Film Icon Harold Ramis Dies

Harold Ramis
E. Jason Wambsgans / MCT Campus

 

E. Jason Wambsgans / MCT Campus

By Aaron Vasquez

Director Harold Ramis is a comedy icon. His movies changed pop culture and shaped how comedic movies are filmed.

Ramis, 69, succumbed to autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis surrounded by his family in Chicago.

Ramis had crossover appeal. He was acclaimed by the critics, and loved by people with a sophomoric sense of humor.

His film Ghostbusters, where he played Dr. Egon Spengler, is one of highest grossing comedy of the 1980s, according to boxofficemojo.com. Groundhog Day was inducted into the American Film Institute for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

He directed four episodes of The Office, which included one of the series’ most viewed episodes, The Delivery.

“Harold Ramis, Funny, gracious, kindhearted. A joy to have known you,” Steve Carell, wrote on Twitter.

Without Ramis, there would be no Judd Apatow sex comedies or screwball Adam Sandler movies. And Peter Farrelly would not have dared to make any of his gross-out parody films.

And that’s how he should be remembered. A talented writer, who loved to make people laugh.

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