Director and producer Ivan Reitman has died aged 75.
The man behind hit films like Ghostbusters and Space Jam passed away in his sleep at home in California. In a statement to the Associated Press, his family said: “While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through his films will remember him always”.
Reitman was known for producing revered Hollywood comedies like National Lampoon’s Animal House, which laid the groundwork for countless raunchy college comedies. He also directed and produced Twins, proving that action star Arnold Schwarzenegger had a funny bone and setting him up for decades of tongue-in-cheek roles. His smash-hit Ghostbusters in particular had an immeasurable impact on popular culture, influencing a generation of filmmakers and spawning decades of spinoffs and merchandise.
Ghostbusters star Ernie Hudson was one of the many paying tribute on Twitter, saying that he was “a great man and filmmaker who I had [the] honor and privilege of knowing and working with”. Producer Judd Apatow, comedian Marc Maron and actress Mindy Kaling were also among the many paying their respects.
Born in Czechoslovakia in 1946, during World War Two Reitman’s mother was imprisoned in Auschwitz and his father fought in the Czechoslovakian resistance. They fled to Canada when he was just four years old to escape communist persecution, staying with a relative in Toronto. He studied at McMaster University in Ontario, where, despite ultimately forging a career in film, he majored in music and philosophy.
After producing and directing a number of low-budget shorts and horrors, his first hit, National Lampoon’s Animal House, gave him the momentum to make it big in Hollywood. In the following decades he would work with names like Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, Natalie Portman and John Candy.
There are eight currently unreleased projects Ivan is credited as producing, including a sequel to Twins and a Ghostbusters animated series. The last finished project Reitman produced before his passing was Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which was co-written and directed by his son Jason.
Words by Jamie Davies
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