Martin Scorsese is currently in mourning over the loss of his dear friend and colleague, Rob Reiner, and his wife, Michele. In a heartfelt guest essay published on Christmas Day in The New York Times, Scorsese opened up about his cherished bond with the iconic director and actor. "Rob Reiner was my friend, and so was Michele," he wrote. "From now on, I'll have to use the past tense, and that fills me with a profound sadness that is unfathomable."
The couple, both 70 and 78 years old respectively, were found dead in their Brentwood, Los Angeles home on December 14th, with injuries consistent with a knife attack. According to TMZ, their son, Nick, 32, has been arrested and charged with their murders.
Reiner and Scorsese met in Los Angeles in the early 1970s when they both started attending gatherings at George Memmoli's home. "Rob came from New York show business royalty," Scorsese wrote. "His mother, Estelle, was a wonderful singer and actress, and his father, Carl, was part of Sid Caesar's 'Your Show of Shows' alongside Neil Simon and Mel Brooks, who later collaborated with him on the brilliant '2000 Year Old Man' routine."
Scorsese continued to praise Reiner's sense of humor. "I loved hanging out with Rob right away. We had a natural affinity for each other," he wrote. "He was hilarious and sometimes bitingly funny, but he was never the kind of guy who would take over the room. He had a beautiful sense of uninhibited freedom, fully enjoying the life of the moment, and he had a great barreling laugh."
After years of admiring each other's work, they teamed up for 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street. "I immediately thought of Rob to play Leonardo DiCaprio's father," Scorsese recalled. "He could improvise with the best, he was a master at comedy, he worked beautifully with Leo and the rest of the guys, and he understood the human predicament of his character: The man loved his son, he was happy with his success, but he knew that he was destined for a fall."
Scorsese ended his tribute by saying that the tragedy that took Rob and Michele's lives is an obscenity that leaves an abyss in reality. "The only thing that will help me to accept it is the passing of time," he wrote. "So, like all their loved ones and friends—and these were people with many, many friends—I have to be allowed to imagine them alive and well...and that one day, I'll be at a dinner or a party and find myself seated next to Rob, and I'll hear his laugh and see his beatific face and laugh at his stories and relish his natural comic timing, and feel lucky all over again to have him as a friend."
Other tributes have been paid to Reiner by Billy Crystal, Larry David, Martin Short, Demi Moore, Kathy Bates, and many more.
