Harold Ramis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Harold Ramis
HaroldRamisOct2009.jpg
Ramis in October 2009
Born Harold Allen Ramis
(1944-11-21)November 21, 1944
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died February 24, 2014(2014-02-24) (aged 69)
North Shore area of Chicago, Illinois
Cause of death
 Complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis
Residence North Shore area of Chicago, Illinois
Alma mater Washington University in St. Louis
Occupation Actor, director, writer
Years active 1969–2010
Home town Chicago, Illinois
Spouse(s)

Anne Plotkin (1967–1984 separation; later divorced)

Erica Mann (m. 1989–2014)

Harold Allen Ramis (November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014) was an American actor, director, and writer specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters (1984) and Russell Ziskey in Stripes (1981); he also co-wrote both films. As a writer-director, his films include the comedies Caddyshack (1980), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Groundhog Day (1993), and Analyze This (1999). Ramis was the original head writer of the television series SCTV (on which he also performed), and one of three screenwriters for the film National Lampoon's Animal House (1978).

Ramis' films have influenced subsequent generations of comedians and comedy writers.[1] Filmmakers Jay Roach, Jake Kasdan, Adam Sandler, and Peter and Bobby Farrelly have cited his films as among their favorites.[1] He won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay for Groundhog Day.

Early life[edit]

Ramis was born on November 21, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois,[2] the son of Ruth and Nathan Ramis, shopkeepers who owned the store Ace Food & Liquor Mart on the city's far North Side.[1] While Ramis had a Jewish upbringing, in his adult life he did not practice any religion.[3][4] He graduated from Stephen K. Hayt Elementary School in June of 1958 and Nicholas Senn High School in 1962, both Chicago Public Schools,[5] and, in 1966, from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri,[1][6] where he was a member of the Alpha Xi chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.[7]

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.[6]

Career[edit]

Early years[edit]

Ramis began writing parodic plays in college, saying years later, "In my heart, I felt I was a combination of Groucho and Harpo 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 the Vietnam War military draft by taking methamphetamine to fail his draft physical.[8]

Following his work in St. Louis, Ramis returned to Chicago, where by 1968, he was a substitute teacher at schools serving the inner-city Robert Taylor Homes.[9] He also became associated with the guerrilla television collective TVTV, headed by his college friend Michael Shamberg, and wrote freelance for the Chicago 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 the Chicago Daily News, the Arts & Leisure section, and they started giving me assignments [for] entertainment features."[10] Additionally, he had begun studying and performing with Chicago's Second City improvisational comedy troupe.[11]

Ramis' newspaper writing led to his becoming joke editor at Playboy.[6] "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".[10] Ramis was promoted to associate editor.[12]

National Lampoon and SCTV[edit]

After leaving Second City for a time and returning in 1972, having been replaced in the main cast by John 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 collaborator, Bill Murray, to New York City to work together on the radio program The National Lampoon Radio Hour.[1]

During this time, Ramis, Belushi, Murray, Joe Flaherty, Christopher Guest, and Gilda Radner starred in the revue The National Lampoon Show, the successor to National Lampoon's Lemmings.[13] Later, Ramis became a performer on, and head writer of, the late-night sketch-comedy television series SCTV during its first three years (1976–1979).[14] He was soon offered work as a writer at Saturday Night Live but he chose to continue with SCTV.[12] Characterizations by Ramis on SCTV include corrupt Dialing for Dollars host/SCTV station manager Maurice "Moe" Green, amiable cop Officer Friendly, exercise guru Swami Bananananda, board chairman Allan "Crazy Legs" Hirschman and home dentist Mort Finkel. His celebrity impressions on SCTV included Kenneth Clark and Leonard Nimoy.

Film career[edit]

Ramis left SCTV to pursue a film career and wrote a script with National Lampoon magazine's Douglas Kenney which would eventually become National Lampoon's Animal House. They were later joined by a third collaborator on the script, Chris Miller. The 1978 film followed the struggle between a rowdy college fraternity house and the college dean. The film's humor was raunchy for its time. Animal House "broke all box-office records for comedies" and earned $141 million.[1]

Ramis next co-wrote the comedy Meatballs, starring Bill 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 was Caddyshack, which he wrote with Kenney and Brian Doyle-Murray. The film starred Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray. Like Ramis's previous two films, Caddyshack was also a commercial success.

In 1982, Ramis was attached to direct the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. The film was to star John Belushi and Richard Pryor, but the project was aborted.[15] In 1984, Ramis collaborated with Dan Aykroyd on the screenplay for Ghostbusters, which became one of the biggest comedy hits of the summer, in which he also starred as Dr. Egon Spengler,[16] a role he reprised for the 1989 sequel, Ghostbusters II (which he also co-wrote with Aykroyd). His later film Groundhog Day has been called his "masterpiece".[1]

He also had a role in the 1997 film As Good As It Gets as Helen Hunt's son's doctor.

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 are also important aspects of his work. Ramis frequently depicts the qualities of "anger, curiosity, laziness, and woolly idealism" in "a hyper-articulate voice".[1]

In 2004, he turned down the opportunity to direct the Bernie Mac-Ashton Kutcher film Guess Who, then under the working title "The Dinner Party", because he considered it to be poorly written. That same year, Ramis began filming the low-budget The Ice Harvest, "his first attempt to make a comic film noir". Ramis spent six weeks trying to get the film greenlit because he had difficulty reaching an agreement about stars John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton's salaries. The film received a mixed reaction. His typical directing fee, as of 2004, was $5 million.[1]

In an interview in the documentary American Storytellers, Ramis said he hoped to make a film about Emma Goldman (even pitching Disney with the idea of having Bette Midler star)[17] but that none of the movie studios were interested and that it would have been difficult to raise the funding.

Ramis said in 2009 he planned to make a third Ghostbusters film for release either in mid-2011[18] or for Christmas 2012.[19]

Personal life[edit]

Ramis was married twice and was the father of three children. On July 2, 1967,[2] he married a San Francisco, Californian artist, Anne Plotkin, with whom he had a daughter, Violet.[1] Actor and Ghostbusters co-star Bill Murray is Violet's godfather.[1] Ramis and Plotkin separated in 1984 and later divorced.[1] In 1989, Ramis married Erica Mann, the daughter of director Daniel Mann and actress Mary Kathleen Williams.[20] Together they were the parents of two sons, Julian Arthur and Daniel Hayes.[2]

Ramis was a Chicago Cubs fan and attended games every year to conduct the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley Field.[when?][21] His pastimes included fencing, ritual drumming, acoustic guitar, and making hats from felted fleece; he taught himself skiing by watching skiers on television.[1]

Illness and death[edit]

In May 2010, Ramis contracted an infection that resulted in complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis. He lost the ability to walk; after relearning to do so, he suffered a relapse of the disease in late 2011.[22] He died of complications of the disease on February 24, 2014, at his home on Chicago's North Shore, at age 69.[22]

Awards and honors[edit]

In 2004, Ramis was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[23] In 2005, Ramis was the recipient of the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award.[24]

Collaborations[edit]

Harold Ramis frequently collaborated with Ivan Reitman. He co-wrote National Lampoon's Animal House, which Reitman produced before going on to co-write the Reitman directed comedy, Meatballs. He also went on to write and appear in three Reitman films: Stripes, Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II.

SCTV (1976-1978) Meatballs (1979) Caddyshack (1980) Stripes (1981) National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) Ghostbusters (1984) Club Paradise (1986) Caddyshack II (1988) Ghostbusters II (1989) Groundhog Day (1993) Stuart Saves His Family (1995) Multiplicity (1996)
Dan Aykroyd NoN NoN NoN
John Candy NoN NoN NoN
Chevy Chase NoN NoN NoN
Brian Doyle-Murray NoN NoN NoN NoN NoN NoN
Robin Duke NoN NoN NoN NoN
Joe Flaherty NoN NoN NoN NoN
Eugene Levy NoN NoN NoN NoN NoN
Andie MacDowell NoN NoN
Bill Murray NoN NoN NoN NoN NoN NoN
Randy Quaid NoN NoN
Harris Yulin NoN NoN NoN
Director -- Ivan Reitman NoN NoN NoN NoN

Filmography[edit]

Acting[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
1981 Stripes Russell Ziskey
1981 Heavy Metal Zeke Voice
1983 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
1990 The Earth Day Special Dr. Elon Spengler (Brother of Egon)
1993 Groundhog Day Neurologist
1994 Airheads Chris Moore
1994 Love Affair Sheldon Blumenthal
1997 As Good as It Gets Dr. Martin Bettes
2000 High Fidelity Rob's Dad Scenes deleted
2002 Orange County Don Durkett
2006 The Last Kiss Professor Bowler
2007 Knocked Up Ben's Dad
2007 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story L’Chai’m
2009 Year One Adam
2009 Ghostbusters: The Video Game Dr. Egon Spengler Voice

Television[edit]

Year Title Role
1976–1977 Second City Television Various Characters
1982 Second City TV Network 90 Various Characters

Directing[edit]

Producing[edit]

Writing[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Friend, Tad (April 19, 2004). "Comedy First: How Harold Ramis’s movies have stayed funny for twenty-five years". The New Yorker. Retrieved August 28, 2007. 
  2. ^ a b c "Harold Ramis Biography (1944–)". FilmReference.com. Retrieved February 24, 2014. 
  3. ^ Todd Leopold (February 24, 2014). "Harold Ramis of 'Ghostbusters,' 'Groundhog Day' fame dies". CNN.com. Retrieved 25 February 2014. "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." 
  4. ^ Kuczynski, Alex. "Groundhog Almighty", The New York Times, December 7, 2003, via Kenyon College Department of Religious Studies
  5. ^ "Chicago Public Schools Alumni: "Senn, Nicolas Senn High School". Cpsalumni.org. Retrieved February 24, 2014. 
  6. ^ a b c Sacks, Mike. And Here's the Kicker...: Conversations with Top Humor Writers About Their Craft (Writer's Digest Books, July 2009). Online excerpt from Harold Ramis interview
  7. ^ "Zeta Beta Tau – Notable Alumni". Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity. Retrieved January 1, 2014. 
  8. ^ Martin, Brett (July 2009). "Harold Ramis Gets the Last Laugh". GQ: 64–67, 124–25. Retrieved August 15, 2009. [dead link]
  9. ^ Caldwell, Sara C., and Marie-Eve S. Kielson, So You Want to be A Screenwriter: How to Face the Fears and Take the Risks (Allworth Press, 2000), p. 75. ISBN 1-58115-062-8, ISBN 978-1-58115-062-9
  10. ^ a b Lovece, Frank, "Ramis's realm: Comedy creator surveys career from Second City to 'Year One'", Film Journal International online, June 12, 2009
  11. ^ Patinkin, Sheldon. The Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater (Sourcebooks MediaFusion, 2000) ISBN 1-57071-561-0, ISBN 978-1-57071-561-7.[page needed]
  12. ^ a b Martin, Douglas (February 24, 2014). "Harold Ramis, 69, Dies; Alchemist of the Hilarious". The New York Times. Retrieved February 25, 2014. 
  13. ^ Karp, Josh (2006). A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever. Chicago Review Press. p. 219. ISBN 1-55652-602-4 
  14. ^ Caldwell, Kielson, p. 77
  15. ^ Saito, Stephen "20 Movies Not Coming Soon to a Theater Near You", Section: "A Confederacy of Dunces", Premiere, no date
  16. ^ "'Ghostbusters 3' in Theaters by Christmas 2012!". Bloody Disgusting. 
  17. ^ Wolgamott, L. Kent (April 15, 2004). "An 'exceedingly dangerous woman':Emma Goldman's story". Lincoln Journal Star. Lincoln, Nebraska. Archived from the original on June 4, 2004. 
  18. ^ Abrams, Brian (December 28, 2009). "Ramis on 'Ghostbusters 3': 'Plans to Shoot Next Summer and Release in 2011'". Heeb. Retrieved February 24, 2014. 
  19. ^ Ramis interview, WABC-TV, via "Harold Ramis Says 'Ghostbusters 3' in 2011!". BloodyDisgustng.com. December 30, 2009. Retrieved 2014-02-24. 
  20. ^ "Daniel Mann, 79, the Director Of Successful Plays and Films". The New York Times. November 23, 1991. 
  21. ^ Bacon, Shane (24 February 2014). "Remembering Harold Ramis and “Caddyshack”". Yahoo!. Retrieved 24 February 2014. 
  22. ^ a b Caro, Mark. "Harold Ramis, Chicago actor, writer and director, dead at 69". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 24, 2014. 
  23. ^ "St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees: Harold Ramis". Stlouiswalkoffame.org. Retrieved February 24, 2014. 
  24. ^ "Austin Film Festival Past Award Recipients". AustinFilmFestival.com. Retrieved February 24, 2014. 

External links[edit]

Films directed by Harold Ramis
Authority control
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harold_Ramis&oldid=597859687"