As he watched a young supporter of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign knock on a voter’s door, Rob Reiner couldn’t resist giving a few notes.
“No, no, that’s not working,” the famous director admonished. “Try a real knock. Give it a knock. Forceful! You know, be forceful!”
The spoofy scene was part of a lighthearted Clinton campaign ad released in 2007. But it doubled as a snapshot — however exaggerated — of Mr. Reiner’s uncommonly hands-on approach to the many political campaigns and causes he supported during his years as an activist and major Democratic donor.
Mr. Reiner, who was found stabbed to death in his Los Angeles home on Sunday along with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, was an acclaimed actor and director who shared the liberal views of many of his fellow Hollywood stars.
But his sophisticated understanding of American politics — shaped by his close access to some of the biggest names in the Democratic Party — and his desire to engage beyond writing checks set him apart from standard celebrity activists, according to politicians who worked closely with him.
“I don’t know who was a more passionate speaker, him or me,” former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont said in an emotional interview on Monday morning, recalling a California fund-raiser he held at the home of Mr. Reiner, who supported Dr. Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign. “I’ve known lots of Hollywood people who have been very helpful to me over the years when I was in politics, but there was nobody like Rob.”
Describing the Reiners as his “entree to Hollywood,” Mr. Dean said they “were both just very, very down-to-earth. But they knew everybody.”
Reflecting that stature, statements of shock and grief from some of the nation’s most prominent Democrats rolled in rapidly in the hours after the Reiners were found.
“Beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people,” former President Barack Obama said in a statement, praising Mr. Reiner’s “lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action.”
Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton added that the Reiners “made everyone who knew them better through their active citizenship in defense of inclusive democracy.”
And former Speaker Nancy Pelosi mourned “the loss of our very dear friends.”
Mr. Reiner’s political activism spanned the local, state and national levels. He championed same-sex marriage, early childhood education and the careers of various presidential candidates, and personally debated a local development measure at Malibu City Hall.
He helped overturn Proposition 8, California’s short-lived ban on gay marriage, and took on the tobacco industry in the state, where he was mentioned at times as a potential candidate for governor.
At the national level, he hosted and appeared at star-studded campaign fund-raisers, but also showed up at campaign events across the country. He was a sharp critic of President Trump’s, saying on CNN in September that the president was threatening to wipe out “our 250 years of American democracy.”
In July 2024, appearing worried about the Democrats’ ability to defeat Mr. Trump, he joined the actor George Clooney in urging then-President Biden to exit the race after a disastrous debate performance.
He went on to support Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign for president but later suggested she had mischaracterized his closed-door response to the debate in her book, “107 Days.”
After his death, she remembered him as someone who “loved our country, cared deeply about the future of our nation, and fought for America’s democracy.”
In interviews about Mr. Reiner on Monday, some typically stoic politicians were on the verge of tears.
Former Senator Barbara Boxer of California recalled driving around in a van with the couple and her husband to campaign for Democrats some years ago, and they joked about whose spouse was funnier.
Mr. Reiner came across, she said, as “a normal person, not like a superstar, which he was — a superstar.”
But as she shared her recollections of the Reiners as political activists, she was plainly processing their deaths at a far more personal level.
“Oh gosh, we’re just — I don’t cry much,” she said, her voice seeming to break. “I’m not a crier. But I can’t even imagine the terror of that situation.”
Nick Reiner, a son of the couple who has spoken over the years about his struggles with drug abuse and bouts of homelessness, has been arrested. The Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, said he had been “booked for murder” and was being held on $4 million bail. No information about criminal charges was immediately available.
Some Republicans issued condolences on Monday, including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who has been known to quote the Reiner-directed movie “The Princess Bride” on the campaign trail.
“His movies touched us, deeply, and spoke to our fundamental humanity,” Mr. Cruz wrote on social media. “Rob Reiner was one of a kind, and he will be missed.”
Others, like Mr. Trump, used news of the reported killing to attack the Reiners, with the president turning their deaths into a moment to both vent his grievances and trumpet the actions of his administration.
Mr. Trump appeared to blame Mr. Reiner for his own death, claiming on Truth Social that it was somehow a product of “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Some Republicans criticized Mr. Trump for the post. “This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, the president’s ally-turned-adversary, wrote on social media.
Former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, a Democrat who knew Mr. Reiner for decades, said that while he was a savvy political operator, he was genuinely committed to issues of social justice, whether it was combating poverty or promoting L.G.B.T.Q. rights.
“He knew what levers to push to get things done,” Mr. Villaraigosa said. But, he added, “he wasn’t in politics as much as, he cared about the human condition.”
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Katie Glueck is a Times national political reporter.
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