# Two people found dead at Rob Reiner's home. (Sadly confirmed it was Rob and his wife.) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [December 15, 2025, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704 "2025-12-15T02:44:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/161 "2025-12-16T16:56:49Z")
Dick Van Dyke’s birthday was Saturday and his oldest acquaintance died the next day. > **[Dick Van Dyke’s Wife Breaks Down Over ‘Awful’ Weekend Following His 100th...](https://www.aol.com/articles/dick-van-dyke-wife-breaks-101519721.html)** > > Arlene Silver posted a tearful video reflecting on her and Van Dyke’s long friendship with Rob Reiner and his wife Michele. > [@](#): > > “Such a weird, wonderful, awful weekend,” Silver, 54, said in the video. “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.” > > “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’s are in those messages. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/162 "2025-12-16T16:57:10Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > On a weird coincidental tangent, Anthony Geary of Luke and Laura fame died on the same day as Rob and was the same age of 78. It’s relevant because Anthony played Roger ‘Belle’, Mike’s flamboyant friend in a famous “All in the Family” episode where Archie discovers one of his macho bar buddies is gay. Groundbreaking show. That IS a weird coincidence! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/163 "2025-12-16T16:58:46Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > I doubt that he goes to an actual jail, more likely a mental institution. My brother is a drug addict with mental health issues; the kind that causes delusions. This very much would describe him: > [@filmore](#): > > The drugs were not the issue. They were a way of self medicating. He’d take the drugs to calm his thoughts, get addicted, get clean, the mental struggles would come back, get back on drugs to calm his thoughts, and repeat. He has been in and out of jail for his entire adult life. It’s _very_ difficult to avoid prison for serious crimes. My brother has never killed anyone, but has a mixture of violent offenses, drug offenses, and property crimes. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/164 "2025-12-16T17:05:06Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > Also, insanity defense is off the table - the bar is extremely high in California and requires, among other things, an organic mental illness - not one brought on or exacerbated by drug use. My sense is that it’s _a bit_ more nuanced than that: [**California Code, Penal Code - PEN § 25**](https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/penal-code/pen-sect-25/) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/165 "2025-12-16T17:41:35Z")
An insanity defense is used in less than 1% of cases. Of those cases it is argued successfully a small percentage of the time. The bar for that defense is very high in every state. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/166 "2025-12-16T18:41:26Z")
In California, even at his first appearance for an arraignment, his own lawyer can declare doubts about his competence to cooperate with counsel in a meaningful defense. At that point, the judge will usually appoint someone – or multiple someones – to evaluate him for such a determination. If the report comes back that he is unable to cooperate in his own defense, he will be _indefinitely_ confined to a facility until he is restored to competence. There will be regular review hearings by the court to keep track of that. Once it’s determined he is restored to sanity – if ever – he will return to court to resume proceedings. At that point, he’ll enter a plea and go through the regular process: Pretrial hearings, preliminary hearing, motions, etc. At any time during this process, if his lawyer again feels he has slipped out of competence, back to the mental facility he will go and repeat the process above. If he remains competent to cooperate with counsel in his defense, he can enter a dual plea: Not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. He will be tried like any other defendant, but the jury has a choice between those two options. If found straight up guilty, he’ll go to a regular prison. If found NGI, he will go to a mental institution until restored to sanity. Probably Atascadero State Hospital. As noted by others, NGI is a high bar. I frankly doubt he’s going to get past the first hurdle of being competent to cooperate in his own defense with counsel. The result is much the same as an NGI determination by a jury. It is a horrible, sad story with an unspeakable outcome. Unfortunately, not as uncommon as we may wish to believe. IANAL. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/167 "2025-12-16T19:28:51Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > You refer to Lumpy Rutherford as “Clarence,” would you? You mean Fred’s lad? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/168 "2025-12-16T19:33:29Z")
I forgot what thread this is. No place for jokes, I apologize. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/169 "2025-12-16T21:10:00Z")
A guy I grew up with stabbed his father to death. He was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, with a history of violent behavior. I didn’t hang out with him much after junior high due to the way he treated people around him, and I can’t say I was really surprised. He tried to get in touch with me, but my parents never gave him my contact info. He was committed to a mental institution, where he died of cancer a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/170 "2025-12-16T23:37:35Z")
It didn’t take long for Nick to get a high-power lawyer. Is he going to sing, _Don’t Rock the Jukebox_? > **[Nick Reiner Is Now Represented by Lawyer Who Defended Harvey Weinstein, Kevin...](https://people.com/rob-reiner-son-nick-represented-lawyer-defended-harvey-weinstein-11870263)** > > Nick Reiner is accused of murdering his father, beloved Hollywood director Rob Reiner, and his mother, Michele Singer Reiner. His attorney, Alan Jackson, says Nick won't appear in court until he is medically cleared. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/171 "2025-12-16T23:48:20Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > They’ll probably medicate him to ensure he is docile. I’m sure they’ll offer him meds to address whatever pharmacologically treatable psychiatric conditions they find. They’re unlikely to be medicating him without his consent unless they have a court order to do so or unless he’s suddenly acutely a danger to himself or others. In my 20+ years of corrections medicine, I only medicated a patient once without patient consent. The patient was on dialysis and trying to rip out the dialysis lines from himself and other patients on the dialysis unit. He also had hepatitis C, a blood borne pathogen. Definitely an acute threat to himself and others ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/172 "2025-12-17T00:25:10Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > To be adjudged legally insane, the defense would have to convince the jury that he was not aware of his actions during the time he murdered his own parents. _Or_ he didn’t realize that what he was doing was wrong. So, for example, the person thought that people would re-spawn like in a video game. Consciousness of guilt is a way to overcome this claim. Did he run away? Try to hide evidence? Then he knew he did something wrong. > [@Jasmine](#): > > They’ll probably medicate him to ensure he is docile. That’s not something that is routinely done. He would have to be deemed incompetent before any effort to alter his mental state was considered. Jail inmates awaiting trial are not, as a matter of course, given drugs. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/173 "2025-12-17T00:49:32Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I don’t understand why so many people refer to Reiner’s _All in the Family_ character as “Meathead”. His name was Mike Stivic “Michael” to his wife (and that motivated me to start introducing myself as Michael instead of Mike and to state it as my preference). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/174 "2025-12-17T02:49:06Z")
I also remember Reiner as Sheldn Stimler on the Odd Couple, appearing as Myrna’s boyfriend. A typo resulted in the ‘O’ being omitted from his birth certificate. What a damn tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/175 "2025-12-17T04:58:54Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > In my 20+ years of corrections medicine, I only medicated a patient once without patient consent. Interesting, in the ER, I’ve medicated people without their consent many times. I will also note that pts from the hospital for the criminally insane often do not have the right to refuse psych meds even in their routine situation. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/176 "2025-12-17T06:02:54Z")
How many of those had super expensive and highly competent attorneys that could sue your institution into oblivion? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/177 "2025-12-17T07:05:29Z")
Well, in the ER, how would I know? But apparently, none. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/178 "2025-12-17T18:40:19Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I also remember Reiner as Sheldn Stimler on the Odd Couple, appearing as Myrna’s boyfriend. A typo resulted in the ‘O’ being omitted from his birth certificate. Sheldn O’Stimler? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/179 "2025-12-17T20:54:56Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > Interesting, in the ER, I’ve medicated people without their consent many times. I will also note that pts from the hospital for the criminally insane often do not have the right to refuse psych meds even in their routine situation. That’s certainly interesting, and seems on surface to contradict the US Supreme’s Washington V. Harper 1990 ruling on chemical control which posits medication in unwilling inmates if they pose a danger but maintains due process for their right to have a hearing before involuntary treatment absent clear and present danger. And that applied not just to the jails and prisons I worked in or with but also to the two criminal psychiatric confinement institutions I was involved with in my state. But this is now furthering even more the hijack of the topic, so I’ll leave it at that. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2025, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704/180 "2025-12-17T20:56:08Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Sheldn O’Stimler? Well, one can be both Irish and Jewish for sure, laddie! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-people-found-dead-at-rob-reiners-home-sadly-confirmed-it-was-rob-and-his-wife/1025704.md?page=10)