Harold Ramis (1944-2014)

It is with great sadness that I report that Harold "Egon" Ramis passed away today at the young age of 69. Death must have a fondness for the number 69, but not in the same way that we humans do :-) My father died a little over a month ago at age 69, and his mother (my grandmother) and his uncle (my great uncle) also died at that age.

I knew the day would come when one of the "big stars" of the films would die, but I never thought that day would come so soon...and especially not on the cusp of the franchise's 30th anniversary. If anyone still had hopes for a Ghostbusters 3, this pretty much kills any chance of that happening. Even if they went with a new crew, and the original guys just showed up for cameos, there would always be the loss of Harold hanging over the project. Maybe now we can finally put Ghostbusters 3 to rest and not have it brought up every time one of the film stars is interviewed.

Just a thought: The Academy Awards event is being held this Sunday. I wonder if it's too late for Harold to be included in the In Memoriam segment.

Anyway, Ghostbusters News has an article up with some quotes from Harold's Ghostbusters co-stars and other celebrities paying their respects to the man.

After the jump are a few photos, videos, and interview links about Harold that I gathered from my archives. I don't know where online I found this autographed photo scan, but I assure you that it doesn't come from my autographed photo collection.


I always liked this photo of Harold wearing a Ghostbusters II logo yarmulke (it's a Jewish thing). It came from Heeb magazine's website back in January 2009.


Here are links to some external text interviews I archived:

• Interview 8/1/2005 (Ibsys)
• Interview 8/3/2005 (TV Guide)
• Interview 6/11/2009 (Toyfare)

Finally, here are external links to a whole bunch of Harold videos, including several video interviews.

• GhostbustersIsHiring.com Harold Ramis Intro (2009)
• Ghostbusters The Video Game Harold Ramis Trailer (June 13, 2009)
• Bobbie Wygant interviews Harold (1984)
• Audio clip of Harold on The Arsenio Hall Show talking about Slimer in Ghostbusters II and The Real Ghostbusters.
• Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson at the Austin Film Festival (October 22, 2005)