?’’ I’m like, wow, I’m right here in L.A.; I wanna speak about Hollywood stuff. However he needs to speak about politics.”
Al Gore and Rob Reiner attend the Tribeca Movie Competition in New York in April 2007.
(Scott Gries / Getty Photos)
Ingraham and Reiner vehemently disagreed — about alleged Russian affect on the 2016 presidential election, about whether or not President Trump is racist, concerning the therapy of conservatives in Hollywood.
However Reiner additionally known as Ingraham “sensible as hell.” And Ingraham mentioned Reiner “needs to be lauded” for being prepared to spar along with her, in contrast to many politicians on either side of the aisle.
It was the type of blunt however finally respectful alternate that added to Reiner’s widespread enchantment off-screen, each due to — and despite — his views.
Reiner and his spouse, Michele, have been killed at their Brentwood dwelling final weekend, allegedly by their son, Nick, who has been charged with homicide. The couple’s deaths have despatched a thunderclap via Hollywood and past, partly as a result of the Reiners had so many mates and connections in artistic and political circles.
Rob Reiner — who, within the function of Michael “Meathead” Stivic within the groundbreaking sitcom “All within the Household,” performed the liberal foil to his bigoted, conservative father-in-law, Archie Bunker — appeared to relish his real-life function as a progressive celeb activist. That made him a hero to many in blue California however a villain to others, particularly the reality-TV-show-star-turned-president, Donald Trump.
In a extremely criticized social media put up, Trump attributed the deaths to “the anger he brought on others via his huge, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a thoughts crippling illness often called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
However whereas Reiner, a blistering critic of the president, disagreed with many conservatives on coverage, he additionally labored to construct relationships with them — in media and leisure circles, the California State Capitol, and past.
Ingraham this week known as him “a legend.”
Actors Alec Baldwin and James Woods hearken to director Rob Reiner in between scenes for the 1996 movie “Ghosts Of Mississippi.”
(Columbia Photos through Getty Photos)
Actor James Woods, a longtime Trump supporter, mentioned in a Fox Information interview this week that Reiner saved his profession by casting him within the 1996 movie “Ghosts of Mississippi” over studio objections. He known as Reiner “an important patriot” with whom he shared a mutual respect regardless of myriad political disagreements.
Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for conservative powerhouse Turning Level USA, wrote on X that he “shared roughly zero in widespread with Rob Reiner politically, however I’m so saddened by this information” and praying that “justice could be swift and with out conspiracies [sic] theories.”
Kolvet mentioned Reiner “responded with grace and compassion” to the September killing of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk — a violent finish that Reiner mentioned no one deserved, no matter their views.
Exhausting-right Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, known as the deaths “a household tragedy, not about politics or political enemies.” And GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, wrote on X that “The Princess Bride” was his favourite movie and known as Reiner “a comedic and story-telling grasp.”
Off display, Reiner had a singular capability to attach with individuals of all persuasions, in numerous mediums, on the high of their careers or simply beginning. He was very a lot influenced by Norman Lear, the creator of “All within the Household,” who blended his Hollywood profession with progressive activism.
Much like Lear, Reiner didn’t simply dabble in social causes and campaigns. He launched them, led them and introduced individuals aboard. “He wasn’t constructing an operation the way in which Hollywood sometimes does, making donations, internet hosting fundraisers,” mentioned Ben Austin, a former aide to Reiner who labored within the White Home throughout the Clinton administration.
And on a regular basis, he did it whereas making motion pictures, a few of them deeply private, intertwined together with his life as a mum or dad.
Reiner was the driving power behind the profitable 1998 California poll measure, Proposition 10, a landmark coverage that put a tax on tobacco merchandise and pumped billions of {dollars} into preschools, trainer coaching, and assist for struggling households. He enlisted assist in that effort from such beloved figures as Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams and his personal father, comedy legend Carl Reiner.
After the initiative handed, Gov. Grey Davis, a Democrat, appointed the youthful Reiner chairman of the First 5 fee overseeing disbursement of the funds.
Rob Reiner co-founded the group that will assist overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 poll measure that banned same-sex marriage in California.
(Los Angeles Occasions)
And in 2009, Reiner co-founded the American Basis for Equal Rights, which led the profitable authorized battle to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 poll measure that banned same-sex marriage in California. The group employed authorized luminaries from reverse sides of the political spectrum to overturn the poll measure: the conservative former U.S. Solicitor Normal Theodore Olson and litigator David Boies, a liberal who squared off in opposition to Olson within the U.S. Supreme Courtroom ruling that gave George W. Bush the presidency in 2000.
Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, mentioned in an interview Wednesday that Reiner efficiently rallied individuals to the trigger as a result of he was so adept at humanizing the tales of the plaintiffs and different same-sex {couples} — and emphasizing love.
“I don’t assume you possibly can overstate how influential he was on the nationwide, state and native degree and the way well-liked he was,” Garcetti mentioned. “Politics and flicks share this in widespread: They each want good tales … and he was such a gifted storyteller.”
Garcetti mentioned that whereas many celebrities lend cash and faces to political causes, prettying up political mailers and electronic mail blasts, “Rob constructed these causes. He wasn’t just like the frosting on the cake. He truly was the baker.”
Garcetti, then a Los Angeles Metropolis Council member, joined Reiner in stumping for 2004 Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, for whom the director was an early backer. Garcetti crossed paths with him usually, together with throughout the push to overturn Proposition 8 — and on the Los Angeles Metropolis Corridor wedding ceremony of Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, two of the plaintiffs within the federal case that struck it down.
Katami wrote in an Instagram put up this week that Reiner and his spouse “stood with us in courtroom for 4.5 years” and that he and his husband sat on the couple’s desk of their dwelling many occasions.
Rob Reiner chats in 2012 with Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, plaintiffs within the case that struck down Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Occasions)
“Due to them, they have been capable of sit at our desk, at our wedding ceremony, on a day and in a second that will not exist with out their perception in who we’re and the way we love,” Katamami wrote.
He added: “They’re courageous. They’re humorous. They’re beneficiant. They’re deeply human. They usually make everybody round them really feel seen, protected, and inspired to be extra totally themselves.”
Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat now working for California governor, officiated Katami and Zarrillo’s wedding ceremony. He mentioned in an interview that Reiner personally bankrolled a lot of the authorized battle as a result of he genuinely believed it was the best factor to do.
In 2008, Villaraigosa kicked off his profitable reelection marketing campaign with a personal reception on the Reiners’ dwelling.
“You recognize, the one factor about Rob Reiner: There was no pretense,” Villaraigosa mentioned. “In case you go to his home … he’s a really rich man — he has been a director, an actor, co-founder of Fortress Rock Leisure — and but his home was like a house. It wasn’t a mansion. It was like a ranch-style home, very homey.”
Rob Reiner hugs then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in January 2015. The director had simply launched Villaraigosa at a faculty because the mayor kicked off his Management Tour highlighting his assist for common preschool.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Occasions)
Villaraigosa and others mentioned Reiner had a granular information of the insurance policies he supported, garnering the respect — if not all the time the love — of these with whom he disagreed.
Gale Kaufman, a veteran Democratic strategist who was a longtime advisor to the influential California Lecturers Assn., clashed with Reiner over training coverage however admired his dedication to — and information about — the problem.
Kaufman instructed The Occasions this week that she was amazed by “his consideration to element and his dogged dedication that he was proper.”
“This was not simply somebody providing you with a pot of cash and saying, ‘Go do that.’ This was a man who was … in every bit of it.”
Cinematographer Reed Morano was one in every of a number of in Hollywood whose profession soared due to Reiner.
Within the late 2000s, Morano was identified for filming low-budget tasks — usually in a gritty, hand-held fashion. A lot of them premiered on the Sundance Movie Competition, together with the Oscar-nominated “Frozen River.”
Within the early 2010s, Morano received an opportunity to pitch her skills to Reiner and producer Alan Greisman, who have been assembling a staff to shoot 2012’s “The Magic of Belle Isle,” starring Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen and directed by Reiner.
Barely quarter-hour after leaving the assembly, Morano received a name telling her she had the job.
“The factor that strikes me is he may have had anyone he wished,” mentioned Morano on a name Tuesday from New York Metropolis, noting that “Belle Isle” was the most important finances venture she had labored on as much as that time. “It’s simply he was so open-minded and so forward-thinking, and I believe he may see potential that different individuals couldn’t see.”
Morano then dealt with cinematography for Reiner’s “And So It Goes,” starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton, launched to 2014. Reiner, she mentioned, additionally wished her to work on “Being Charlie,” the 2015 dependancy drama co-written by his son Nick, however she was unable to due to scheduling conflicts. Individually from Reiner, she would go on to win an Emmy in 2017 for guiding on the sequence “The Handmaid’s Story” and a prize at Sundance for her second movie as director, 2018’s “I Assume We’re Alone Now.”
A decade earlier than Morano linked with Reiner, Michael Trujillo, now a veteran marketing campaign guide, went to work for him as a younger communications and coverage aide for First 5. He was in his early 20s and was shocked to be taught he could be working steps from Reiner’s workplace within the Beverly Hills headquarters of his legendary Fortress Rock Leisure.
Rob Reiner speaks in 1998 to a baby growth coverage group about Proposition 10, which added gross sales tax to tobacco merchandise to fund early childhood training.
(Robert Durell / Los Angeles Occasions)
“I present as much as Fortress Rock Leisure as a 22-year-old, in Beverly Hills, off Maple Drive. I’m only a Mexican child from the northeast San Fernando Valley. My dad was a development employee. My mother was a secretary … and I’m like, ‘What the f— am I doing right here?” Trujillo mentioned with fun.
Fortress Rock, he mentioned, was concurrently a Hollywood scorching spot and “a classroom in politics.” Trujillo mentioned he as soon as performed workplace golf — blue cardboard for water hazards; brown paper for sand traps — with actors Christopher Visitor and Eugene Levy whereas the film “A Mighty Wind” was being edited. Politicians have been all the time there, too.
Trujillo frequently joined Reiner on his once-a-month flights from Santa Monica to Sacramento for First 5 fee conferences and tagged alongside to information conferences and faculty school rooms. He normally carried a Sharpie, figuring out followers would present up with DVDs or VHS tapes of their favourite Reiner flicks to be signed.
“Rob was capable of have conversations with anybody and everybody,” Trujillo mentioned. “In case you’re a Republican or Democratic legislator nationally, and even native or within the state, you have been nonetheless a fanboy. You continue to wished to fulfill his character from ‘All within the Household.’ You continue to wished to shake the hand of the man that made ‘Princess Bride.’ You continue to wished to speak to the man that made ‘A Few Good Males.’”
