R.I.P. Harold Ramis (comedy legend behind Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters, National Lampoon's Vacation)

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Harold Ramis dead at 69: Actor-director-writer was best remembered for ‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘Groundhog Day’

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Ramis succumbed to complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that causes swelling of the blood vessels and plagued him for the last few years.

Harold Ramis, the actor whose dry delivery powered comedies like “Ghostbusters” and whose comic instincts helped him behind the camera as the director of smash hits like “Groundhog Day” and “Analyze That,” died early Monday.
He was 69.

Ramis succumbed to complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that causes swelling of the blood vessels and plagued him for the last few years, his wife Erica Mann Ramis told Chicago Tribune.

With timing honed from his days as a member of the famed Second City improve troupe in the ‘70s in his hometown of Chicago, a contemporary of John Belushi, the bespectacled, lanky Ramis quickly developed a reputation as a go-to comedic writer, first with the Canadian produced “SCTV” and later on movies like “Animal House.”

He teamed up with the producer on that movie, Ivan Reitman, to write and act in a string of movies, including “Stripes,” “Ghostbusters” and “Ghostbusters 2,” that were some of the biggest comedy box office successes of the ‘80s.

Younger aspiring comedians definitely noticed the smartness in his scripts, even if Ramis as an actor often played the straightman to more anarchic co-stars like Belushi and Bill Murray. Judd Apatow cast him in memorable roles in “Knocked Up” (2007) and “Walk Hard: The Dewey ? Story.”
Health issues had slowed Ramis down in recent years – his last movie as a writer/director and actor was the 2009 Jack Black vehicle, “Year One.”

He co-wrote the script and was slated to reprise his most famous as paranormal investigator Dr. Egon Spengler for a long-gestating “Ghostbusters III.”


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/actor-harold-ramis-dead-69-article-1.1699957#ixzz2uGYdrBdy

Damn. I was just watching Stripes the other day too and thinking of when he was going to reunite with Murray again.
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