“I said, ‘Dad, has it ever been where there's been a father and a son both have films in the top 10 in one year?' I didn't ever remember it,” Rob tells PEOPLE. “And we looked it up – nobody could remember! So we took out an ad. We were both very proud of each other, to be able to be thought of in the same way.”

Hot off the success of This Is Spinal Tap, Rob achieved his dream of broadening his career as a filmmaker, going on to helm an array of now-classic films across a variety of genres, including When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, Misery and A Few Good Men. He also periodically returns to acting, including a recurring stint in the recently released fourth season of The Bear.

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Father and son stayed intertwined, personally and professionally, all the way down the line, Rob recalls, “right to the fact that we both have our stars on the Walk of Fame, and they're right near each other in the same area." Rob notes that it was the same case "with Groman's Chinese [Theatre], they put the footprints and the handprints in the cement, and they had a ceremony where the two of us did it together. That's always meant a lot to me.”