Bucks County Playhouse mourns loss of ‘remarkable’ director Rob Reiner

The death of acclaimed Hollywood director and actor Rob Reiner on Sunday came as a shock across the entertainment industry, including the New Hope theater where Reiner worked in the 1960s.

Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Singer, 68, were found dead on Dec. 14 in their Los Angeles home, where police are still investigating the suspected homicide and the couple’s middle child, Nick Reiner, has been taken into custody and “booked for murder,” according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department records viewed by USA TODAY.

Rob Reiner’s death brought an outpouring of condolences from actors, former costars and others who worked with him across his five-decade career, which includes his time serving as an apprentice at the Bucks County Playhouse in 1964.

“Rob Reiner was a notable member of the Bucks County Playhouse apprentice program in 1964, working alongside Alan Alda, Merv Griffin, Shelley Berman, Liza Minnelli and Arthur Godfrey that summer,” playhouse producing director Alexander Fraser said in a statement Monday. “Reiner mentioned often his gratitude for the training he received on our stage, and his fondness for his time in New Hope.”

Reiner is one of several actors who began “remarkable careers” during the playhouse’s 86-year history, Fraser said, including Grace Kelly, Jessica Walter, Robert Redford and Richard Kind.

On screen and behind the camera, Reiner was most known for his work on “All in the Family,” “The Princess Bride,” and “When Harry Met Sally.” He made his directorial debut with the mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap” in 1984, which recently saw its sequel, “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” released this month.

Christopher Guest, who starred as the fictional heavy metal band’s guitar player, and his wife, Jamie Lee Curtis, told USA TODAY they were “numb and sad and shocked about the violent, tragic deaths of our dear friends.”

The two asked for time to grieve and focus on supporting the Reiners’ children and immediate family, adding that there would be time later to focus on “the great political and social impact they both had on the entertainment industry, early childhood development, the fight for gay marriage and their global care for a world in crisis.”

President Donald Trump took to Truth Social Monday morning claiming that Reiner and Singer were killed “reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.”

Police have not released details as to the Reiners’ injuries or the motives behind their killings.

The Los Angeles Police Department told reporters Sunday that the department’s robbery-homicide division would investigate through the night.