The multitalented Rob Reiner is on everyone’s mind today after the appalling announcement that he and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead yesterday in an apparent double homicide.

As favorite films flash through all our minds — This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Stand by Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally (1989), Misery (1990) — it can’t help but remind us that as a director, Reiner came flying right out of the gate with a hot streak of ultra-popular moviemaking that’s rarely been seen since. All the films listed above plus The Sure Thing (1985) and A Few Good Men (1992) constituted Reiner’s first seven movies.

His first real flop was the eighth, the notorious North (1994) starring a young Elijah Wood and Bruce Willis. Though there were bright spots and successes with such projects as The American President (1995) and The Bucket List (2007), the mid-1990s began a striking downturn for Reiner with movies that largely failed to connect with audiences, including Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), The Story of Us (1999), Alex & Emma (2003), Rumor Has It (2005), The Magic of Belle Isle (2012), LBJ (2016), and Shock and Awe (2017). Critics frequently professed bafflement that director Reiner’s golden touch, especially with comedy, seemed to have deserted him.