Director’s son, Nick, spoke openly about his struggles before arrest over parents’ deaths
Nick Reiner, who was arrested after his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead at their Los Angeles home, had spoken over the years about his struggles with drug abuse and bouts of homelessness.
“When I was out there, I could’ve died,” he told People magazine in 2016, speaking about being homeless. “It’s all luck. You roll the dice, and you hope you make it.”
Rob Reiner, Michele Singer Reiner, Romy Reiner, Nick Reiner, Maria Gilfillan, and Jake Reiner at the premiere of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues in September.Credit: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
The 32-year-old was arrested late Sunday after his parents were found dead at their home in the Los Angeles suburb of Brentwood. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Monday that he had been “booked for murder”. He was being held without bail, police said.
Nick and Rob Reiner had worked together on a movie, Being Charlie, which was loosely inspired by the son’s early life. Rob directed, and his son wrote the screenplay alongside Matt Elisofon, whom he met in rehab.
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The movie’s release in 2015 signalled a victory lap of sorts for Nick, who had been in and out of rehab and experienced homelessness since he was about 15.
Being Charlie follows the entitled, drug-addicted son of a high-profile actor turned political candidate in California. Although it was not autobiographical, Rob said the experience did a great deal to strengthen his relationship with his son.
“It forced me to have to see more clearly, and understand more deeply, what Nick had gone through,” Rob said in a joint interview with his son on BUILD, YouTube’s live interview series, in 2016. “And I think it forced him to see things that I had experienced during this process.”
“It definitely brought us closer together,” Rob said. He and his wife had two other children together: a son, Jake, and a daughter, Romy.
