Ivan Reitman (1946-2022)
He gave us Bill Murray. If Ivan Reitman had done nothing more than that we would forever be indebted to him. Of course, he gave us much, much more. Reitman, a Canadian writer-director, who helped Murray transition from TV’s “Saturday Night Live” to become a movie star, died February 12 at age 75. Although he started his career producing horror movies, Reitman quickly established himself as a talented funny man, producing National Lampoon’s Animal House in 1978 and in quick succession directing Murray in Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), and the 1984 blockbuster Ghost-busters. Reitman also did the impossible, turning pumped-up action star Arnold Schwarzenegger into a funny sidekick of Danny DeVito in Twins (1988), a story of polar opposites who discover they’re fraternal twins. But it was Ghostbusters, which starred Murray, Dan Aykroyd,…