Ivan Reitman

Born: 27th October 1946
Where: Komarno, Czechoslovakia

Ivan had quite an impact on filmmaking trends of the late 1970s and 80s. What George Lucas and Steven Spielberg did for fantasy adventure, Ivan did for comedy.

Ivan fled with his family to Canada at the age of four, and later attended Canada's McMaster University, where he majored in music and produced and directed several television shorts.

He began his career as a stage and TV producer, with a live variety show, Greed, starring Dan Aykroyd.

Ivan turned out his first feature film, Foxy Lady, in 1971, and followed by producing Spellbound for the stage, which evolved into the Broadway hit The Magic Show.

He returned to Broadway to produce and direct the musical Merlin, earning a Tony nomination for his efforts.

John Belushi appeared with Ivan as producer in National Lampoon's Animal House. The film marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between Ivan and Harold, who scripted the comedy.

Ivan also tried to soften the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger by directing him in Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Junior.

Ghostbusters quickly became part of 80s popular culture, yielding a hit single, tons of merchandise, and a long-running cartoon series (on which Ivan served as executive consultant). All this success bought about the inevitable sequel, Ghostbusters II, which Ivan also directed.

After a three-year break Ivan returned to directing with Dave, and in 1998, he entered into a five-year partnership with Thomas Pollock and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment to form a production company called The Montecito Picture Company.