Harold Ramis dead at 69

This one hits me pretty hard, folks. Not a case of "gone too soon," but damn does this one hit me hard.

Batman has become the character which people to associate me with, but before the Bat, there were the Ghostbusters. The movie and cartoon series was the first thing to fire up my imagination and quite literally defined my sense if humor as I grew up. In a movie so packed with amazingly funny performances, it's always been tough to pick a favorite. Yet I've always had to go with Egon. Why, I dunno. He collects spores, molds, and fungus. He looks into the trap. He doesn't think Louis Tulley is human. He had part of a Slinkey. He straightened it. He's sleeping with the slime.

To go toe to toe and hold your own against Bill Murray is impressive enough, but to look at his writing credits...There's some really great work there.

RIP, Harold.

I feel the same way. One of my favorite movies and the character that I related the most with. Probably didn't help that people have said my celebrity doppleganger was a blonde Harold Ramis.

For me it was SCTV. That show was so wild and weird to me when I was just a kid. I knew it was supposed to be funny but there was a ton of material I did not get at all. I watched it all again when I was older because my old man had them on VHS. I own all the seasons now on DVD (minus the early stuff that's hard to track down) and for me it's the funniest and plain old best show I ever saw. The episode where the Soviets take over the station, John Candy's brilliant melt down while filming his stupid "What's your beef" show when everyone else is at the Christmas party, Bob and Doug of course, Catherine O'Hara meeting Mother Teresa, Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis doing the Woody Allen and Bob Hope meet up... It's an incredible show. I love Ghostbuster's as well (and will not miss the purported 3rd installment that was apparently in the works) but SCTV helped teach me what humour was. There was just so much talent in that cast.

Groundhog Day could make a good argument for being one of the best screen comedies. Ramis will be missed.

My wife's favourite movie is Ghostbusters (she has it tattoo'd on her left forearm) so this is going to hit her.

I love Groundhog Day, the guy knows how to make his audience smile, that's for sure.


..I'm still reeling about Philip Seymour Hoffman. On the weekend, Mission Impossible III and Moneyball both played. I had forgotten he was in both. He's so good in Moneyball

I really enjoyed Ramis' work.

Vacation, Stripes, Animal House, Caddyshack, Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters - the dude was unbelievably talented. And that's a bit of an understatement.

San Il Defanso wrote: Groundhog Day could make a good argument for being one of the best screen comedies. Ramis will be missed.

Only discovered today after all this that he directed that incredible movie. Damn, it's a sad loss.

I heard a guy in the office say this and I was really hoping it wasn't true. This really bummed me out.

Great profile, only up for free for about 20 more hours:
www.byliner.com/tad-friend/stories/comed...aa8a0e9e8308f0f067d0

He was a really good man and a really great writer. Great comedic timing as well.

Really tough.

I was fortunate enough to meet Harold Ramis in person once. He came into a Warner Brothers Studio store when I was working there. As a worker, I obviously couldn't be a fanboy, but I was pretty damn excited to meet him and I'm sure it showed a little. He knew I knew who he was, but was very personable and we chatted and engaged in small talk for about ten minutes. Very nice down to earth guy.

I know all y'all have these who are older than me, but this is one of those serious "holy shit" moments for me. I'm 32. My wife's favorite movie is ghostbusters. Like someone said---this isn't someone who really went before their time (mean male life expectancy is 77, but you know what I'm saying, not before they got their most important shit done). Crazy.

'If a Twinkie represents amount of grief I feel when someone dies, Harold Ramis' death would be a Twinkie 35 feet long weighing 600 pounds' - Patton Oswalt

Love it.

After reading unrelenting headlines "Harold Ramis dead at 69" I keep thinking he'd have preferred at least one of them to misprint "Harold Ramis dead of 69".