Remembering influential filmmaker and McMaster graduate Ivan Reitman

Ivan Reitman, McMaster graduate and influential producer-director behind beloved comedies Ghostbusters and Animal House, has died. He was 75.

Reitman has been the creative force behind films beloved by audiences around the world. The career that has brought us so many laughs began in Canada, where his family emigrated from Czechoslovakia when he was four years old.  Reitman studied music at McMaster University, but soon turned his talents to film and theatre.

During his McMaster days, he produced a 1968 student film called Orientation, following a new student arriving on campus and finding their footing. It was also at McMaster that he forged creative partnerships and inspiration that would be part of his future box office hits.

In an interview with CTV News, comedian Eugene Levy, recalled how Reitman – his then-classmate – used his talents and business acumen to help other students get their start in the film industry.

The budding filmmaker would run all-night film festivals at Mac, said Levy, and the money charged for admission would be used to help fund student film projects.

“He took over the film club at McMaster […] and he turned it from a club that was making underground movies to a commercial entity — to a club that actually made money.”

Levy says Reitman gave him his first acting role on film, and said he doesn’t know if he would have made it in the entertainment industry if his friend hadn’t given him his start in the business.

“Ivan, even when we were at McMaster University, just had kind of a golden touch. We all knew he was destined to be a great producer and director. He was destined for great things. We knew that in school,” said Levy.

Watch: Eugene Levy speaks about his time at McMaster with Ivan Reitman in the late 1960s

Shortly after graduation, Reitman delved into film production – first with the low budget horror comedy Cannibal Girls, starring Levy and fellow McMaster graduate Andrea Martin, followed by the live television show Greed, with Dan Aykroyd as its announcer.

Reitman then headed to New York City and produced the Broadway hit The Magic Show, starring McMaster friend Doug Henning.  He continued producing for the stage with the Off-Broadway hit The National Lampoon Show, where he brought together for the first time the then unknown John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Joe Flaherty.

The play was eventually adapted to film in Reitman’s 1971 hit, National Lampoon’s Animal House– a major success that drew some inspiration from Reitman’s McMaster days.

“It was a real mix of all of our university experiences,” Reitman told the CBC in 2013. “[After Animal House] I called up my friends, Dan Goldberg and Len Blum, who had gone to McMaster with me as well here, and said, ‘Let’s do a summer camp movie, let’s shoot it this summer’. And that’s how Meatballs got born and made and my life as a director then continued.”

Reitman went on to direct Ghostbusters, which became the top–grossing comedy in motion picture history.

He was also the producer, director and co–writer of Legal Eagles in 1986, followed later by Twins, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito. More recently, Reitman produced family blockbusters from Beethoven to Space Jam.

Reitman’s success both producing and directing have been recognized through various accolades, including a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a Genie by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and an appointment to the Order of Canada.

For his contributions to the McMaster Film Board, Reitman was a 1969 recipient of the Honour M, the McMaster Student Union’s most prestigious award. He returned to campus in 2007 to attend the 75th anniversary celebration of the award where he was the master of ceremonies.

Reitman was also a member of the McMaster Alumni Gallery and received an honorary degree from the university in 2005, alongside fellow McMaster graduates Martin Short, Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas.