Dick Van Dyke, 100, ‘didn’t sleep’ after friend Rob and Michele Reiner’s murder

Dick Van Dyke’s wife Arlene Silver has shared their devastation after their good friends Rob Reiner and Michele Singer were killed in their home over the weekend.

While the Mary Poppins actor turned 100 on Saturday with celebrations in full swing, heartbreaking news came that When Harry Met Sally director Rob, 78, and his 68-year-old wife, photographer Michele, had been found dead in their home with stab wounds.

After their daughter Romy, 28, discovered the bodies, police tracked down the couple’s son Nick Reiner, 32, who has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

The murder of one of Hollywood’s most beloved couples has sent shockwaves throughout the community, with many famous faces taking to social media with their heartfelt condolences and memories of the Stand By Me director and the photographer.

Now, make-up artist Arlene, 54, has tearfully taken to social media with her reaction to the devastating news.

‘Such a weird, wonderful, awful weekend,’ Arlene said in a teary video to fans on social media, referring to Dick’s big 100th birthday celebration, for which she led a flash mob to a medley of his most iconic songs.

‘You know Dick’s birthday was on [Saturday]… I can’t not talk about this horrible thing. I mean, Dick’s birthday was so amazing, so over-the-top beautiful, and then this. I was relieved and happy, and then this happened yesterday,’ she shared.

‘We talked to Rob two weeks ago on the phone,’ Silver shared. ‘And Michele, I have so many messages from Dick’s birthday, it’s going to take me weeks to get over them, and Michele and Rob are in those messages.’

Dick first met Rob when the latter was 14 years old, on the set of the Dick Van Dyke Show, which the late director’s father Carl created. It ran from 1961 to 1966, when Dick was in his 30s.

‘I’ve always been a fan of his work before I knew him and then Rob and Carl [Reiner] were the first people I ever met with Dick,’ Arlene recalled.

‘Rob and Michele were always together, like Dick and I. I always felt part of the Reiner family, they always treated me like part of their family. And this is just like… unbelievable.’

Arlene also acknowledged that Rob and Michele ‘did everything’ for their son Nick, who was arrested on Sunday evening and charged with two counts of first degree murder. He faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, or the death penalty. It’s undecided whether the latter will be pursued at this stage.

‘I never met him,’ Arlene said of Nick, adding: ‘But I met his other kids.’

Reflecting on how Chitty Chitty Bang Bang actor Dick was coping with the devastating news, his wife of 14 years said on Tuesday: ‘Dick didn’t sleep last night. We didn’t know what happened.’

It was first reported that two bodies had been found inside the couple’s house, before they were identified to be Rob and Michele.

Arlene continued: ‘I feel terrible for his family, he has a wonderful family, and his friends. There’s this great picture of him on the birthday special where he’s talking to us. I knew him for 20 years since I knew Dick, as a friend.’

As he approached 100, Dick recently admitted he feels ‘lonely’ and ‘frustrated’ in his old age because he’s outlived most of his best friends and he rarely gets to attend glitzy showbiz events because of his declining health.

‘Every single one of my dearest lifelong friends is gone, which feels just as lonely as it sounds. It’s frustrating to feel diminished in the world, physically and socially,’ he told The Times.

He misses being on set, and admitted while he gets invited to events or ‘gigs’ in cities like New York and Chicago, the travel ‘takes so much out of’ him that he has to turn them down.

But he also committed himself to staying positive for his final years.

He added: ‘We all have the capacity for a joyful life. I’ve made it to 99 in no small part because I have stubbornly refused to give into the bad stuff in life.

‘Failures and defeats, personal losses, loneliness and bitterness, the physical and emotional pains of ageing. That stuff is real but I have not let it define me.’

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