Mandy Patinkin, Kathy Bates, Jerry O’Connell and more of Rob Reiner’s colleagues and friends remembered the late director in a CBS News special one week after Reiner was found murdered in his Brentwood home.
Patinkin, who starred in Reiner’s 1987 film The Princess Bride, broke down into tears while discussing the iconic filmmaker’s legacy in CBS News: Rob Reiner — Scenes From a Life, which aired on Sunday.
“Rob worked hard to try to get me the best human being I could be,” Patinkin said. “One time he said to me, ‘I just wish you could get out of your own way.’ And I haven’t been able to achieve that to this day, but I won’t quit trying. He cared about my nature. He showed it to me over and over again.”
Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Reiner, 70, died Dec. 14 after suffering “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner. The couple’s son, Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
“I believe that we can connect with Rob and Michele,” Patinkin said while discussing the couple’s tragic passing. “And every time we’re thinking about this or talking about it or anybody tells a story, he’s here. He’s here with you. He will not be forgotten.”
Elsewhere in the special, Bates, 77, reflected on her Oscar-winning role in Rob’s 1990 film Misery. The Matlock star became emotional while remembering the director, who she said “changed the course” of her life.
“If I hadn’t done Misery, it would be like George Bailey going back and seeing what his life would have been like if he had never been there,” Bates said. “I wouldn’t have had some of the friends that I have now. I wouldn’t have had the richness in my life. I quite frankly probably would have stayed in the theater and I doubt I would have had a movie career. I might have dropped out altogether.”
O’Connell, who starred in Rob’s 1986 film Stand By Me, was overcome with tears while remembering a lunch he had with the filmmaker when O’Connell was only 12 years old. The actor, 51, recalled Rob inviting him out some months after the film was released.
“Rob Reiner heard I was in L.A., and he took me out to lunch, man,” O’Connell said. “He didn’t have to do that, you know what I’m saying? It was months after the movie came out, and he was a busy man. He took a 12-year-old me out to lunch, just to be like, ‘Thanks so much.’ That lunch meant so much to me. It’s just stuff that kids need to hear.”
Michael Douglas, Annette Bening, Kiefer Sutherland and Albert Brooks also appeared in the CBS News special, which featured past interviews with Rob pulled from the network’s archives.
Nick’s arraignment has been postponed until Jan. 7. He faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty, if convicted.
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