Michele Singer Reiner, photographer who inspired 1980s rom-com’s happy end, dies

Rob Reiner and Michele Reiner arrive on the red carpet at the State Department for the Kennedy Center Honors gala dinner, Dec. 2, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File) (Kevin Wolf)

Michele Singer Reiner, a photographer, movie producer and advocate for 2SLGBTQI+ rights who inspired the happy conclusion to the 1980s romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally…,” has died.

She and her husband, director Rob Reiner, were found stabbed to death Sunday at their home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The Reiners’ 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, was arrested on suspicion of murder and held without bail Monday in connection with their deaths.

Michele Singer was working as a still photographer and Rob Reiner was directing “When Harry Met Sally...” when they met on the film’s set. Within seven months, the couple had married. They had three children: Nick, Jake and Romy.

Rob Reiner told The Guardian in 2018 that meeting his wife influenced his decision to change the ending of the movie so that Harry and Sally got married.

“Originally, Harry and Sally didn’t get together,” he said. “But then I met Michele and I thought: OK, I see how this works.”

As a photographer, Michele Singer Reiner shot the cover image of President Donald Trump for his 1987 bestseller “The Art of the Deal.” She went on to work on the 1990 horror film “Misery” as a special photographer.

Later, she was a producer for “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues,” “God & Country,” “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” and “Shock and Awe,” according to IMDB.

“Michele was an enormously talented photographer whose eye applied not only to what she captured on film but also to her own personal esthetic,” actor, singer and producer Rita Wilson wrote in a social media tribute. “Her work as a producer focused on social justice and creating awareness of our world. She was wry, funny, opinionated but also reasonable and self reflective.”

Trump on Monday blamed Rob Reiner’s outspoken opposition to him for the couple’s killings, sharing the unsubstantiated claim in a social media post that drew criticism even from some prominent conservatives. He did not mention his personal connection to Michele Singer Reiner.

Wilson, who had roles in “Sleepless in Seattle” and the Rob Reiner-directed “The Story of Us,” said she and husband Tom Hanks have been friends with the Reiners since their children were toddlers. In her Instagram post, she reminisced about the couple’s screening parties in which they paired themed foods and discussions with classic films.

As for her social justice advocacy, Michele Singer Reiner had said she was inspired in part by her mother, a Holocaust survivor.

The Reiners were board members of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which organized and funded federal court challenges to California’s 2008 same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8.

A fellow board member, screenwriter and director Dustin Lance Black, later worked with Rob Reiner on the play “8” about the federal trial that got the proposition overturned. With the couple’s deaths, Black said, “The world has lost two of its greatest champions of justice, love and equality. I have lost two of the most spectacular human beings I will ever know.”

Kelley Robinson, president of the 2SLGBTQI+ political advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign, also reflected on their unwavering allyship.

“So many in our movement remember how Rob and Michele organized their peers, brought strategists and lawyers together and helped power landmark Supreme Court decisions that made marriage equality the law of the land -- and they remained committed to the cause until their final days,” Robinson said.

Rob Reiner had said his wife was a driving force behind the couple’s activism: “There’s just too much injustice in the world, and she wants to fix it all.”

He told The New York Times in 1989 that the cinematographer on “When Harry Met Sally...,” Barry Sonnenfeld, predicted he would marry her.

She had visited the set with Sonnenfeld’s then-fiancee, during a scene when the characters were having an argument, Rob Reiner said.

“I look over and I see this girl, and whoo! I was attracted immediately,” he said. “I wormed my way into their lunch. But that’s what he said to me: `You’re going to marry her.’ And one thing led to another and here we are.”

Hannah Schoenbaum And Sarah Brumfield, The Associated Press