The younger Reiner was arrested after the bodies of his 78-year-old father and mother, Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were discovered at their house in the upscale Brentwood neighbourhood of Los Angeles on Sunday.
They were reportedly stabbed to death in a brutal double killing that has shocked movie fans around the world.
According to US media reports, Nick Reiner had argued with his parents at a glitzy Hollywood party on Saturday evening.
Entertainment outlet TMZ said the bodies were found on Sunday afternoon by the couple’s daughter, who told police another family member had killed them.
Reiner, the son of legendary comedian Carl Reiner, started his showbiz career in acting.
He won fame as the oafish son-in-law Michael “Meathead” Stivic on the groundbreaking 1970s sitcom, All in the Family, before transitioning to directing. Even while leading behind the camera, he often appeared in cameo roles in his own films.
But it was as a director that he struck Hollywood gold.
His output included classic films like 1984’s rock music mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, fantasy gem The Princess Bride from 1987, and the 1992 courtroom drama A Few Good Men, as well as seminal coming-of-age movie Stand By Me, and When Harry Met Sally.
A Few Good Men, starring Hollywood heavyweights Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.
‘Heartbroken’
Entertainers and politicians paid tribute to the beloved film-maker following his death.
Actor-director Ben Stiller described Rob Reiner as “a kind caring person who was really really funny,” and someone who “made some of the most formative movies for my generation”.
Former Democratic President Barack Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, were “heartbroken”.
“Beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people,” Obama said on X.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said Reiner had “made California a better place”.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, unleashed an extraordinary broadside, suggesting that Reiner brought on his own murder by criticising the US President.
Trump claimed the Reiners had died “reportedly because of the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as ”TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME”.
“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession,” the Republican leader wrote.
The comments were blasted by two prominent right-wing Republicans, including Representative Thomas Massie, who called them “inappropriate and disrespectful”.
Reiner was politically active, an outspoken supporter of progressive causes, and had warned that Trump was mounting an authoritarian takeover.
- Agence France-Presse
