Mandy Patinkin's Touching Quotes About Late Rob and Michele Reiner's Legacy

Mandy Patinkin is heartbroken over the loss of The Princess Bride director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner.

Patinkin opened up after Rob and Michele’s murders, telling People in December 2025, “How do we process this unthinkable tragedy? Loss after loss after loss! What is happening to our world? What is happening to our human race?”

“I can’t breathe, but I’m breathing,” he added, as just one of Rob’s colleagues who has spoken out in anguish over the director’s death.

Rob and Michele were found dead in their Brentwood, California, home on December 14, 2025, with their official cause of death listed as “multiple sharp force injuries” and the manner ruled a homicide. Their son Nick Reiner was arrested and held without bail before he was subsequently charged with two counts of first-degree murder. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole or the death penalty. His arraignment was set for January 7, 2026.

Jamie Lee Curtis and Husband Mourn Late Rob and Michele Reiner in Tribute

Patinkin portrayed Spanish henchman Inigo Montoya in Rob’s 1987 fantasy The Princess Bride alongside Cary Elwes, Chris Sarandon, Robin Wright, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, André the Giant and Fred Savage. The movie gave him a plethora of memories to last a lifetime and a friendship with his castmates spanning decades beyond the film’s release.

“I can never get over, even right now, that I got to be in that,” Patinkin told The New Yorker in October 2020 of how Rob’s film changed his life. “That I’m the guy that you’re talking about, that I ended up being in what was essentially ‘The Wizard of Oz’ of my generation. … I pinch myself every time that I got to be that guy. I loved it more than I can say.”

Scroll below for all of Patinkin’s quotes paying tribute to Rob and Michele and The Princess Bride.

Mandy Patinkin Calls Rob Reiner’s Death a ‘Tsunami of Tragedy’

“I’m howling at the gods every moment,” Mandy Patinkin told People one day after Rob and Michele Reiner’s deaths. “Then I talk to a friend or myself and quiet down and I realize the gods are not to blame, the tsunami of tragedy is the responsibility of human beings.”

Mandy Patinkin Hears Rob Reiner’s Voice

Mandy Patinkin recalled a specific scene in The Princess Bride that came flooding back to his memory after the tragedy.

“When we were filming the scene in The Princess Bride, where Inigo kills the six-fingered man and says: ‘I want my father back your son of a bitch,’ take after take after take Rob [Reiner] kept asking me to do less, do less, do less,” Patinkin told People. “In my sleepless night, I realized he wanted less anger from me to allow my broken heart to be felt.”

“Now I’m hearing his voice tell us all to do more, do more, do more to repair the human soul, to repair our hearts, to repair our country, to repair our world,” he added. “To never give up, to keep fighting, to keep living for every soul taken from this Earth, that no longer has the life and breath to raise their voices for a better world, we must raise our voices for them.”

Mandy Patinkin Says Rob Reiner Set a Great Example

Mandy Patinkin encouraged heartbroken fans of Rob Reiner’s to “follow Rob’s example.”

“Let Rob Reiner‘s actions guide you. I don’t believe we ever recover from such cumulative loss, but I am certain it teaches us to live with a greater purpose to cherish every moment that we are alive to be of service to every aspect of our existence to never give up,” the Homeland alum told People. “When we’re feeling lost, say to ourselves, ‘What would Rob do?’ and then do it, do it for Rob, do it for all of us.”

Mandy Patinkin’s Memory With ‘The Princess Bride’ Cast

Days after Rob and Michele Reiner’s deaths, Mandy Patinkin joined Patti LuPone on The View to discuss their friendships with the late actor. The Criminal Minds star shared one of his favorite memories from The Princess Bride set.

“There’s endless stories, and the one I remember most at the moment, I mean, I remember many, but we were on the bus going up to the English countryside near Sheffield where we shot the castle and other things, and we were on the bus, and Rob and Billy [Crystal] were in front of me in the seats, and Chris Guest was next to me, and the three of them remembered every single thing that happened in baseball when they were like 4, 5, 6, 7 years old, and they were going over every play, every inning, every game,” Patinkin said. “They’re best friends, and I just couldn’t say a word. My jaw dropped; just the friendship was just extraordinary, and it was so beautiful I just never forgot that. I couldn’t get over that they could remember like that, but it was the glue of their existence.”

How Rob Reiner Made Mandy Patinkin’s Dream Come True

Mandy Patinkin appeared in CBS News’ special Rob Reiner — Scenes From a Life in December 2025, recalling the first screening of The Princess Bride in L.A.

“We’re sitting there in this screening room, and the film was over, and I said, ‘I never dreamed I would get to be in something like this.’ I didn’t even have time to dream, and he made that dream for me,” he said with tears streaming down his face.

During the episode, Patinkin also revealed how he found out about Rob and Michele Reiner’s murders.

“I heard this news at about 11-something on Sunday night. I was in bed. I was in shock. I didn’t sleep at all. I just kept wailing 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 how to process it,” Patinkin said.

“Rob worked hard to try to get me to be the best human being I could be,” he continued. “One time he said to me, ‘I just wish you could get out of your own way,’ and I haven’t been able to achieve that to this day, but I won’t quit trying. He cared about my nature. He showed it to me over and over again.”

Patinkin said that he knows Rob and Michele are with him in spirit. “I believe that we can connect with Rob and Michele, and every time we’re thinking about this or talking about it or anyone tells a story, he’s here. He will not be forgotten.”

The Lesson Mandy Patinkin Learned From Rob Reiner

“He taught us to use our voice, our speech. Please, use it, use it, use it,” Mandy Patinkin said on The View.

Mandy Patinkin on the ‘Unbearable’ Feeling of Losing Rob Reiner

“He was just one of the most generous, kind people I ever knew,” Mandy Patinkin said during a December 2025 episode of CBS Mornings. “I was going through a difficult time at one point, and he called Kathryn [Grody], my wife, and myself and Michele [Singer Reiner], and he took us out to dinner, and he didn’t even mention any of the [difficulties]. He didn’t talk about anything. He just wanted us both to know that they were there for us if we needed them.”

“I go to the gym, and people who never met Rob say, ‘You know, we can’t stop thinking about it,’” Patinkin added. “This is not the only time in people’s lives where this kind of situation happens. It’s unbearable.”