Harold Ramis(1944-2014)
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Born on November 21, 1944 in Chicago, Illinois, Harold Allen Ramis got
his start in comedy as Playboy magazine's joke editor and reviewer. In
1969, he joined Chicago's Second City's Improvisational Theatre Troupe
before moving to New York to help write and perform in "The National
Lampoon Show" with other Second City graduates including
John Belushi,
Gilda Radner and
Bill Murray. By 1976, he was head
writer and a regular performer on the top Canadian comedy series
SCTV (1976). His
Hollywood debut came when he collaborated on the script for National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) which
was produced by Ivan Reitman. After that,
he worked as writer with Ivan as producer on
Meatballs (1979),
Stripes (1981),
Ghostbusters (1984) and
Ghostbusters II (1989) and acted
in the latter three. Harold Ramis died on February 24, 2014 at age 69
from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis.