Rob Reiner’s Hollywood inside circle unites onstage for tearful Oscars 2026 tribute to murdered director

The Academy Awards left viewers and audience members in tears when it paid tribute to the slain actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner on Sunday night.

Leading the emotional tribute, which preceded the 2026 Oscars’ In Memoriam segment, was Reiner’s longtime friend Billy Crystal.

Crystal, who starred in Reiner’s iconic romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, delivered a somber but loving speech about his friend.

At the conclusion of the segment, a bevy of A-list stars who had appeared in Reiner’s films over the years joined forces on stage and linked hands as they remembered their fallen pal.

The tribute comes in the wake of Reiner’s tragic death at 78.

The filmmaker and his wife Michele, 70, were murdered on December 14 at their home, allegedly at the hands of their 32-year-old son Nick Reiner.

Crystal looked back on his decades-long friendship with Reiner, which fittingly began when Crystal was cast as Reiner’s best friend on All In The Family in 1975.

Crystal recalled that the shoot ‘went so well’ that Reiner told him after it wrapped, ‘You know, it was fun playing your best friend. Why don’t we keep it going?’

‘It was a thrill to see him evolve from a great comic actor to a master storyteller,’ Crystal continued, before marveling that Reiner was able to direct a comedy classic like This Is Spinal Tap on his first try behind the camera.

‘You could stop right there!’ he said in amazement.  

Crystal went on to highlight Reiner’s sensitive coming-of-age drama Stand By Me, his fantasy classic The Princess Bride and the iconic rom-com When Harry Met Sally, which he starred in.

He was moved by one of Nora Ephron’s lines from her Oscar-nominated screenplay: ‘When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.’

But Crystal also joked about how Reiner followed up a string of crowd-pleasing comedies and dramas with the horror thriller Misery, in which Kathy Bates plays a deranged fan holding an injured author of tawdry romance novels (James Caan) hostage. 

Oscars host Conan O’Brien, 61, began by introducing the In Memoriam segment, after previously promising a ‘very powerful’ tribute to Reiner and his work. 

O’Brien holds the sad distinction of being one of the last people to see his friend Reiner alive, as the director and his wife had attended O’Brien’s Christmas party on December 13 with their son Nick in tow.

The party took place just hours before the Reiners were discovered dead in their home.

At the celebrity party, Rob reportedly got into a ‘very loud argument’ with Nick, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering his parents and is now awaiting trial in a jail cell in Los Angeles.

The Hollywood nepo baby had struggled with drug abuse going back to his teens and bouts of homelessness, though he appeared to have gotten back on course in the mid-2010s, when he collaborated with his father on the 2015 film Being Charlie.

Nick co-wrote the movie, a semi-autobiographical depiction of his struggles with opioid addiction and life on the streets, while Rob directed the film.

During the publicity campaign for Being Charlie, Nick admitted that he went to his first drug rehab program when he was only 14, and he said he had been to rehab 18 times before trying to regain his footing with a prestigious Hollywood job. 

He also admitted to being homeless at times, including when his parents refused to let him stay with them after he refused their offers to pay for a treatment program. 

On Wednesday, as Conan O’Brien helped to roll out the Oscars red carpet outside Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, he was asked how he planned to honor Reiner during the ceremony.

‘It’s hard to sum up in this environment and would sound kind of pithy and weird to sum up here,’ O’Brien told Extra. 

‘I don’t think it would be appropriate, but it’s going to be a very powerful part of the show,’ he added.

O’Brien, who previously spoke about the ‘awful killings,’ spoke to The Hollywood Reporter last week about his immense sadness at the loss of his friends and his feelings at being ‘dragged into’ the coverage of the tragedies. 

‘Very simply, we had a party, we invited our really good friends and then, the next day, this terrible thing happened,’ said O’Brien.

‘Whatever difficulties my wife and I have experienced having our name attached to it are nothing compared to the scale of the tragedy for the family and the loss of Rob and Michele. 

‘If you’re a known person, your name is going to get dragged into things sometimes, but it is not a hardship,’ he added. ‘There is only sadness that they’re gone.’

Prior to the Oscars tribute to Reiner, the Daily Mail reported that a furious fight had broken out behind the scenes over who would be on hand to honor the director.

A source revealed that the Academy was trying to get When Harry Met Sally stars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal to participate in the celebration of Reiner’s life, along with Stand By Me actors Jerry O’Connell and Wil Wheaton.

But one insider revealed that another Stand By Me star, Corey Feldman, was incensed about not being invited to participate. 

Feldman, 54, was said to be ‘devastated’ about his exclusion, which he considered a ‘slap in the face.’ 

The source said that Feldman ‘loved Rob and expected to be asked, especially since Jerry and Wil were asked.’

They added that Feldman would ‘love to be there, to honor Rob,’ even if he wasn’t part of the tribute.

The insider added that O’Connell and Wheaton had ‘reached out to the Academy’ for answers as to why Feldman had been excluded.

The Daily Mail reached out to Feldman, O’Connell, Wheaton and the Academy for comment.

In 2020, Feldman resigned from SAG-AFTRA’s Los Angeles Local Sexual Harassment Committee after SAG-AFTRA’s national board passed a resolution saying that it had received ‘numerous separate, detailed complaints from women who had been subject to or witness to sexual harassment, abuse and assault’ from Feldman.

Feldman denied the accusations and claimed they had been made by the same women two years before in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

The 98th Academy Awards are celebrating the best films of 2025, with the glitzy ceremony taking place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. 

Conan O’Brien, 62, is returning to host the show for a second consecutive year after taking over the role from Jimmy Kimmel. 

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners leads the pack with a record-breaking 16 nominations, the most for any film in Academy Awards history.

The horror flick is one of the ten films up for Best Picture alongside Bugonia, F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value and Train Dreams.

Sinners star Michael B. Jordan faces a stacked Best Actor category, competing against fellow nominees Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), and Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent).

Set in 1930s Mississippi, Sinners follows twin brothers (both played by Jordan) who return to their hometown only to face a supernatural evil. 

The Best Actor race is currently a dead heat. While Chalamet dominated the early season with wins at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, the momentum shifted after Jordan won at the Actor Awards, formerly known as the SAG Awards.

Adding to the tension, the ceremony arrives on the heels of Chalamet’s controversial comments about how ‘no one cares’ about ballet or opera, which sparked a wave of backlash from the arts community. 

Based on the life of professional ping-pong player Marty Reisman, Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme stars Chalamet as a table tennis prodigy in 1950s New York whose ambition to become world champion jeopardizes his personal relationships. 

Irish star Jessie Buckley is the frontrunner in the Best Actress category for her work in Hamnet. She faces a star-studded field including Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I would Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), and Emma Stone (Bugonia). 

Helmed by 2021’s Best Director winner Chloe Zhao, Hamnet dives into the reimagined story of William Shakespeare’s home life and how the death of his 11-year-old son provided the emotional blueprint for his masterpiece, Hamlet. 

Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another earned 13 nominations.

Along with a Best Director nod, the film also nabbed a Best Actor mention for DiCaprio, and Supporting Actor nods for Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn.

The black comedy action-thriller follows a washed-up ex-revolutionary (DiCaprio) who is forced to come out from hiding to rescue his daughter, after she is targeted by his former nemesis, a corrupt military officer (Penn). 

Aside from Penn and del Toro, the Best Supporting Actor category includes Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein), Delroy Lindo (Sinners) and Stellan Skarsgard (Sentimental Value). 

Paul Mescal (Hamnet), Adam Sandler (Jay Kelly), and Jesse Plemons (Bugonia) were the most notable snubs from the category. 

Frankenstein and Sentimental Value both earned nine nominations at this year’s ceremony. 

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a lavish reimagining of Mary Shelley’s classic, focusing on a heart-wrenching tale of a father’s rejection and a creature’s quest for love. 

Meanwhile, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value follows two sisters forced to reconcile with their estranged filmmaker father. 

Nominees for Best Supporting Actress include Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value), Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value), Amy Madigan (Weapons), Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners) and Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another).

There was a massive backlash after Ariana Grande was snubbed in the Supporting category for Wicked: For Good. 

She had been nominated last year for her work in the first film of the musical franchise.

Wicked: For Good was completely shut out of nominations. This came despite an acclaimed leading performance by Cynthia Erivo, as well as new songs written for the film, including No Place Like Home and The Girl In The Bubble.

Gwyneth Paltrow was also left off the list in the category for her work in Marty Supreme. 

There was a new award announced this year for Best Casting as the inaugural field includes: Nina Gold – Hamnet, Jennifer Venditti – Marty Supreme, Cassandra Kulukundis – One Battle After Another, Gabriel Domingues – The Secret Agent, and Francine Maisler – Sinners.

The ceremony kicks off at 7pm ET/ 4pm PT, airing live on ABC and streaming live on Hulu. It will also be streaming via Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV and FuboTV.