The mother of the 44-year-old man accused of killing her boyfriend, veteran film and TV actor James Handy, revealed Friday that her son had been struggling with serious mental health issues and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but had stopped taking his medication.
In an interview with TMZ, the mother of Michael Gledhill said he had become increasingly paranoid and had been prescribed medication for his condition after his July 2025 diagnosis. However, Wendy Gledhill recently learned her son had stopped taking his medication about a week before 81-year-old Handy, her longtime boyfriend, was found Wednesday morning in the front yard of a Los Angeles home, suffering from fatal stab wounds.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Michael Gledhill made a bizarre 911 phone call that alerted police to the Tarzana neighborhood home, which Wendy Gledhill shared with her son. In the call, Gledhill reportedly announced: “I am the son of man. I just killed the man of sin.”
For the Hollywood community, this news is likely to hit especially hard, given that two other beloved industry figures, Rob Reiner and his wife Michele, died under similar tragic circumstances. The “When Harry Met Sally” director and his wife were found fatally stabbed to death in their Brentwood home on Dec. 14. Their 32-year-old son Nick Reiner was arrested later that night and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
News accounts soon revealed that the once-aspiring screenwriter, who grew up in a privileged, loving Hollywood home, had been diagnosed in 2020 with schizoaffective disorder, a condition that involves the delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking associated with schizophrenia, as well as the mania and depression of bipolar disorder.
Nick Reiner had been living in a guest house on his parents’ Brentwood estate, and had reportedly been prescribed new medication that made him unstable. People close to the Reiner family told media outlets that Rob and Michele Reiner were devoted parents who tried for years to help their son overcome his mental health and substance abuse issues, including by paying for multiple stints in rehab facilities.
“They tried everything — giving him space, keeping him close — but his struggles (were) so deep,” an insider told People in December. “They were such lovely people and tried in every way to help their son.”
Wendy Gledhill spoke to TMZ and the California Post about her devastation, saying she loved Handy — and she loves her son. “I still can’t believe it,” Wendy Gledhill told the California Post as she stood outside her door. “I can’t believe my son did it. I’m just trying to …,” she added before stepping inside.
When Wendy Gledhill spoke to TMZ, she said her son and Handy, known for supporting roles in “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Logan” and “Jumanji,” didn’t always see “eye to eye.” But their relationship was cordial, she said.
Wendy Gledhill broke into tears as she expressed sorrow for Handy’s family. “They know I loved him so much,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry this happened. I’m still in shock. I still can’t comprehend it.”
Soon after the Reiners’ death, their tragedy came to represent a difficult reality for many parents of adult children who have series mental health disorders, according to Teresa Pasquini, a Bay Area advocate for parents and families affected by a loved one’s mental illness. In an interview in January with this news organization, Pasquini said these parents and other family members usually suffer tremendously as they try “to gain treatment before tragedy for their loved ones.”
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Many parents of troubled adults face myriad obstacles in getting help for their children, said Pasquini, who is a former nine-year member of the Contra Costa County Mental Health Commission and who has long worked for changes in the state’s conservatorship laws. Pasquini also has a son in his 40s, who was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder when he was a teenager, is unable to care for himself and currently lives in a facility that she said keeps him safe, sober and stable.
Pasquini, a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, spent years working through a “broken” mental health system in California that fails to build enough inpatient facilities or to provide adequate community-based treatment options. Parents also have had to navigate laws and policies, even under California’s three-year-old Care Court, that can be confusing and that have long made it difficult for them to compel their children into treatment once they turn 18 and are considered autonomous adults.
She said that mothers and fathers often are expected to wait until their children become “gravely disabled,” homeless or imprisoned before they can get medically necessary treatment.
“I belong to family groups where you have parents in their 70s or their 80s and they don’t know what to do,” Pasquini said, echoing the plight of the Reiners and perhaps of Wendy Gledhill.
“They’re not going to stop caring for their kids,” Pasquni said in January. “But then when something horrific happens, there is the finger pointing: ‘Why didn’t they do this and why didn’t they do that?’ Or the parents are vilified if they try to force their kids into treatment.”
Pasquini and other mental advocates point to one misunderstood aspect of a serious mental illness, which complicates ideas of patient autonomy and choice. When a person is mentally decompensating, they often have a condition called anosognosia, which doesn’t allow them to recognize their symptoms or to understand they are ill. They may then reject treatment and perceive offers of concern as a threat. Now that Pasquini’s son has clarity about his condition, he accepted that he needs to be housed in a facility and expressed gratitude that she was his conservator.
Given that the investigation into Handy’s death is just two days old, not much is not known about Gledhill’s mental health history. When officers responded to the 911 call, Gledhill flagged them down and told them he was the one they were looking for, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Gledhill was arrested and transported to Van Nuys Jail, where he was booked on suspicion of murder. His bail was set at $2 million.
In interviews with the California Post, neighbors described Gledhill as sometimes acting bizarre and paranoid.
“He looked really rugged … he looks like he doesn’t really change his clothes,” neighbor Joheina Quibol told The California Post. She also described a bizarre interaction her father once had with Gledhill when he allegedly came over and asked about cameras they had inside the home. Quibol described him as being “paranoid.”
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