Rob Reiner, who has died aged 78, was an actor, director and producer whose career path went from playing Mike “Meathead” Stivic, son-in-law of Archie Bunker in Norman Lear’s television sitcom All in the Family in the 1970s, to directing a remarkable run of hit films between This Is Spinal Tap in 1984 and A Few Good Men in 1992 that included The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Misery (1990).
He also co-founded the production company Castle Rock Entertainment, which made In the Line of Fire, City Slickers and Lone Star, as well as the Stephen King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne and The Green Mile, and the TV comedy Seinfeld. After selling Castle Rock to Turner Broadcasting in 1993, Reiner undertook more activism and made smaller movies. “I came into this business to express myself and tell stories,” he told the Guardian in 2018, “not just to churn out a product.”
