Yesterday a celebrated actor, director and writer passed away.

It was only the other week that I watched Groundhog Day, arguably one of Harold Ramis’s most reverred works. Twenty years later and the film still holds it’s own (well, aside from the awful Spanish film title translation, but let’s save that issue for another day).

Ramis directed a series of classic films such as Analyse This, Caddyshack, Multiplicity and National Lampoon’s Vacation. Delving into the IMDB back office of Ramis’s works also offered up a few surprises – he directed four episodes of the American version of The Office.

However, possibly the most famous of all of his works has to be the Ghostbusters saga. Ramis himself co-wrote Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, which means we owe him a lot for helping to produce such an iconic movie – a firm favourite in its day that has now reached cult status. The movie boasts comedy, an entertaining plot, a handsome cast (Bill, Sigourney, Dan – I’m looking at you), tension, science fiction and amazing 1980’s special effects, that, 30 years down the line, make GB pleasantly nostalgic and charming. I highly doubt that 21st century Hollywood could better the portrayal of the Stay Puft marshmallow man and the crossing of the streams.

The glow of the ray guns warms the heart as lovable rogue Venkman gets slimed on the 12th floor of The Sedgewick Hotel, while Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis act out some sort of sordid key-master-gate-keeper soft porn scenario that you didn’t quite understand until several years after your first screening.

Ramis himself played bespectacled scientist Egon Spengler, one of the original 3 Ghostbusters alongside Peter Venkman (Murray) and Ray Stantz (Aykroyd). Of course, the film and characters also spawned an array of cartoon series and spin-off works.
Does anyone remember Egon’s huge quiff in The Real Ghostbusters cartoons?

And speaking of nostalgia, I distinctly remember, when I was about 7 or 8, playing in a Ghostbusters wendy house and dressing up in my Ghostbusters get-up -proton pack with gun, ghost trap, glow-in-the-dark Slimer toy, my dad’s welding goggles- and reenacting various scenes from the films.

And I wouldn’t have those memories if it weren’t for Harold Ramis.