- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Ivanco
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Canadian producer and director Ivan Reitman created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), which introduced John Belushi to American filmgoers, and the family features Beethoven (1992) and Beethoven's 2nd (1993). His directing credits include Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), films starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis; Dave (1993), which starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, Junior (1994) which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Emma Thompson. Reitman also produced the HBO telefilm The Late Shift (1996), based on Bill Carter's non-fiction book about the late-night television wars which received seven Emmy nominations. Other producing endeavors include Commandments (1997), starring Aidan Quinn and Courteney Cox, Private Parts (1997), starring Howard Stern, as well as the animation/live action film Space Jam (1996), starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters. With Twins (1988), Reitman created an entirely new comedic persona for action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and forged a personal and professional relationship that continued with Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Junior (1994). Acclaimed dramatic actors such as Robert Redford, Debra Winger, Sigourney Weaver, and Emma Thompson also revealed untapped comic talents under Reitman's direction. In 1984, Reitman was honored as Director of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners and the next year received a Special Achievement Award at the Canadian Genie awards. In 1979 and again in 1989, for the films National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Twins (1988), Reitman was honored with the People's Choice Award. In November of 1994, Reitman became the third director honored by Variety magazine in a special Billion Dollar Director issue.
Reitman was born in Czechoslovakia, to Jewish Holocaust survivors, and left with his family for Canada at the age of four. He attended Canada's McMaster University, where he produced and directed several television shorts. He followed with a live television show, Greed: The Series (1999), with Dan Aykroyd as its announcer. "Spellbound," which Reitman produced for the live stage, evolved into the Broadway hit "The Magic Show," starring Doug Henning. He continued producing for the stage with the Off-Broadway hit "The National Lampoon Show," and returned to Broadway to produce and direct the musical "Merlin," earning a Tony nomination for directing. Reitman headed The Montecito Picture Company, a film and television production company, with partner Tom Pollock. His television credits included the Emmy-nominated children's show The Real Ghostbusters (1986) and the Saturday morning animated series Beethoven (1994) for CBS. His last directing credited was Draft Day (2014), before his death in February 2022 in Montecito, California.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Juliet Ward <jward@montecitopic.com>
- SpouseGeneviève Robert(September 12, 1976 - February 12, 2022) (his death, 3 children)
- Children
- ParentsLeslie ReitmanClara Reitman
- RelativesJosephine Reitman(Niece or Nephew)Josephine Reitman(Grandchild)
- Frequently worked with producer Joe Medjuck and screenwriters Len Blum & Daniel Goldberg
- Recurring themes of the 'common man' triumphing where professionals failed
- Frequently cast Bill Murray
- Sci-fi and slapstick humour
- Often cast Arnold Schwarzenegger
- His mother, Klara (Raab), was an inmate at Auschwitz and his father, Ladislav, later Leslie, Reitman, was an underground resistance fighter against the Nazis. His family was Jewish.
- He and Jason Reitman are one of only two father/son producing teams to be nominated for an Best Picture Oscar (for Up in the Air (2009) in 2010). The other is Mario Cecchi Gori and Vittorio Cecchi Gori for The Postman (1994).
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7020 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on May 5, 1997.
- He has produced two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant": National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) and Ghostbusters (1984). He has also directed one film that is in the registry: Ghostbusters.
- This is not my generation. I'm of the baby boom generation. We think we invented free love.
- [film-making advice to his son Jason] Your job is not to make things funny. Your job is to tell the truth on a daily basis.
- [on current comedy, 2013] The world has become more abrasive, possibly because of social media. But people said that about us. The sexuality seems to have lessened. There's more squeamishness about nudity and sex, but there's a lot more scatological interest today than there seemed to be thirty years ago. It's a weird shift.
- [on the comedy of Melissa McCarthy] She's certainly extraordinarily talented. She has a way of using her physicality. And there's something about her nimbleness in moving a fairly hefty body around that is humorous, has been for generations.
- [on John Belushi and National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)] What John brought was this wonderful energy based on the comedies he loved from the 50s - The Three Stooges and Abbott and Costello - that physicality of the great American early comedians, against this very brash and contemporary way of speaking that the script had. It made it very special.. But when I worked with him before the movie and SNL, he was Brando onstage. He was the guy you couldn't take your eyes off. One of the great tragedies is that with his addictions he lost control of all his talent.
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