This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dennis Maguire, who worked as Rob Reiner’s first assistant director on “Misery” and the reshoots for “Stand By Me.” On Sunday, Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Los Angeles home. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
People liked Rob, and Rob liked people. He enjoyed life, and I know he gave back. Rob wasn’t really flashy. Yes, he was born into royalty in Hollywood, but he wasn’t pretentious at all, at least not in my experience with him. He was the real deal.
He was a big, gregarious guy with a big personality. And he was funny, of course. He was a huge baseball fanatic and a very intelligent guy who could talk about anything.
I first worked alongside Rob as his first assistant director for one week on “Stand by Me” reshoots, and later for another seven or eight months in 1990 on “Misery.” Before his passing, I hadn’t seen him in a number of years. He and Michele had a house in Malibu Colony, and sometimes I’d see them out and we’d chat for a while.
Some friends from “Misery” and I have been texting, calling, and emailing back and forth since we found out. We all want to commiserate. I couldn’t sleep the first night because my mind was racing — I’m heartbroken. It’s just a terrible, tragic thing.
Rob was an excellent director, but also took suggestions
Rob was a real director. A lot of directors are quiet and internal, but Rob was able to tell everybody — both cast and crew — what he wanted.
But he was also open to suggestions, which the crew appreciated.
Most of my career has been as an assistant director, and there are times when I’ll say something to a director on the side, and they may or may not take it. There were a couple of times throughout the course of the movie when I offered suggestions to Rob, and he took them to heart, and they ended up in the movie. He was always grateful and generous about acknowledging things.
Rob worked quickly. He wasn’t like other directors, doing 84 takes. As a director, he was very secure about whether he had a scene or not. And if he got it, he moved on.
He was well-respected on set
Rob was respected by both the people behind the camera and the actors. Actors wanted to work for him because he could speak their language, as a very talented actor himself.
He had a great relationship with the movie leads [on “Misery”], Kathy Bates and Jimmy Caan, because he knew what they were trying to do and how to get what he wanted for the performance.
Kathy was basically unknown at the time, and the studio didn’t really want her because of that, but Rob fought for her. She ended up getting nominated for and winning an Academy Award for her role.
He kept our working hours more reasonable
The film industry has miserable, awful hours. In my career, I’ve worked 16-, 18-, and even 22-hour days. I’ve fallen asleep driving home from work twice.
Rob made a point of shooting what we consider short days — 10- or 11-hour days — so he wouldn’t burn out the actors and so people could go home to their families. It was civilized.
Working in the film industry is taxing on relationships. But Rob was married to Michele for over 35 years —which is rare in Hollywood. It’s almost unheard of.
Both of our fathers worked in the industry
Rob and I had good talks about father-son relationships.
We both had rockstar fathers in the industry who we idolized. His father (actor, director, and screenwriter Carl Reiner) had a massive career, and my father (film executive, producer, and assistant director Charles H. Maguire) worked on films like “On the Waterfront” and “Patriot Games,” the latter of which I worked on with him.
Rob was a lover of film and Hollywood history, and as a third-generation industry guy myself, I also loved hearing old Hollywood stories, so I would get Lauren Bacall to tell stories when she sat on the set.
One time, she was in the middle of a story, and Rob looked around and realized the lighting was done. He asked me, “Well, should we interrupt her?” I was like, “If you want to, I kind of want to hear the rest of the story, Rob.” He goes, “Do we have time?” And I said, “Rob, you own it. It’s your company. You call the shots.”
I learned an important lesson from Rob
Once, when we were filming up in Tahoe, we encountered some issues with the weather — I think the snow machines may not have been working properly — so we didn’t fully finish the day’s work. We were walking back to the car together, and he asked if I was OK. I said, “I’m just upset that I didn’t make the day for you.”
He looked at me, stopped, and said, “Dennis, I know you care. Don’t worry about that. It’s out of your control and out of my control. We do the best we can, and when weather and other factors beat us, it’s not on us.”
Thirty-five years later, I still remember that day, trudging back in the snow to go back to the hotel.
Rob, as a human being, did everything he could. I’m happy I had the opportunity to work for somebody like him.
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