Rob Reiner was more than a Hollywood legend. He helped shape California politics

The rest of the country may remember Hollywood legend Rob Reiner for his work in front of and behind the camera, but in California, he leaves behind a political legacy that endures beyond his films and movie and television roles.

Reiner, a longtime Democratic activist, donor and fundraiser, played a critical role in the legalization of same-sex marriage in California, and he was a driving force behind California’s signature early-childhood development program, First 5.

Reiner, 78, was found stabbed to death along with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, inside their Brentwood home Sunday.

Police investigators announced Monday that their son, Nick Reiner, 32, had been arrested and was being held on suspicion of their murder. Rob and Nick Reiner once worked together on a semi-autobiographical film about Nick Reiner’s lifelong struggles with addiction.

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“I can’t believe it,” former California Gov. Gray Davis told CalMatters Monday in a phone interview. “I mean, Rob and Michele have been part of Sharon and I's life for over 30 years.” Sharon Davis is the former governor’s wife.

Davis said he’ll never forget when Rob Reiner in 1991 invited him — then California’s elected controller — to hang out on the set of Reiner’s “A Few Good Men.” Davis got to watch for hours as actors including Tom Cruise, Kevin Bacon, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson did their scenes.

“I thought: I am so proud to live in a state where quality filmmaking takes place,” Davis said.

But a few years later, the two became something akin to coworkers. Davis was elected governor the same night in 1998 that Reiner’s Proposition 10 ballot initiative passed. The initiative created a new tax on tobacco that funded the programs for children younger than 5 that are now in every California county.

Davis said the two were at the same Election Night party in 1998 as the results came in. Davis said he and his administration later worked with Reiner to ensure the First 5 program got implemented. Davis appointed Reiner to chair the program’s California Children and Families Commission, a position he held until 2006. Reiner resigned amid allegations he was using taxpayer funds to promote his Proposition 82, an unsuccessful ballot initiative that sought to tax the wealthy to fund preschool for all children.

“Rob was not just a talker. He was a doer,” Davis said. “A lot of other people would give a nice speech, they would come to a press conference, and then they thought their job was over, and certainly we appreciate that. I mean, they have other things to do, but the difference was Rob called you up and said, ‘What can I do next?’ ”

Mike Roos, a former California legislator, political strategist and lobbyist, worked closely with Reiner on the Prop. 10 campaign. He said they got to know each other and it was clear to Roos that Reiner loved his children dearly.

“This has been just one of the most horrible things I could ever imagine, knowing him and knowing his love and the investment that he made in every one of those kids in that family,” Roos said, “but particularly how he cared and talked so thoughtfully about the struggles that Nick had in that period of time when I knew him.”

Later, Reiner would help found the American Foundation for Equal Rights. The group paid for the legal fight against Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage in California. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Prop. 8 in 2013.

Kris Perry, the former executive director of First 5 and a lead plaintiff in the case that got Prop. 8 overturned, said Rob and Michele Reiner also stood by her and her wife, Sandy Stier, as they and the other plaintiffs defended their right to marry in the landmark case.

“They continued over a five-year period to champion the cause by speaking out themselves, bringing more support to the case, doing media interviews, and, more importantly, being kind and generous … year after year after year,” Perry said. “They cared about us as people throughout that entire process. They left this indelible impression on all of us of what it means to be a real leader, to not only make something possible, but to stand beside people during the fight.”

She said Reiner wasn’t just a figurehead at First 5, either. He attended Children and Families Commission meetings every month and was deeply involved in discussions of “how to invest, where to get results, how to hold people accountable,” she said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom over the weekend said Reiner’s impressive body of professional work, which included “When Harry Met Sally,” “Stand By Me” and “The Princess Bride,” taught “generations how to see goodness and righteousness in others — and (encouraged) us to dream bigger.”

“That empathy extended well beyond his films,” Newsom said in a statement. “He made California a better place through his good works. Rob will be remembered for his remarkable filmography and for his extraordinary contribution to humanity.”

The Reiners donated about $2.7 million to help Democrats over their lifetime, The New York Times reported, including $100,000 to support then-President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election. He later joined actor George Clooney in urging Biden to drop out, saying “We need someone younger to fight back.”

Not everyone had nice things to say about Reiner. President Donald Trump, whom Reiner frequently criticized, called Reiner a “tortured and struggling but once very talented movie director and comedy star” in a social media post. He claimed Reiner’s death was linked to a “mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

Democratic U.S Rep. Laura Friedman, who represents the Hollywood area, said in an interview she “really felt sick over seeing Donald Trump’s post about this terrible murder.”

Friedman, a former film and television producer, said Reiner’s art reflected his politics. She said he advocated for being decent to each other and against bigotry — unlike Trump who she said has a “unique ability to divide Americans and make people angry.”

Reiner, she said, often used humor to “bring us together … and do it in a way that was somehow gentle and loving at the same time.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.