Scorsese Pens Heartfelt Tribute to Late Director Ron Reiner

Martin Scorsese offered a deeply personal tribute to the late Ron Reiner – a message from one filmmaker to another.

“Ron was my friend, and so was Michele,” Scorsese, 83, penned in an essay published via The New York Times on Thursday, December 25. “From now on, I’ll have to speak about him in the past tense, and that fills me with such profound sadness. But there’s no alternative.”

Scorsese recalled first meeting Ron in the early 1970s through mutual acquaintances in Los Angeles.

“Ron and I were both transplants from the East Coast, in a sense. He and his family relocated to Los Angeles when he was young, but he was born in the Bronx and lived in New Rochelle as a child. Ron came from a family well-known in the New York entertainment industry,” Scorsese continued, referring to Carl and Estelle Reiner. “This was quintessential New York humor, and it permeated the atmosphere I experienced.”

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Scorsese noted that he “cherished” spending time with Ron and felt an immediate connection.

“We had a natural rapport with each other. He was humorous and occasionally sharply witty, but he wasn’t the type of person who would dominate a room,” the director elaborated. “He possessed a beautiful sense of unrestrained freedom, fully embracing the present moment, and he had a hearty, booming laugh.”

Scorsese wrote that Misery and This Is Spinal Tap were among his favorite films that Ron directed.

“We remained in contact over the years and viewed each other’s films,” he wrote. “When I was casting The Wolf of Wall Street, I immediately considered Ron for the role of Leonardo DiCaprio’s father. He could improvise exceptionally well, he was a master of comedy, he worked wonderfully with Leo and the rest of the cast, and he understood the complex nature of his character: The man adored his son, he was content with his success, but he knew that a downfall was inevitable.”

Scorsese reflected on a particularly “poignant” moment in the film where Ron’s character observes his son “hesitating” to step away from his company.

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“A devoted father, perplexed by his son. I was deeply affected by the subtlety and sincerity of his performance when we filmed it, moved once again as we assembled the scene in post-production and moved as I watched the completed picture,” Scorsese wrote. “Now, it pains me to even contemplate the tenderness of Ron’s performance in this and other scenes.”

Ron and his wife, Michele Reiner, were discovered deceased in their home on December 14. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner confirmed the couple died from “multiple injuries inflicted by sharp objects.” Their son, Nick, 32, has been arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with their deaths. His arraignment is scheduled for January 7.

“What occurred to Ron and Michele is an outrage, an unimaginable tragedy in real life,” Scorsese wrote on Thursday. “The only thing that will help me to accept it is the passage of time.”

He concluded, “So, like all of their loved ones and their friends — and these were people with many, many friends — I must allow myself to imagine them alive and well … and that one day, I’ll be at a dinner or a gathering and find myself sitting next to Ron, and I’ll hear his laugh and see his cheerful face and enjoy his stories and appreciate his innate comic talent, and feel fortunate all over again to have him as a friend.”