LOS ANGELES — In the world that Rob Reiner built, amplifiers went “up to 11.” People readily ordered “what she’s having.” Courtrooms couldn’t “handle the truth,” comedy and drama traded places seamlessly and liberal ideals born in the 1960s and '70s formed the gold standard of politics.

A writer, director, producer, actor and political activist whose career in Hollywood spanned more than six decades and included some of the most iconic titles in movie history, Reiner was found dead Sunday afternoon with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, at the home they shared in Brentwood. He was 78.

The Reiners' middle child Nick, 32, was taken into custody Sunday night and booked early Monday morning on suspicion of double murder, police said. With a long history of drug addiction, Nick had been living in the guest house on the Reiner property.

“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner,” a spokesperson for the family said in a statement Sunday. “We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time.”

Reiner, who once explained his identity as a blend of humor and “a lot of melancholy,” will be remembered as the director of the seminal 1980s rom-com “When Harry Met Sally ... ,” the actor whose sitcom character Michael “Meathead” Stivic faced off regularly against Archie Bunker, and the political activist who backed early childhood programs in California and railed loudly for years against President Donald Trump.

The Directors Guild of America noted that in addition to his films, Reiner “was admired for his mentorship and love of his craft, his civic engagement, and for being a principled voice in the creative community.”

Though Reiner championed progressive causes and acted on behalf of the Democratic Party as a whole, it was in California that his political influence was felt most strongly. He was involved in efforts to challenge Proposition 8, which in 2008 had banned same-sex marriage in the state, and found a rich vein of influence in his efforts against smoking and violence and in support of early childhood programs.

“Here’s this unique human being who really did make the leap between entertainment and politics,” Democratic strategist Ace Smith said Sunday in reaction to Reiner’s death. “And he really spent the time to understand policy, really, in its true depth, and to make a huge impact in California.”

The oldest child of comedian Carl Reiner and singer Estelle Reiner, Robert Reiner was born March 6, 1947, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Raised in the shadow of a father who won 11 Primetime Emmys and a Grammy in addition to the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Rob Reiner attended Beverly Hills High School and studied film at UCLA. He went to work in Hollywood as an actor and writer before moving on to directing and producing.

Reiner’s writing credits in the 1960s included “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” and the TV movie “Where the Girls Are.” In the 1970s, he wrote several episodes of “All in the Family” as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards telecast in 1978 and episodes of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

In 1971, Reiner married Penny Marshall, who would go on to star in TV’s “Laverne & Shirley.” He adopted Tracy, Marshall’s daughter from a previous marriage, but the couple divorced in 1981.

Marshall also became a director and producer of movies such as “Big,” Oscar nominee “Awakenings” and “A League of Their Own.” She died in December 2018 due to complications of diabetes. She was 75.

“This Is Spinal Tap” in 1984 further established Reiner’s comedic sensibilities in the American milieu. His work took a dramatic turn when he directed “Stand by Me,” the 1986 adaptation of a Stephen King novella starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell, but he returned to comedy with 1987’s “The Princess Bride” starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright and Mandy Patinkin.

Along with George Carlin, Dennis Miller and others, he wrote for the first “Comic Relief” special, hosted by Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg in 1986. That and the dozen “Comic Relief” telethons that followed, put on by Comic Relief US, raised awareness and tens of millions of dollars to help the homeless in the U.S. between 1986 and 2011.

“I can tell you that it wasn’t until, and this is now I’m in my mid- to late 30s, I did ‘Stand by Me’ that I started feeling like myself,” Reiner told Howard Stern in 2016. “It took a long, long time to start to carve out my own (identity). Here’s a movie that has this humor to it, but it also has a lot of melancholy in it, which is a real extension of myself.”

Also in 1987, he co-founded production company Castle Rock Entertainment— named after the town where “Stand by Me” takes place — with four industry friends.

Then he directed what would emerge as one of the most beloved rom-coms ever — “When Harry Met Sally ... ,” starring Crystal and Meg Ryan.

On the set of the movie, he met photographer Michele Singer, and the two married in 1989, the year the film came out. They went on to have three children, Jake, Nick and Romy, born in 1991, 1993 and 1997, respectively.

Reiner was nominated for a best picture Academy Award in 1993 for “A Few Good Men,” starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise; the movie lost out that year to Clint Eastwood’s western, “Unforgiven.”

Reiner’s work had sweeping cultural impacts. Three of his movies, “When Harry Met Sally ... ,” “The Princess Bride” and “This Is Spinal Tap,” are on the National Film Registry. The phrase “up to 11,” coined in “This Is Spinal Tap” during an improvised sequence between Reiner and Christopher Guest, is in the Oxford English Dictionary.

“It’s weird that something that we just threw off like that suddenly becomes part of the lexicon of our lives,” Reiner said on NPR’s “Fresh Air” in September. “It’s very strange how these things have taken root.”

In 2015, Reiner was the producer on “Being Charlie,” a drama based on his family’s struggles while son Nick was addicted to hard drugs and rotating in and out of rehabs and homelessness.

“It was very, very hard going through it the first time, with these painful and difficult highs and lows,” Reiner told the Los Angeles Times that year. “And then making the movie dredged it all up again.”

Growing up, Reiner balanced conflicting feelings about his relationship with his own father, who was someone he strongly admired. But he also felt as though his father didn’t fully know him. That dichotomy inspired a scene in “Stand by Me” when Gordie declares his father hates him.

“Loving your father and looking up to your father doesn’t necessarily mean you’re feeling that back,” Reiner said on “Fresh Air” in September, recalling how writing that scene made him cry. Reiner added, however, that he had two “great guides” in his life: his father, who died in 2020, and “All in the Family” creator Norman Lear.

But he was also jealous of situations like Steve Martin’s relationship with his father. While Rob Reiner broke into the business writing with Martin for the Smothers Brothers, Carl Reiner made four movies with the frequent “Saturday Night Live” host, including 1979’s “The Jerk” and the 1984 Lily Tomlin comedy “All of Me.”

But when Carl died in mid-2020, Rob referred to his father as his “guiding light.”

Reiner was a writer on “The 40th Kennedy Center Honors” in 2017, capping a career that included myriad variety show writing credits. “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” the 2025 film he also directed, was his final project as a scribe. “Spinal Tap at Stonehenge: The Final Finale,” due out in 2026, will be his final directing credit.

Reiner was nominated five times for supporting actor Emmys for his work in “All in the Family,” winning in 1974 and 1978. He was up for two Emmys in 2024 — in the documentary or nonfiction directing and outstanding documentary or nonfiction special categories — for “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.”

A staunch liberal, Reiner also emerged as a force in California politics and child welfare and education issues. He campaigned for presidential candidates including former Vice President Al Gore before switching in 2007 to support former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president. He spoke up more recently in favor of former President Joe Biden’s reelection.

Reiner was also an unapologetic critic of President Donald Trump, jumping quickly in 2016 on the ultimately debunked story linking the billionaire to Russian efforts to influence that year’s presidential election and rarely shying from blistering ad hominem attacks. (Trump’s Truth Social reaction Sunday to Reiner’s death invoked Trump Derangement Syndrome, alleging that the director had a “raging obsession” with the president.)

Reiner had campaigned in California against tobacco use and in 1998 saw the passage of Proposition 10, which called for a tax on tobacco products to be spent on early childhood programs. Reiner became chairman of the First 5 California Children and Families Commission in January 1999. He resigned in March 2006 amid accusations that the commission had used tax money to boost his campaign for the ultimately unsuccessful Proposition 82, which would have raised income taxes on wealthy Californians to pay for preschool for 4-year-olds. An audit later concluded that he and the commission had not violated state law.

“Rob Reiner has always put California’s kids first, and I thank him for the great work he has done over the last seven years,” then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement when Reiner stepped down from his First 5 role. “Because of Rob’s efforts, California has become a national leader in providing early childhood health and education services for our youngest children and their families.”

In 2008, former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa kicked off his successful reelection campaign with a private reception at the Reiners’ home. In 2011, years before a U.S. Supreme Court decision rendered its verdict on the topic, Reiner called legalizing same-sex marriage “the last piece of the civil rights puzzle being put into place.”

On Sunday night, former Vice President Kamala Harris expressed sorrow over the Reiners’ deaths.

“Rob loved our country, cared deeply about the future of our nation, and fought for America’s democracy,” Harris wrote on X. “Rob and his wife Michele loved each other very much. They were dear friends, and Doug (Emhoff) and I are devastated to learn of their passing.”

Former President Barack Obama chimed in as well.

“Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen,” he wrote on X. “But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people — and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action. Together, he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose. They will be remembered for the values they championed and the countless people they inspired.”

In Carl Reiner’s final interview before he died in 2020, he seemed quite aware of how his once-overshadowed son Robert had turned out.

“The only thing that really matters in life is your progeny, the people who come after you, the people you send out to the world. They’re either toxic or nontoxic,” Carl Reiner said in an interview conducted during that pandemic summer.

“Estelle and I raised three children and she was around to see how good they were,” he continued. But since her death 12 years earlier, he added, Rob and his siblings — author Annie and painter and graphic artist Lucas — “have become icons.”

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(Los Angeles Times staff writers David Zahniser and Brittany Levine Beckman contributed to this report.)

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Times editor Brittany Levine Beckman contributed to this report.

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