‘Life is painful without you’: Cary Elwes and Martin Scorsese pay tribute to Rob Reiner as autopsy reports conclude | film

More than two weeks after the deaths of film director Rob Reiner and his photographer wife, Michelle, friends and colleagues continue to pay tribute to the couple.

Writing on Instagram, Cary Elwes, who starred in Reiner’s 1987 classic The Princess Bride, said he only now felt able to post publicly about his loss.

“Enough time has passed that I can finally put my grief into words,” Elwes wrote, saying that the first time he met Reiner, 24, he “fell in love.”

“When we started spending more time together, I realized that this was the person I wanted in my life. I also knew that by choosing me… he was giving me the keys to the castle.”

The actor posted some behind-the-scenes footage of the film, adding that he could not remember “a single day without laughter.”

“The film is about love, loyalty and sacrifice. Things that Rob holds dear. These are among the many reasons he was the perfect person to direct it.

“And if I could make him laugh back, I felt like I’d won the lottery. His laugh was one of the greatest sounds I’ve ever known – so it still rings in my ears.”

“This was a deeply feeling man,” Elwes wrote. “Whose heart was full of love and compassion. He wasn’t impressed by how much money you had or if you had a privileged upbringing. He just wanted to know if you were a ‘good man.'”

Reiner’s son, Nick, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder after his parents’ bodies were discovered on December 14 in their Los Angeles home. He is being held without bail at a city correctional facility.

Elwes also paid tribute to Reiner’s wife, saying: “To say they are a great team would be an understatement… My heart still hurts every time I think about them, I know the sadness of losing you so early will never go away.”

He concluded with a quote from The Princess Bride: “Sure, death cannot stop true love but life is painful without you.”

In an article in The New York Times, Martin Scorsese also paid tribute to Reiner, whom he first met in the 1970s, saying:

“Immediately, I loved hanging out with Rob. We had a natural affinity for each other. He was fun and bitingly funny at times, but he was never the type to dominate a room. He had a lovely sense of uninhibited freedom, thoroughly enjoyed life in the moment, and had a wonderful laugh.”

Reiner had a supporting role in Scorsese’s 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street, in which he played the father of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Jordan Belfort.

“He could improvise with the best, he was a master of comedy, he worked beautifully with Leo and the rest of the men, and he understood his character’s human predicament: the man loved his son, was happy with his success, but knew he was doomed,” Scorsese wrote.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge this week agreed to block the release of Reiner’s autopsy reports, at the request of the LAPD.

The court order the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner received last week placed a security hold on the cases to restrict public release of “any investigative information, notes, reports or photographs” related to the investigation.

The coroner’s office had previously confirmed their deaths were the result of homicide, and its public database listed the cause as “multiple blunt force injuries.”

After the Reiner family was killed, President Donald Trump posted that Rob Reiner’s death was “due to the anger he has caused others” due to his public opposition to Trump.

Trump described Reiner as “tormented and struggling” and attributed his death to his “massive, stubborn, and incurable suffering from a mind-afflicting illness known as Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

“He was known to drive people crazy with his rampaging obsession with President Donald Trump, with his apparent megalomania reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and as America’s golden age came, perhaps as never before.”

The president’s comments have been widely condemned, with Joe Rogan adding his voice to the critics last week.

Speaking to comedian Shane Gillis, the hugely popular broadcaster said of Trump: “If you say it in private, that’s one thing, which is also crazy, but very disappointing.”

Rogan, who supported Trump in 2024 but has recently expressed discomfort with some of his policies, equated the president’s apparent lack of empathy with “the people who were celebrating when Charlie Kirk got shot.”

Rogan continued, “Imagine if Obama tweeted something about someone after they died like that. That this person was a deranged person who hated Obama.” “It shows you how crazy it is, the way Trump thinks and talks.”

Rogan concluded by suggesting that an adviser should have taken Trump’s “damn phone” away when he decided to comment on Reiner’s death.