Martin Scorsese opens up on Rob and Michele Reiner's deaths

Martin Scorsese is mourning the devastating loss of his close friends Rob and Michele Reiner, sharing a deeply personal reflection on their lives and the impact they had on him. 

In a heartfelt guest essay for The New York Times, the legendary filmmaker opened up about his grief following the tragic deaths of the couple, who were found dead in their Los Angeles home on Dec. 14. 

Their son, Nick Reiner, has since been arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

“What happened to Rob and Michele is an obscenity, an abyss in lived reality,” Scorsese wrote, expressing the shock and sorrow that has followed the news. 

“From now on, I’ll have to use the past tense, and that fills me with such profound sadness.”

Scorsese reflected on his longtime friendship with Rob Reiner, noting that the two bonded early on through their shared love of storytelling and film. 

He recalled meeting Rob and his then-wife Penny Marshall in the early 1970s and immediately feeling a connection. 

“Right away, I loved hanging out with Rob,” he wrote. “He was hilarious, warm, and had a kind of joy that filled the room.”

The director praised Reiner’s creative legacy, calling This Is Spinal Tap “in a class of its own” and highlighting his work in Misery as especially powerful. 

He also reflected on working with Reiner in The Wolf of Wall Street, describing a scene in which Reiner played Leonardo DiCaprio’s father as deeply moving. 

“I was struck by the tenderness he brought to it,” Scorsese shared, adding that revisiting that performance now is particularly painful.

In closing, Scorsese expressed a longing that feels both personal and universal, the hope of once again sharing laughter and conversation with his late friend. 

“I’ll always wish I could sit beside him again,” he wrote, “and hear that laugh, and feel lucky just to be in his presence.”