RIP Harold Ramis

[bayonetbrant]

Passed away today at age 69

http://wgntv.com/2014/02/24/chicago-actor-harold-ramis-dies-at-69/

Harold Ramis was one of Hollywood's most successful comedy filmmakers when he moved his family from Los Angeles back to the Chicago area in 1996. His career was still thriving, with "Groundhog Day" acquiring almost instant classic status upon its 1993 release and 1984's "Ghostbusters" ranking among the highest-grossing comedies of all time, but the writer-director wanted to return to the city where he'd launched his career as a Second City performer.


"There's a pride in what I do that other people share because I'm local, which in L.A. is meaningless; no one's local," Ramis said upon the launch of the first movie he directed after his move, the 1999 mobster-in-therapy comedy "Analyze This," another hit. "It's a good thing. I feel like I represent the city in a certain way."

Ramis, a longtime North Shore resident, died early Monday morning after a long illness, according to his wife, Erica Mann Ramis. He was 69.

Ramis' serious health struggles began in May 2010 after he underwent surgery for diverticulitis and suffered complications related to the autoimmune disease. Unable to walk, he spent four months that year at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., before continuing work at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

A year and a half later, Ramis had relearned to walk and was making good progress on his recovery when he suffered a relapse of the vasculitis, from which he never fully recovered, Ward said.

Ramis leaves behind a formidable body of work, with writing credits on such enduring comedies as "National Lampoon's Animal House" (which upon its 1978 release launched the film career of John Belushi, a former Second City castmate of Ramis'), "Stripes" (1981) and "Ghostbusters" (in which Ramis also co-starred) plus such directing efforts as "Caddyshack" (1980), "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983), "Groundhog Day" and "Analyze This."

Previously he was the first head writer (and a performer) on Second City's groundbreaking television series "Second City Television (SCTV)" (1976-79). More recently he directed episodes of NBC's "The Office."

"When I was 15, I interviewed Harold for my high school radio station, and he was the person that I wanted to be when I was growing up," said filmmaker Judd Apatow, who later would cast Ramis as Seth Rogen's father in "Knocked Up" and would produce Ramis' final movie, "Year One" (1999). "His work is the reason why so many of us got into comedy. We grew up on 'Second City TV' and 'Ghostbusters,' 'Vacation,' 'Animal House,' 'Stripes,' 'Meatballs' (which Ramis co-wrote); he literally made every single one of our favorite movies."

Ramis also left behind a reputation as a mensch, mentor and all-around good guy.

"He's the least changed by success of anyone I know in terms of sense of humor, of humility, sense of self," the late Second City founder Bernie Sahlins, who began working with Ramis there in 1969, said of him in 1999. "He's the same Harold he was 30 years ago. He's had enormous success relatively, but none of it has gone to his head in any way."

Laurel Ward, vice president of development at Ramis' Ocean Pictures production company, who worked with Ramis for 15 years, called him "the world's best mentor." She recalled that when she first began working for him as his assistant in Chicago, he had to go to California for a month, and he told her that although he didn't need an assistant out there, she should go anyway because it would be a good experience for her. He made sure her expenses were covered.

"He just did it for me," she said. "He loved teaching people. He loved helping people. He loved seeing people succeed."

The son of Ruth and Nathan Ramis, who owned Ace Food & Liquor Mart on the West Side before moving the store and family to Rogers Park, Ramis graduated from Senn High School and Washington University in St. Louis. For his first professional writing gig, he contributed freelance arts stories to the Chicago Daily News in the mid-1960s. He also wrote and edited Playboy magazine's "Party Jokes" before and during his Second City days.

When, after some time off, he returned to Second City in 1972 to act alongside a relative newcomer in the cast, Ramis said he came to a major realization.

"The moment I knew I wouldn't be any huge comedy star was when I got on stage with John Belushi for the first time," he said in a 1999 Tribune interview. "When I saw how far he was willing to go to get a laugh or to make a point on stage, the language he would use, how physical he was, throwing himself literally off the stage, taking big falls, strangling other actors, I thought: I'm never going to be this big. How could I ever get enough attention on a stage with guys like this?

"I stopped being the zany. I let John be the zany. I learned that my thing was lobbing in great lines here and there, which would score big and keep me there on the stage."

Ramis would become the calm center of storms brewed by fellow actors, playing the bushy-haired, low-key wisecracker to Bill Murray's troublemaker in "Stripes" and the most scientific-minded "Ghostbuster." Later roles included a sympathetic doctor in "As Good as It Gets" (1997) and the charming dad role in "Knocked Up" (2007), which Apatow said was almost all improvised.

much more at the link

[Martok]

Well shit.  :(  So much for the Ghostbusters sequel. 

RIP, Mr. Ramis.  You'll be missed. 

[eyebiter]

.

[Barthheart]

 :'(

[WallysWorld]

What a shock! Really liked him on SCTV and then he wrote Caddyshack and directed it.

It's a downer of a day with news like this. RIP.

[Greybriar]

In this day and age, 69 is too young to die. Rest in peace, Harold. You will be missed.

[Centurion40]

Very sad.  Not to mention shocking.

[Centurion40]

Well shit.  :(  So much for the Ghostbusters sequel. 

RIP, Mr. Ramis.  You'll be missed.

Well, they could always have the CGI ghost of Egon helping out Seth Rogan or whoever they ultimately cast as new ghostbusters.

[Centurion40]

In this day and age, 69 is too young to die. Rest in peace, Harold. You will be missed.

Well said.  :'(

[Gusington]

Crap...terrible. RIP

[mirth]

Goddamn. This day was shitty enough already. RIP Egon.

[bayonetbrant]

[Staggerwing]

Very sad. He was one o' the Good Ones. Also, now he and Bill Murray will never get to work out their differences. That's gotta weigh heavy.  :(

[Toonces]

Damn, that sucks man.   :(

[mirth]

Fuck. The more I read about him and think about his passing, the more depressed I become. He was a huge talent and by all accounts a great human being.

This is a re-review of Groundhog Day from Roger Ebert, done in 2005:

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-groundhog-day-1993

As much as I love Bill Murray, and I love him greatly, the genius of that movie is in the deft skill of Harold Ramis as a screenwriter and director.