Jerry O’Connell shed tears over the murders of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner in an emotional CBS News special that aired over the weekend.
O’Connell was a preteen when the director of “Stand by Me” cast him in the 1986 youth drama.
“Everything I have in my life is because of being on ‘Stand by Me.’
Even after the film was released in theaters, O’Connell was moved to remember how Rob went above and beyond for her.
“When Rob Reiner heard I was in Los Angeles, he took me to lunch,” he said through tears. “He didn’t have to do that. You know what I’m saying? The movie had been out for a few months. He was a busy guy. And he took 12-year-old me to lunch just to say, ‘Thank you so much, that’s a great movie.'”
O’Connell covered her eyes with her hands to emphasize how much the lunch meant to her. “That’s all you want your kids to hear, right?” he emphasized.
“The Princess Bride” star Mandy Patinkin also broke down in tears over Rob and Michelle’s murders. When he learned that the director of the 1987 film and his wife had been stabbed to death, the only word that came to his mind was “unbelievable.” This is a famous quote often said in fantasy romantic comedies.
“(Last) Sunday night, I heard the news around 11 a.m.. I was in bed and I was in shock. I couldn’t sleep at all. I was just crying and crying. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to process it. I still don’t know how to process it, and I’m not looking for a way to process it,” said Patinkin, 73.
He recalled when Rob invited him and the rest of the cast to Los Angeles to see the first cut of the film.
“We were sitting in this screening room, and when the movie was over, I said, ‘I never thought I’d be in a movie like this.’ I didn’t even have time to dream, and he gave me that dream,” the actor said, his voice rising.
He praised Rob for trying to make him the “best person” he could be.
“One time he said to me, ‘I wish you could get out of your own way,’ and to this day I haven’t accomplished that, but I’m not going to stop trying,” Patinkin said. “He cared about my nature, and he showed me that over and over again.”
Kathy Bates, who won an Academy Award for Robb’s 1990 horror film Misery, also shed tears as she praised the late Hollywood legend for making her acting dreams come true.
She remembers his “warmth,” “excitement,” and “confidence,” adding that she recently learned that he proudly kept exclaiming, “She was the best!” After she won the 1991 Oscar for Best Actress.
“I wanted to be the best for him, so I was very happy to hear those words,” she said.
On December 17th, Rob, 78, and Michelle, 70, were found stabbed to death in their Brentwood home.
The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office found the couple’s cause of death to be “multiple sharp trauma,” and ruled the manner of death a homicide.
Their troubled son, Nick Reiner, who was reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia and had a long history of drug addiction before the killings, was later arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder with the special circumstances of multiple murders.
Nick is currently being held in solitary confinement at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, where he could be sentenced to up to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
The 32-year-old is reportedly expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
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