Ivan Reitman died peacefully in his sleep in Montecito, California. The director was 75 years old, and the exact cause of death was not officially announced. The filmmaker’s family made a joint statement to the media: “Our family is mourning the unexpected loss of a husband, father and grandfather who taught us to always look for magic in life,” reported Jason Reitman’s son, Catherine Reitman and Caroline Reitman.
Ivan Reitman is dead. The director of “Ghostbusters” was 75 years old
“We are comforted by the thought that as a filmmaker he has brought laughter and happiness to countless viewers around the world. We want to mourn in private, but we hope that those who knew him through his films will always remember him” – we read further in
Ivan Reitman was born on October 27, 1946 in Komarno in the former Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia). His parents were Jews from Hungary: his mother, Klara Reitman, survived the concentration camp in Auschwitz, and his father was active in the resistance movement. The whole family moved to Canada when Ivan was four years old, fearing repression by the communists. The future director studied at Oakwood Collegiate in Toronto, he was a member of the Twintone Four music group. He completed a BA in Music from McMaster University.
He began his career in the film industry as a producer at the then new television station CITY-TV. It was also the first work of his friends and future business associate Dan Akroyd. He started out in the film industry as a producer of David Cronenberg’s “Thrills” and “Rage”. His first big success was the production of the comedy “Menażeria” in 1978, in which John Belushi, the most famous of “Saturday Night Live”, presented himself to the public for the first time.
He gained recognition as a director with Bill Murray’s “Meatballs”, which was released a year later. Then Reitman started his golden streak: he directed “The Charge”, “Ghostbusters” (the film earned 229 million dollars in the US alone), “Themis Eagles”, the comedy “Twins” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in the title roles, “Ghostbusters II” , “Kindergarten Cop” or “Junior” in which Schwarzenegger plays the pregnant scientist. Let us add that he also produced the movie “Space Match” with the participation of the basketball star Michael Jordan and the animated characters from “Looney Tunes”. Reitman also played an acting episode in “Ghostbusters” as Zuul and Slimer.
The director was adored for his rare ability to combine carefully prepared scripts with acting improvisation. It was also hard to underestimate his courage and defiance: before Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared in his comedies, he was most known to the public as Conan or Terminator. Reitman also produced the popular Beethoven family dog movies. The last film he directed was 2014’s “The Last Whistle” starring Kevin Costener.
Source: Gazeta
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