Ivan Reitman, as a producer and director, has created many of American cinema's most successful and best loved feature film comedies and has worked with Hollywood's acting elite. Reitman has produced such hits as the ground-breaking sensation "National Lampoon's Animal House", which introduced John Belushi to American fimgoers, and the family features Beethoven and Beethoven's 2nd. His directing credits include Meatballs, Stripes and Ghost Busters, films starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis; Dave, which starred Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver, Junior which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito and Emma Thompson. Reitman also produced the HBO telefilm "The Late Shift, " based on Bill Carter's non-fiction book about the late-night television wars which received seven Emmy nominations. Other recent producing endeavors include "Commandments, " starring Aidan Quinn and Courteney Cox, "Private Parts, " starring Howard Stern, as well as the animation/ live action film "Space Jam, " starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters. With "Twins, " Reitman created an entirely new comedic persona for action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and forged a personal and professional relationship that continued with "Kindergarten Cop" and "Junior". Acclaimed dramatic actors such as Robert Redford, Debra Winger, Sigourney Weaver and Emma Thompson have 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 "Animal House" and "Twins, " 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 and fled with his family to 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, " 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 currently heads The Montecito Picture Company, a film and television production company, with partner Tom Pollock. His television credits include the Emmy-nominated children's show "The Real Ghostbusters" and the Saturday morning animated series "Beethoven" for CBS. He is presently working on a new animated children's show "Mummies" and has several feature films in development and pre-production under his new deal with DreamWorks.
He directed the music video "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. Founder of the McMaster Film Board at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario Canada. Student films include: "Freak Film", and "Orientation" which was distributed in Canada by 20th Century Fox as a short opening for a Dustin Hoffman vehicle. Reitman was arrested with Dan Goldberg for producing a "Columbus of Sex" at McMaster in 1970. The film was based on the Victorian novel "My Secret Life". During the trial, the men who went on to form Northern Lights Entertainment, were offered $175,000 by MGM to make a feature to be called "Foxy Ladies". They were the first Canadians convicted under Canada's decency laws, despite widespread critical acclaim and support from the arts community. They were fined $300.00 and put on a year's probation. Father of Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman and Caroline Reitman. Worked on films in Canada with David Cronenberg. Likes to put his children: Caroline Reitman, Catherine Reitman and Jason Reitman in his movies. Graduated from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont. Canada, B.Mus 1969. In 1983, was nominated for two Broadway Tony Awards for "Merlin:" as Best Director (Musical) and as one of the co-producers of the Best Musical nominee. According to his audio commentary on Ghost Busters, the proton packs were much heavier than they looked, and some were heavier than others depending on what was demanded of certain scenes. None of the actors enjoyed wearing them, but according to Reitman, Harold Ramis complained the least (he would not say who complained the most). Slovakian-born, Canadian-raised Jewish film actor, producer, and director. His son, Jason Reitman (born in 1977) is also a film director. Was interested in directing Batman. Father-in-law of Michele Lee.