by Conan Simmons – February 14, 2022 – 7:19 pm
The director of highly popular horror comedy ‘Ghostbusters’, Ivan Reitman, passed away over the weekend at his home in Montecito, California. No cause of death has been given at this time, but it is said he passed peacefully in his sleep the night of February 12. He was 76 years old.
Born in Komárno, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) in 1946, Ivan Reitman was raised in Canada where he attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Making his first directorial effort with the 1968 short film ‘Orientation’ he landed in legal trouble the following year for producing the X-rated feature ‘The Columbus of Sex’, directed by underground filmmaker John Hofsess and based on the 1888 porno-memoir My Secret Life by “Walter”. As it was still the early days of wide acceptance of sex and nudity in movies the charges against Reitman were for publishing obscene material and he, along with fellow producer Dan Goldberg, were sentenced to one year probation and a $300 dollar fine. (For an excellent written account of the making of ‘The Columbus of Sex’ and its subsequent legal troubles check out this link to the Free Library.)
Ivan Reitman made his feature directorial debut in 1971 with the comedy ‘Foxy Lady’ featuring the screen debuts for Canadian comedians Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin. The trio reunited two years later for “the picture with the warning bell”, the horror-comedy ‘Cannibal Girls’.
Though best known as a director, Ivan Reitman was more prolific as a producer. During the 1970’s, Reitman produced two early films by Canadian horror auteur David Cronenberg, 1975’s ‘Shivers’ and 1977’s ‘Rabid’, the latter starring famed porno-actress Marylin Chambers. Other horror-sploitation films Reitman produced were the 1976 Don Stroud starrer ‘The House by the Lake’, a revenge tale clearly inspired by Wes Craven’s 1972 flick ‘Last House on the Left’, and in 1977 the final film in the sexually sadistic grindhouse Ilsa series ‘Ilsa the Tigress of Siberia’ starring Dyanne Thorne.
In 1979, Ivan Reitman took the helm behind the camera to direct his first big commercial hit, ‘Meatballs’, a highly popular comedy starring Bill Murray. The duo teamed up again, this time with Harold Ramis, for the Cold War comedy ‘Stripes’ in 1981. Both films were such hits that Hollywood took a chance by providing Reitman with a large budget to produce and direct the 1984 classic, ‘Ghostbusters’.
While Reitman’s directing career was beginning to boom his producing career likewise held full steam. In 1978, Reitman produced the frat-house classic comedy, ‘National Lampoon’s Animal House’, which propelled comedian John Belushi from the small screen of not-ready-for-primetime ‘Saturday Night Live’ to the big screen. Reitman followed up that hit by executive producing the television spin-off series ‘Delta House’.
Live action wasn’t the only films Ivan Reitman had interest in, in 1981 he produced the sci-fi cult favorite ‘Heavy Metal’ adapted from the popular comic magazine and featuring the voices of John Candy and Harold Ramis.
After the success of ‘Ghostbusters’ Ivan Reitman was in the big leagues of Hollywood where he would direct big stars like Robert Redford in the 1986 romantic-comedy ‘Legal Eagles’ and Arnold Schwarzenegger in both 1988’s ‘Twins’, with Danny DeVito, and 1990’s ‘Kindergarten Cop’.
As movies aimed at children began making big money in the 1990’s Ivan Reitman steered toward the family genre by producing the hit animal film series ‘Beethoven’, featuring a large St. Bernard dog. And, in 1996, Ivan Reitman produced the box office animated hit ‘Space Jam’, starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny.
Being a prolific producer Ivan Reitman didn’t settle for making films in just one genre. As the more family friendly entertainment was raking in big bucks, Reitman also made movies for more mature audiences producing the 1997 biopic of popular radio shock-jock Howard Stern, ‘Private Parts’.
Ivan Reitman dabbled with other genre blends as a director, helming Harrison Ford and Anne Heche in the action-adventure romance ‘Six Days Seven Nights’ in 1998, directing ‘X-Files’ star David Duchovny in the 2001 sci-fi comedy ‘Evolution’, and twisting a superhero satire into a romantic-comedy in 2006 with ‘My Super Ex-Girlfriend’, starring Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson.
Among the last films Ivan Reitman directed were the 2011 romantic-comedy ‘No Strings Attached’, starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, and Reitman’s final directorial effort the 2014 sports drama ‘Draft Day’, starring Kevin Costner and Chadwick Boseman.
Ivan Reitman also produced his son’s, Jason Reitman, directorial film ‘Up in the Air’ starring George Clooney in 2009.
Reitman’s later producing efforts include the 2009 rom-com ‘Post Grad’, starring Alexis Bledel, Michael Keaton and Carol Burnett, as well as the 2012 biopic of one of cinema’s greatest directors, ‘Hitchcock’, starring Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock.
Ivan Reitman will likely be best remembered for his work on the ‘Ghostbusters’ franchise, where he also directed the 1989 sequel and executive produced the animated series ‘The Real Ghostbusters’ from 1986 to 1991. He also produced the 2016 ‘Ghostbusters’, starring Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kristen Wiig. Ivan Reitman’s final production was last year’s hit ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’, starring Mckenna Grace and Paul Rudd and directed by Jason Reitman.