Ramis likened himself to the Marx Brothers and to their brand of comedy. By the time he entered college in St. Louis, he was already writing comedic plays.
After school, he returned to Chicago, where he took a job as a substitute teacher. He also began submitting freelance articles to the Chicago Daily News, who was so impressed with his writing that they gave him regular assignments. This in turn led to Ramis landing a job at Playboy, where he edited and re-wrote the joke page.
It was also during this time that Ramis began performing with Chicago's Second City improv group. In 1976, they launched Second City Television (SCTV), a sketch comedy series that ran for eight years. Ramis served as both a writer and headliner during the show's first three seasons, creating such characters as station manager Moe Green and Officer Friendly. Click on each to see a sample of his work.
His follow-up films included 1979's Meatballs and 1980's Caddyshack, both of which were very successful at the box office and both of which featured Ramis's friend Bill Murray. Click on each title to see their respective trailers.
1983 would bring his most successful feature since Animal House, with the release of National Lampoon's Vacation. Ramis
1983 would bring his most successful feature since Animal House, with the release of National Lampoon's Vacation. Ramis
1986 saw the release of another comedy written by Ramis, the Rodney Dangerfield epic Back to School. It was a huge success at the box office and is often credited with revitalizing Dangerfield's career. However, it would be the last hit for either him or Ramis for some time to come. Over the next six years, Ramis wrote a string of box office flops, including Club Paradise, Armed and Dangerous and the animated Rover Dangerfield. If you happen to recognize the music in the Rover trailer, and more specifically the film it comes from, give yourself a pat on the back.
Ramis redeemed himself in 1993, with what many film critics regard as his masterpiece - Groundhog Day. It earned more than $70 million at the box office and was the tenth highest-grossing film of the year. You can watch the trailer here. Then watch it again here. And you can watch it here too.
Ramis continued writing films over the next decade, most prominently Analyze This and its less successful sequel, Analyze That. In 2010 however, his health started to decline, after contracting autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, which robbed him of his ability to walk. He'd spend the next year fighting the disease, before suffering a critical relapse. Ultimately it took his life on February 24, 2014. He was 69 years old.
He was interred at Shalom Memorial Park in Arlington Heights, Illinois. If you happen to be in the neighborhood, stop by and pay your respects. The groundskeeper I spoke with expressed great disappointment that more fans don't.
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| Location: Section XIV Mamre, 8B Inscription: "Son, Brother, Husband, Father, Friend, Teacher, Student, Creative Force, Generous Spirit, Lover of Life, Loved By All" |
Trivia
- After graduating from college, Ramis spent seven months working in a mental institution. He'd later quip "it prepared me well for when I went out to Hollywood to work with actors."
- In 2018, Violet Ramis Stiel released a biography of her father entitled Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life With My Dad, Harold Ramis. Pick up a copy from Amazon. Here's a clip of her selling the book on KTLA Los Angeles. And here's a random piece of trivia. Violet appeared in Vacation as Cousin Eddie's daughter, the one born without a tongue.
- In case you've ever wondered just how long Bill Murray was reliving Groundhog Day, Ramis claimed that he spent about ten years in the temporal loop.
- Anyone who has seen Vacation knows that it ends with Clark Griswald buying a gun and forcing his way into the shuttered Walley World, but that's not how it originally ended. As shot, Clark bought a map of the stars homes and paid a visit to the Walley Estate, where he forced the Disney wannabe to sing and entertain his family. At this point, one of Walley's seven kids, played by Christie Brinkley, shows up and pleads for leniency for Clark and his family. Walley lets them go and they fly home. En route, the captain announces that the plane will not land in Chicago, at which point Clark hijacks the plane. This ending did not sit well with test audiences, so the revised ending was written. Ramis appeared on David Letterman's talk show in 1983 and discussed that original ending in this segment. Although Chevy Chase claims to have a copy of the original ending, no footage has ever surfaced. The only surviving proof is a still that appears in the film's closing credits.
- Although he played an Army officer in Stripes, Ramis went out of his way to avoid military service, going so far as to take methamphetamine to fail his draft physical.
- During the production of Vacation, Ramis gave an interview with Reelin' in the Years Productions, conducted indoors at the Grand Canyon. It's notable because if you look out the window behind Ramis, you can see the spot where Ellen Griswald asks her husband "don't you want to look at the Grand Canyon?" You can watch that interview here.
- Ramis and long time friend Bill Murray had a falling out during the production of Groundhog Day, as the two had different visions for what that film should be. It lasted for more than 20 years. As Ramis's health declined, Murray was encouraged to make amends with him while he had the chance, and fortunately he did. The two met at Ramis's home in Illinois, sharing a box of donuts.
- Ramis had two uncredited voice-over roles in Vacation. First, he's the voice of the animatronic Marty Moose just outside the gates of Walley World. Later, he's the off-screen police officer who asks Roy Walley what to do with the Griswalds.
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