Harold Ramis | |
|---|---|
 Ramis in 2009 | |
| Born | Harold Allen Ramis (1944-11-21)November 21, 1944 |
| Died | February 24, 2014(2014-02-24) (aged 69) Glencoe, Illinois, U.S. |
| Resting place | Shalom Memorial Park,Arlington Heights, Illinois, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Washington University in St. Louis |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1968–2014 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
Harold Allen Ramis (/ˈreɪmɪs/RAY-miss; November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. His film acting roles includeEgon Spengler inGhostbusters (1984) andGhostbusters II (1989), and as Russell Ziskey inStripes (1981); he also co-wrote those films. As a director, his films include thecomediesCaddyshack (1980),National Lampoon's Vacation (1983),Groundhog Day (1993),Analyze This (1999) andAnalyze That (2002). Ramis was the original head writer of the television seriesSCTV, on which he also performed, as well as a co-writer ofGroundhog Day andNational Lampoon's Animal House (1978). The final film that he wrote, produced, directed, and acted in wasYear One (2009).
Ramis's films influenced subsequent generations of comedians, comedy writers and actors.[1] Filmmakers and actors includingJay Roach,Jake Kasdan,Adam Sandler,Judd Apatow, andPeter and Bobby Farrelly have listed his films among their favorites.[1] Along withDanny Rubin, he won theBAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay forGroundhog Day.[2]
Ramis was born on November 21, 1944, inChicago,Illinois,[3] the son of Ruth (née Cokee) (1919–2001) and Nathan Ramis (1915–2009), who owned the Ace Food & Liquor Mart on the city's West Side.[1] Ramis had aJewish upbringing.[4][5][6][7] In his adult life, he did not practice any religion.[8][9] He graduated from Stephen K. Hayt Elementary School in June 1958 andNicholas Senn High School in 1962, both Chicago public schools,[10] and in 1966 fromWashington University inSt. Louis, Missouri,[1][11] where he was a member of the Alpha Xi chapter ofZeta Beta Tau fraternity.[12]
Afterward, Ramis worked in a mental institution in St. Louis for seven months. He later said of his time working there that it:
…prepared me well for when I went out to Hollywood to work with actors. People laugh when I say that, but it was actually very good training. And not just with actors; it was good training for just living in the world. It's knowing how to deal with people who might be reacting in a way that's connected to anxiety or grief or fear or rage. As a director, you're dealing with that constantly with actors. But if I were a businessman, I'd probably be applying those same principles to that line of work.[11]
Ramis began writingparodic plays in college, saying years later, "In my heart, I felt I was a combination ofGroucho andHarpo Marx, of Groucho using his wit as a weapon against the upper classes, and of Harpo's antic charm and the fact that he was oddly sexy—he grabs women, pulls their skirts off, and gets away with it."[1] He avoided theVietnam Warmilitary draft by takingmethamphetamine to fail his draft physical.[13]
Following his work in St. Louis, Ramis returned to Chicago, where by 1968, he was a substitute teacher at schools serving the inner-cityRobert Taylor Homes public housing development.[14] He also became associated with theguerrilla television collectiveTVTV, headed by his college friendMichael Shamberg, and wrote freelance for theChicago Daily News. "Michael Shamberg, right out of college, had started freelancing for newspapers and got on as a stringer for a local paper, and I thought, 'Well, if Michael can do that, I can do that.' I wrote a spec piece and submitted it to theChicago Daily News, the Arts & Leisure section, and they started giving me assignments [for] entertainment features."[15] Additionally, Ramis had begun studying and performing with Chicago'sSecond Cityimprovisational comedy troupe.[16]
Ramis's newspaper writing led to him becoming joke editor atPlayboy magazine.[11] "I called…just cold and said I had written several pieces freelance and did they have any openings. And they happened to have their entry-level job, party jokes editor, open. He liked my stuff and he gave me a stack of jokes that readers had sent in and asked me to rewrite them. I had been in Second City in the workshops already and Michael Shamberg and I had written comedy shows in college."[15] Ramis was eventually promoted to associate editor.[17]
After leaving Second City for a time and returning in 1972, having been replaced in the main cast byJohn Belushi, Ramis worked his way back as Belushi's deadpan foil. In 1974, Belushi brought Ramis and other Second City performers, including Ramis's frequent future collaboratorBill Murray, to New York City to work onThe National Lampoon Radio Hour.[1]
During this time, Ramis, Belushi, Murray,Joe Flaherty,Christopher Guest, andGilda Radner starred in the revueThe National Lampoon Show, the successor toNational Lampoon's Lemmings.[18] Later, Ramis became a performer on, and head writer of, the Canadian sketch-comedy television seriesSCTV during its first three years (1976–1979).[19] At this juncture, SCTV was seen mainly in Canada, and also via syndication in scattered markets in the US. He was soon offered work as a writer atSaturday Night Live but chose to continue withSCTV.[17] Characterizations by Ramis onSCTV include weaselly, corrupt and constantly sweatingDialing for Dollars host/SCTV station manager Maurice "Moe" Green, outwardly amiable (but thoroughly fascist) cop Officer Friendly, exercise guru Swami Bananananda (whose real name was Dennis Peterson), stern board chairman Allan "Crazy Legs" Hirschman and home dentist Mort Finkel. His celebrity impressions onSCTV includedKenneth Clark andLeonard Nimoy.
In 1984, Ramis executive produced a music/comedy/variety television show calledThe Top. The producer was Paul Flaherty and the director wasDavid Jove. Ramis got involved after the mysterious death of his friendPeter Ivers, who had hosted Jove's underground showNew Wave Theatre. He called Jove and offered to help. Flaherty and Jove pitched him the idea forThe Top, and Ramis was instrumental in getting it on the air.
The show was a mixture of live music, videos, and humor. Performers on the show includedCyndi Lauper, who performed "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "True Colors";the Hollies, who performed "Stop in the Name of Love"; andthe Romantics, who performed their two hits at the time, "Talking in Your Sleep" and "What I Like About You".
Guest stars includedRodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, andDan Aykroyd. Ramis gotBill Murray to host but, becauseGhostbusters filming ran late, he did not make it to the taping. Chase came out dressed as a "punk" of the time and somehow got into a physical altercation with an audience member (also a punk) during the opening monologue. He immediately left the taping. Flaherty and Jove carried on with the show.
Ramis then gotAndy Kaufman to fill in for Chase and recorded the host segments at a separate, later, session; it would be Kaufman's final professional appearance.
The Top aired on Friday, January 27, 1984, at 7 p.m. It scored a 7.7% rating and a 14% share. This represented a 28% rating increase and a 27% share increase over KTLA's regularly scheduledHappy Days/Laverne and Shirley.
Ramis leftSCTV to pursue a film career and wrote a script withNational Lampoon magazine'sDouglas Kenney, which eventually becameNational Lampoon's Animal House. They were later joined by a third collaborator,Chris Miller. The 1978 film followed the struggle between a rowdycollege fraternity house and thecollege dean. The film's humor was raunchy for its time.Animal House "broke all box-office records for comedies" and earned $141 million.[1]
He also had a voice part as Zeke in the "So Beautiful & So Dangerous" segment ofHeavy Metal in 1981.
Ramis next co-wrote the comedyMeatballs, starringBill Murray. The movie was a commercial success and became the first of six film collaborations between Murray and Ramis.[1] His third film and his directorial debut wasCaddyshack, which he wrote with Kenney andBrian Doyle-Murray. It starredChevy Chase,Rodney Dangerfield,Ted Knight, and Bill Murray. Like Ramis's previous two films,Caddyshack was a commercial success.
In 1982, Ramis was attached to direct the film adaptation of thePulitzer Prize-winning bookA Confederacy of Dunces byJohn Kennedy Toole. The film was to starJohn Belushi andRichard Pryor, but the project was abandoned.[20] In 1984, Ramis collaborated withDan Aykroyd on the screenplay forGhostbusters, which became one of the biggest comedy hits of all time, in which he also starred as Dr. Egon Spengler.[21] He reprised the role for the 1989 sequel,Ghostbusters II (which he also co-wrote with Aykroyd). His later filmGroundhog Day has been called his "masterpiece".[1]
His films have been noted for attacking "the smugness of institutional life…with an impish good [will] that is unmistakably American." They are also noted for "Ramis's signature tongue-in-cheek pep talks." Sloppiness and improv were also important aspects of his work. Ramis frequently depicted the qualities of "anger, curiosity, laziness, and woolly idealism" in "a hyper-articulate voice".[1]
Ramis also occasionally acted in supporting roles in acclaimed films that he did not write or direct, such asJames L. Brooks'sAcademy Award-winningAs Good as It Gets (1997) andJudd Apatow's hit comedyKnocked Up (2007).[22]
In 2004, Ramis turned down the opportunity to direct theBernie Mac-Ashton Kutcher filmGuess Who, then under the working title "The Dinner Party", because he considered it poorly written. That same year, he began filming the low-budgetThe Ice Harvest, "his first attempt to make a comic film noir." Ramis spent six weeks trying to get the filmgreenlit because he had difficulty reaching an agreement about starsJohn Cusack's andBilly Bob Thornton's salaries. The film received mixed reviews. In 2004, Ramis's typical directing fee was $5 million.[1]
In an interview in the documentaryAmerican Storytellers, Ramis said he hoped to make a film aboutEmma Goldman (even pitching Disney with the idea of having Bette Midler star)[23] but that none of the film studios were interested and that it would have been difficult to raise the funding.
Ramis said in 2009 that he planned to make a thirdGhostbusters film for release either in mid-2011[24] or for Christmas 2012.[25] A reboot to the franchise, also calledGhostbusters, was eventually made and released in 2016, directed and co-written byPaul Feig. In this film, a bronze bust of Ramis can be seen when Erin Gilbert leaves her office atColumbia University. Later, the second sequel to the original film,Ghostbusters: Afterlife, was released in 2021 and posthumously dedicated to him.
Ramis was married twice and had four children. On July 2, 1967,[3] he married San Francisco artist Anne Plotkin, with whom he had a daughter, Violet Ramis Stiel.[1][26] Actor andGhostbusters co-starBill Murray is Violet's godfather.[1] Ramis and Plotkin separated in 1984 and later divorced.[1]
Ramis's daughter Mollie Israel (known professionally as Mollie Heckerling) was born in 1985 to him and directorAmy Heckerling, while Heckerling was married to actor-directorNeal Israel.[27]
In 1989, Ramis married Erica Mann, daughter of directorDaniel Mann and actress Mary Kathleen Williams.[28] Together they had two sons, Julian Arthur and Daniel Hayes in 1990 and 1994.[3]
Although Ramis maintainedhumanist beliefs, Erica'sBuddhist upbringing greatly influenced his philosophies for the rest of his life, and he became friends with theDalai Lama.
Ramis was aChicago Cubs fan, and when he moved back from Los Angeles to Chicago in the late 1990s, he would attend games atWrigley Field, sometimes taking part of theseventh-inning stretch of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".[29][30] His pastimes included fencing, ritual drumming, acoustic guitar, and making hats from felted fleece; additionally, he taught himself to ski by watching skiers on television.[1]
In May 2010, Ramis contracted an infection that resulted in complications fromautoimmuneinflammatoryvasculitis and lost the ability to walk. After relearning to walk he suffered a relapse of the disease in late 2011.[31]
He died of complications of the disease on February 24, 2014, at his home on Chicago'sNorth Shore, at age 69.[31] A private funeral was held for him two days later with family, friends, and several collaborators in attendance, includingDan Aykroyd,Chevy Chase,Eugene Levy,Dave Thomas,David Pasquesi,Andrew Alexander, and the widows ofJohn Belushi andBernard Sahlins. He is buried at Shalom Memorial Park inArlington Heights.[32]
Upon Ramis's death, then-PresidentBarack Obama released a statement, saying, "When we watched his movies—fromAnimal House andCaddyshack toGhostbusters andGroundhog Day—we didn't just laugh until it hurt. We questioned authority. We identified with the outsider. We rooted for the underdog. And through it all, we never lost our faith in happy endings."[33] He ended his statement by saying he hoped Ramis "received total consciousness", in reference to a line fromCaddyshack.[34]
Ramis and longtime collaboratorBill Murray had a falling out during the filming ofGroundhog Day, which Ramis attributed to problems that Murray had in his own life at the time, plus creative differences between the two about the overall direction and mood of the film. Afterwards, they did not speak for more than 20 years, nor did they ever collaborate in any films. Shortly before Ramis's death, Murray, encouraged by his brotherBrian Doyle-Murray, visited him to make amends with a box of doughnuts and a police escort, according to Ramis's daughter Violet. At that point, Ramis had lost most of his ability to speak, so Murray did most of the talking over several hours, as the two finally made peace.[35] Murray gave a tribute to Ramis at the86th Academy Awards.[36]
Stephen Colbert paid tribute to Ramis on an episode of his showThe Colbert Report. Colbert said that "as a young, bookish man with glasses looking for a role model, I might have picked Harold Ramis." He ended the show by thanking him.[37]
In 2004, Ramis was inducted into theSt. Louis Walk of Fame.[38] In 2005, he received theAustin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award.[39] In 2010, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Chicago Improv Festival.[40] In 2015, theWriters Guild of America posthumously honored him with their lifetime achievement award, theLaurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement.[41]
In 2016, two years after his death,The Second City founded the Harold Ramis Film School, the first film school to focus solely on film comedy, in his honor.
The 2016 filmGhostbusters, a reboot of the series Ramis co-created and starred in, was posthumously dedicated to him.[42] A bust of Ramis appears in the film.[43][44] In the 2021 movieGhostbusters: Afterlife, the age-progressed image of Ramis appears as the ghost of Egon Spengler; a dedication before the end credits also reads "for Harold."
On February 2, 2024, Chicago declared every February 2 going forward to be "Harold Ramis Day".[45][46]
Ramis frequently collaborated with directorIvan Reitman. He co-wroteNational Lampoon's Animal House, which Reitman produced, then co-wrote the Reitman comedyMeatballs; he co-wrote and appeared in the Reitman filmsStripes,Ghostbusters, andGhostbusters II.
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | National Lampoon's Animal House | No | Yes | No |
| 1979 | Meatballs | No | Yes | No |
| 1980 | Caddyshack | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1981 | Stripes | No | Yes | No |
| 1983 | National Lampoon's Vacation | Yes | No | No |
| 1984 | Ghostbusters | No | Yes | No |
| 1986 | Back to School | No | Yes | No |
| Armed and Dangerous | No | Yes | No | |
| Club Paradise | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 1988 | Caddyshack II | No | Yes | No |
| 1989 | Ghostbusters II | No | Yes | No |
| 1991 | Rover Dangerfield | No | Story | No |
| 1993 | Groundhog Day | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 1995 | Stuart Saves His Family | Yes | No | No |
| 1996 | Multiplicity | Yes | No | Yes |
| 1999 | Analyze This | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2000 | Bedazzled | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2002 | Analyze That | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2005 | The Ice Harvest | Yes | No | No |
| 2009 | Year One | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Executive producer
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Delta House | No | Yes | Pilot episode |
| 1982 | The Rodney Dangerfield Show: It's Not Easy Bein' Me | No | Yes | |
| 2006–2010 | The Office | Yes | No | 4 episodes |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976–1978 | Second City Television | Various roles | 28 episodes |
| 1981 | Stripes | Russell Ziskey | |
| Heavy Metal | Zeke | Voice (segment "So Beautiful and So Dangerous") | |
| 1983 | Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone | Intercom | Voice, uncredited |
| National Lampoon's Vacation | Marty Moose | Voice, uncredited | |
| 1984 | Ghostbusters | Dr. Egon Spengler | |
| 1987 | Baby Boom | Steven Bochner | |
| 1988 | Stealing Home | Alan Appleby | |
| 1989 | Ghostbusters II | Dr. Egon Spengler | |
| 1993 | Groundhog Day | Neurologist | |
| 1994 | Airheads | Chris Moore | |
| Love Affair | Sheldon Blumenthal | ||
| 1997 | As Good as It Gets | Dr. Martin Bettes | |
| 2000 | High Fidelity | Rob's Dad | Deleted scenes |
| 2002 | Orange County | Don Durkett | |
| I'm with Lucy | Jack | ||
| 2006 | The Last Kiss | Professor Bowler | |
| 2007 | Knocked Up | Ben's Dad | |
| Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story | L'Chai'm | ||
| 2009 | Year One | Adam |
| Year | Title | Voice role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Ghostbusters: The Video Game | Dr. Egon Spengler | Also writer |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Lego Dimensions | Dr. Egon Spengler | Voice role |
| 2019 | Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered | ||
| Cleanin' Up the Town: Remembering Ghostbusters | Himself | Documentary film | |
| 2021 | Ghostbusters: Afterlife | Dr. Egon Spengler | Digital likeness superimposed onBob Gunton andIvan Reitman,[47] Also archival footage and photographs |
| 2024 | Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire | Dr. Egon Spengler | Archival footage and photographs |
Asked by The New York Times about the existential questions raised by 'Groundhog Day' – and competing interpretations of the film's meaning – he mentioned that he didn't practice any religion himself.
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