The Smiley Smile Message Board

We lost another great one.  A legend of comedy, an actor and writer partially responsible for Animal House, Stripes, Ghostbusters, and my favorite, Groundhog Day which he also directed.  He was 69.

http://www.avclub.com/article/rip-harold-ramis-201412

RIP, thanks for the laughs.

Well that took my interest level in a new Ghost Busters movie from 100 to 0.

RIP HR.

Damn, that blows.  I often forget he also directed the first National Lampoon's Vacation, another favorite of mine.

Any video game players out there?  Ramis voiced Egon for a pretty damn decent Ghostbusters game that came out a couple years ago.  It wasn't perfect, but I'm glad we at least have that, since now there probably won't be a third Ghostbusters.  (which is probably a good thing)

He directed "Caddyshack",which is one of my favorite movies.

Gah, one of my favorites as well. What a shame :-\

RIP, HR.

It's always saddest when it's someone who provided so much laughter to your life.  :'(

He directed National Lampoon's Vacation (which has always been a favourite of mine) as well as Analyze This.

R.I.P.  :'(

Why do the good ones have to go? Why couldn't it have been Dane Cook instead?

RIP

http://fridaynightboys300.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/harold-ramis-rip.html

You never know - perhaps Harold could be summonsed for a float in role?

This is sad news.  Harold Ramis seemed like such great guy.  Not show-boaty, not in your face.  So under-rated and under appreciated.  Yet he had a pretty damn impressive directing and acting resume.


Caddyshack.

Caddyshack says it all.  That's a helluva debut for young director.  With that much talent on the set and the wild non-stop party that everything was -- for it to come together so fcking brilliantly is ridiculous.  Caddyshack should have been a train wreck.  Thin plot.  So many personalities and characters.  Budget and time issues.  Golf?  A golf movie?  Yet it is one of the greatest comedies ever made.  One of the most loved sports movies of all time -- and easily the greatest and most loved sports-comedy ever.  That's not hyperbole.

That's not something that just happens.  It takes a strange balance of calm, yet a love of chaos.  Only Harold Ramis could have directed that ship.  That really says something to me -- when you can direct that much madness into something that people just love.

He had such an easy-going style -- without forcing things.  He just let the outrageousness unfold.  That's an intelligence I prefer to have visit.  If he could funnel that much untold energy into a cohesive whole, I have to assume -- outwardly, his influence is equally vast.  Influencing people and comedy, without them overtly realizing it.  Perhaps immeasurably so.  An assertion that I'm sure he would laugh at.

(http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-feed/harold-ramis-director-actor-80s-caddyshack-groundhog-day.jpg)

And lest we forget the BBs connection with Ghostbusters - the actor who plays Murry Wilson in American Family is interviewed by Venkman on his TV show in Ghostbusters 2. Nerdy fact...

Kevin Dunn...    

The guy who played Milt Love in AF, Kurt Fuller, was also in GB2 as the assistant mayor. Those two actors have also been in several recent Woody Allen movies together.

EDIT: Scratch that. Each actor has had a supporting role in a recent Woody Allen movie (Dunn in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Fuller in Midnight in Paris), but they didn't work together in in either. I think I'm combining movies together in my head.