Ivan Reitman

Ivan Reitman
Reitman at the Avalon Hotel on March 9, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California
Born	October 27, 1946 (1946-10-27) Komárno, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia)
Occupation	Film director Film producer
Years active	1968–present
Spouse	Geneviève Robert

Ivan Reitman, OC (born October 27, 1946) is a Canadian film producer and director. He is known for the comedies he has directed and produced, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.

He is the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 2000.

Early life

Reitman was born in Komárno, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), the son of Clara and Leslie Reitman. Reitman's parents were Jewish; his mother survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and his father was an underground resistance fighter. His family came to Canada as refugees in 1950. Reitman attended Oakwood Collegiate in Toronto and was a member of the Twintone Four singing group.^{[citation needed]} He is the father of film director Jason Reitman.

Career

Reitman's first producing job was with the then-new station CITY-TV in Toronto. CITY was also the home of the first announcing job of his later friend and collaborator Dan Aykroyd. However, Reitman's tenure at CITY was short and he was fired during his first year by station owner Moses Znaimer.^{[citation needed]}

Spellbound (1972), directed by Ivan Reitman, with music by Howard Shore, magic by Doug Henning and co-starring actress Jennifer Dale, a musical that combined an intense storyline and Henning's magic tricks. The show opened in Toronto and broke box office ticket records in that city.

Reitman worked on a number of films after graduating from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He produced two films for director David Cronenberg, Shivers/They Came from Within/The Parasite Murders (1974) and Rabid (1976). His big break came when he produced National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 and directed Meatballs in 1979. From there, he directed and produced a number of comedies including Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Legal Eagles (1986), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Dave (1993), Junior (1994), Six Days Seven Nights (1998), Evolution (2001), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), and No Strings Attached (2011).

In the early 1990s, Reitman began to direct fewer films, but increased his role as a producer and executive producer. He helped to produce the animated film Heavy Metal (1981), as well as the live-action films Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983), Beethoven (1992), Beethoven's 2nd (1993), Space Jam (1996), Private Parts (1997), Road Trip (2000), Old School (2003) EuroTrip (2004) and Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006).

Reitman is a founder of the McMaster Film Board at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.^{[citation needed]} In 2007, Reitman was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Reitman founded The Montecito Picture Company, a film production company located just south of Santa Barbara, founded in 2000.^{[citation needed]}

He next produced the comedy I Love You, Man (2009), starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Also in 2009, he produced the Academy Award-nominated film, Up in the Air, directed by his son Jason Reitman. Later, Reitman had planned to direct the erotic thriller Chloe (2009), but he couldn't attract the cast he wanted; so Reitman decided to only serve as a producer and ask Atom Egoyan to direct the film. Chloe had since enjoyed commercial success and became Egoyan's biggest moneymaker ever.

New York magazine, citing no sources, claimed in March 2007 that Sony Pictures Entertainment wanted to replace Reitman on Ghostbusters III with a younger director, but that Reitman's original contract precluded this. In early 2010, Reitman confirmed he will be directing the film. He was also the producer of Howard Stern's film Private Parts.

Recurring cast members

Actor	Meatballs (1979)	Stripes (1981)	Ghostbusters (1984)	Twins (1988)	Ghostbusters II (1989)	Kindergarten Cop (1990)	Dave (1993)	Junior (1994)	Evolution (2001)	No Strings Attached (2011)
Bill Murray	N	N	N		N
Arnold Schwarzenegger				N		N	N1	N
Harold Ramis		N	N		N
Ernie Hudson			N		N
Dan Aykroyd			N		N				N
Kevin Kline							N			N
Sigourney Weaver			N		N		N
Danny DeVito				N				N
Frank Langella							N	N
Rick Moranis			N		N
Pamela Reed						N		N

¹ Schwarzenegger's appearance is a cameo as himself when he was chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Filmography

Directing

Year	Film	Notes
1971	Foxy Lady	Also Producer
1973	Cannibal Girls	Also Writer/Executive Producer
1979	Meatballs	Golden Reel
1981	Stripes	Also Producer
1984	Ghostbusters	Also Producer
1986	Legal Eagles	Also Writer/Producer
1988	Twins	Also Producer
1989	Ghostbusters II	Also Producer
1990	Kindergarten Cop	Also Producer
1993	Dave	Also Producer
1994	Junior	Also Producer
1997	Fathers' Day	Also Producer
1998	Six Days Seven Nights	Also Producer
2001	Evolution	Also Producer
2006	My Super Ex-Girlfriend
2011	No Strings Attached	Also Producer

Personal life

Reitman has been married to Geneviève Robert for over 30 years. Reitman has a son and two daughters. His son, Jason Reitman, is a film director best known for his films Juno, Thank You for Smoking and Up in the Air for which he won a Golden Globe for his screenplay. His daughter Catherine Reitman is a member of The Groundlings comedy troupe in Los Angeles. His other daughter, Caroline Reitman, is a sophomore at Santa Barbara City College.

In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions as a director and producer, and for his promotion of the Canadian film and television industries".

In April 2011 he received the Mayor's Prize at his native city of Komárno, Slovakia.

External links

• Ivan Reitman at the Internet Movie Database