Late-night host Jimmy Fallon of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” honored the memory of late director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, during his December 15 episode. The couple tragically passed away in their Los Angeles home on Sunday, December 14.
“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic passing of Michele and Rob Reiner. We are heartbroken by this sudden loss, and we ask for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time,” their family said in a statement obtained by CBS News and other outlets.
Fallon’s Statement
“Everyone felt like they had a personal connection to Rob Reiner and his work,” said Fallon in his tribute to Reiner during the December 15 episode of “The Tonight Show.”
Fallon concluded, “thank you for all the great work on and off screen, and continuing to be an inspiration to me and millions of people around the world. In the end, I’m going to remember all of the laughs that you gave us.”
Reiner made an appearance on “The Tonight Show” in 2018. Watch a clip from his interview here.
Reiner’s Legacy Lives On
Reiner, the son of comedy giant Carl Reiner, became a comedy legend in his own right, with a career that spanned seven decades. He made his name as an actor in the hugely successful sitcom “All In the Family,” which he starred in opposite Billy Crystal.
In a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter, the family of the late “All In the Family” creator Norman Lear said, “The Lear Family is devastated by the deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner. Norman often referred to Rob as a son, and their close relationship was extraordinary, to us and the world. Norman would have wanted to remind us that Rob and Michele spent every breath trying to make this country a better place, and they pursued that through their art, their activism, their philanthropy, and their love for family and friends. Lyn Lear had remained very close with them and said, ‘The world is unmistakably darker tonight, and we are left bereft.’”
Like his first wife, Penny Marshall, he made the transition from television sitcom star to acclaimed feature film director, where he found even greater success. Reiner directed some of Hollywood’s most iconic films, such as “This Is Spinal Tap,” “When Harry Met Sally…,” “The Princess Bride,” “Misery,” “A Few Good Men,” “Stand by Me,” and many others.
With “When Harry Met Sally…” starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, Reiner enjoyed his biggest box-office smash up to that point.
His 1986 film “Stand By Me,” is an adaptation of a Stephen King novella “The Body” that earned two Golden Globe nominations and an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay.
“All I’ve ever done is say, ‘Is this something that is an extension of me?’ For ‘Stand by Me,’ I didn’t know if it was going to be successful or not,” he told actor-director Seth Rogen in Interview magazine’s September 2025 issue. “All I thought was, ‘I like this because I know what it feels like.’”
In the same interview with Rogan, Reiner said of his 1990 psychological thriller, “Iâd become very successful being a sitcom actor. They wanted me to continue doing that. I said, ‘No, I want to be a director.’ So here you got this character who wants to break away from the Misery character All the people that I was working with said, ‘No, youâre a sitcom actor. Youâre not a movie director.’ In those days, there was no crossover between movies and television. Movie people were royalty, television people were peons. So I knew what it felt like to be held down by that. Thatâs what motivated me to do ‘Misery.’”
Reiner teamed with writer Aaron Sorkin for the military courtroom drama “A Few Good Men” in 1992 and “The American President” in 1995. The films starred Hollywood legends like Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, and Michael Douglas and earned about $350 million US at the box office. “A Few Good Men” earned four Oscar nominations.
During the fall of 2025, Reiner directed the highly anticipated sequel “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” and was released in theaters on September 12, 2025.
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