“Ghostbusters” producer Evan Reitman, the filmmaker behind a line of films that took baby boomers out of fringe comedy clubs and cast them into blockbuster movies with a surreal vision of adult life, has passed away.
He was 75 years old.
A representative of Evan Reitman’s son, writer, producer and director Jason Reitman, cited a statement that NBC released the younger Reitman and his sisters to the Associated Press.
“Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father, and grandfather who taught us to always strive for the magic in life,” Jason Reitman, Katherine Reitman and Caroline Reitman said in a joint statement. “We are relieved that his work as a director has brought countless others around the world laughter and happiness. As we mourn in private, we hope that those who knew him through his films will always remember him.”
The family told The Associated Press that he passed away peacefully in his sleep Saturday night at his home in Montecito, California.
Reitman first achieved widespread success with his production of “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” a film about eccentric college behaviors in the 1960s that somehow occupied the talent of the late John Belushi.
His films were among the first films that brought The new comic fantasy of counterculture and “Saturday Night Live” on the big screen. Evan Reitman receives his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on May 5, 1997.Ron Galella/Getty Images
Reitman developed a love for show business and comedy Amidst the fertile land of 1970s TorontoSNL creator Lorne Michaels, influential comedy group Second City, and ghostwriter Dan Aykroyd.
He said in an interview published on the website Canadian business in 2006.
“People like John Belushi and Bill Murray in their first films were with me,” he told the Toronto-based newspaper, which started as a newsletter for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
He directed Murray in his movie “Meatballs” and then again in “Stripes”. The two would again work on another song, 1984’s “Ghostbusters.”
The supernatural comedy starring Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Rick Moranis. It has grossed nearly $300 million worldwide, garnered two Academy Award nominations, and spawned a franchise.
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” directed by producer son Jason Reitman, opened in theaters last year.
Evan Reitman has been recorded as a producer in several films directed by his son, as well as “Beethoven”, “Old School” and “EuroTrip”.
Among the films he directed are: “Twins”, “Kindergarten”, “Dave”, “Junior” and “Six Days and Seven Nights”. Evan Reitman on the set of “Animal House” in Studio City, California on November 2, 1979. Paul Harris profile/Getty Images
for him IMDB The credits are working well into the future as a result of pre-production. In a 2006 interview he said he was proud of his most recent production at the time: “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”.
He said it wasn’t a huge financial success. “But I’m proud of it,” Reitman said. “I thought it was very effective.”
Ivan Reitman was born in Komarmo, Czechoslovakia in 1946, where his father owned the country’s largest vinegar factory. The Reitmanns survived the rise of communism when Ivan Reitmann was only four years old by traveling in the hold of a barge bound for Vienna.
Al Rettman eventually landed in Toronto, where Evan enjoyed summer camps and played cafés with a folk band. He made short films as a student at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
Evan Reitman was a resident of Santa Barbara County, California, with his wife of more than 40 years, former actor Genevieve Robert, and the mother of his three children.
In a 2020 interview with Montecito Magazine He said he moved to Beverly Hills in 1979, after the success of “Animal House,” but ended up in Santa Barbara County about 27 years ago after building a house there.
He co-owned the Montecito Picture Company with his partner Tom Bullock, the former president of Universal Pictures, who died in 2020.
In 2015, he said “today” He was proud to see “Ghostbusters” expand as a franchise for the new generations.
“My primary focus will be to build ‘ghost hunters’ into the universe I’ve always promised it might become,” he said. “The original movie is just as lovable as the actors are, and we hope to create movies we continue to love.”
Dennis Romero is the breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
News agency Contributed.
