Early life and education
Ramis was born on November 21, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois, to Ruth and Nathan Ramis, who ran a food and liquor market on the city's West Side. He grew up in a Jewish family in Chicago and graduated from Nicholas Senn High School in 1962. He went on to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he majored in English literature and graduated in 1966.1
After college Ramis spent several months working as an orderly at a St. Louis psychiatric facility, an experience he later joked had prepared him to work with Hollywood actors. Back in Chicago he worked as a substitute teacher and then as a writer, eventually joining the staff of Playboy magazine, where he rose from the jokes department to associate editor. He also freelanced as an arts and entertainment journalist before moving fully into comedy.1
Career
Ramis joined Chicago's Second City improvisational theatre in 1969, beginning a lifelong association with the troupe and the Chicago comedy scene. He later worked as a writer and performer on the sketch series SCTV, where he served as head writer during its early years and developed material alongside future stars such as John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Dave Thomas. In 1975 he appeared in The National Lampoon Show, an Ivan Reitman-produced revue whose cast also included Bill Murray, John Belushi, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Gilda Radner.1
His first major screen credit came as one of the writers of National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), a runaway hit that helped define the modern screen comedy. He co-wrote Meatballs (1979) and Stripes (1981), both directed by Reitman, and made his own directorial debut with Caddyshack (1980), which he also co-wrote. Stripes also marked his first significant acting role, opposite Bill Murray, playing Russell Ziskey. As a director he went on to make National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) starring Chevy Chase, in which his daughter Violet had a small part.1
Ramis's most acclaimed work as a director and writer was Groundhog Day (1993), the Bill Murray comedy about a weatherman trapped reliving the same day, which is widely regarded as his masterpiece and won him the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay (shared with Danny Rubin).1 His other directing credits include Club Paradise (1986), Stuart Saves His Family (1995), Multiplicity (1996), Analyze This (1999) with Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal, Bedazzled (2000), Analyze That (2002), The Ice Harvest (2005), and Year One (2009). Alongside his behind-the-camera work he kept taking acting roles, including a doctor in As Good as It Gets (1997) and supporting parts in Knocked Up (2007) and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007). In television he directed several episodes of the American version of The Office between 2006 and 2010.1
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters (1984)
Ramis co-wrote the Ghostbusters screenplay with Dan Aykroyd and took the role of Dr. Egon Spengler, the team's lead scientist. The film was his fourth collaboration with both Bill Murray and Ivan Reitman, and his first working alongside Aykroyd; the original press kit noted that the production "reunites him with old friends and colleagues."2
In shaping Egon, Ramis seized on the script's description of the character as a "New Age Mr. Spock" and decided that Egon would essentially never smile, a restraint that became one of the role's signatures.3
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Ramis returned to write and star in Ghostbusters II. One detail traces back to his own family: the Scoleri Brothers, the electrocuted ghost criminals who terrorize the courtroom, are loosely based on real-life individuals who had once robbed the store owned by his father, Nate Ramis.4
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009)
In 2009 Ramis reprised Egon Spengler as a voice actor in Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Producer John Melchior flew to Chicago specifically to persuade him to take part. Ramis was initially reluctant, but once he was satisfied the project would not be a cheaply made tie-in, he signed on, after which Melchior went to secure Aykroyd. The team later visited Ramis on the set of The Office, where he was directing an episode, to show him a demo.4
Ramis received a writing credit on the game. In practice he and Aykroyd revised and polished the original script by John Zuur Platten and Flint Dille, sharpening the tone and vernacular of the dialogue rather than rewriting from scratch.5 Melchior also phoned Ramis directly for advice during a development debate over the Museum of (Super)Natural History level.4
Posthumous appearances and tributes
After Ramis's death in 2014, the franchise repeatedly honored him. A bust of Harold Ramis appears outside Erin Gilbert's office at Columbia University in the 2016 Ghostbusters film; following production the bust was given to his widow, Erica Ramis, who donated it to the Harold Ramis Film School at The Second City in Chicago, where it resides in the bar. His son Daniel Ramis also has a cameo in the 2016 film as the Metal Head character who high-fives Rowan North. An archival version of Ramis appeared as the ghost of Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), and he received an archival credit again in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024).1
His name and likeness have surfaced as Easter eggs across the IDW Ghostbusters comics as well: he is credited among the authors of an in-universe technical report in Ghostbusters Volume 2, an eight-pin board inside the Proton Pack is named after him in Ghostbusters: Get Real, and the 2016 bust reappears on a Crossing Over cover, among other nods. In the Real Ghostbusters episode "Take Two," Winston reads off Ramis's last name while listing the cast of the in-universe movie being made about the Ghostbusters, a fitting acknowledgment of his real-world role in building the franchise.
Personal life
Ramis lived much of his life in and around Chicago and was an outspoken champion of the city over Los Angeles. He was married twice: first to Anne Plotkin, whom he wed in 1967 and later divorced, and then to Erica Mann, whom he married in 1989. He had four children, including his eldest daughter, writer Violet Ramis Stiel, who in 2018 authored a memoir about her father, "Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis."6 He was culturally Jewish and developed a strong interest in Buddhism in his later years.1
Ramis and Bill Murray, longtime collaborators across several films, had a falling out during the making of Groundhog Day and did not speak for roughly two decades. Shortly before Ramis's death, Murray, encouraged by his brother Brian Doyle-Murray, visited Ramis at home, and the two reconciled.1
"In Los Angeles, Steven Spielberg walks in and you're nothing. Here, there's nobody better than me. There's a few Bulls around, and the Cusacks, but, basically, I'm it!"
Death
On February 24, 2014, Ramis died at his home in the Chicago area at the age of 69. The cause was complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare condition he had battled for four years after an infection in 2010 cost him the ability to walk.7 He was survived by his wife, Erica Mann Ramis, his children, and grandchildren. Tributes poured in from across the comedy world, and President Barack Obama issued a statement praising films that taught audiences to question authority and root for the underdog.7
Ramis was honored posthumously with the Writers Guild of America's Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement in 2015.8 In 2016, The Second City opened the Harold Ramis Film School in his memory, billed as a film school devoted entirely to comedy,1 and in 2024 the city of Chicago proclaimed February 2 as "Harold Ramis Day."9
Egon Spengler's gear is some of the most replicated in the hobby, and Ramis's performance is the on-screen reference point builders return to: the Ecto Goggles, the PKE Meter, and Egon's specific Proton Pack details are all studied frame by frame against his scenes. Autographed Ramis material and Egon-centric collectibles remain prized among members.
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
