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| Birth Name(s) : Harold Ramis |
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Full Harold Ramis Biography
Harold Allen Ramis (born November 21, 1944) is an American actor, director, and writer. His best known acting roles are as "Egon Spengler" in Ghostbusters and "Russell Ziskey" in Stripes. He was one of three writers to pen the screenplay for the film National Lampoon's Animal House.
Ramis was born in Chicago, Illinois to Ruth (Cokee) and Nathan Ramis, and had a Jewish upbringing, although he currently does not practice any single religion. After graduating from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri his first job was as a mental-ward orderly. Ramis was a member of the Alpha Xi chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at Washington University, and it is reputed that some of his own experiences in ZBT helped inspire Animal House.
Ramis worked as joke editor for Playboy magazine. He later was associated with the "guerrilla video" commune TVTV, headed by Michael Shamberg. He performed with Chicago's Second City improvisational comedy troupe and the Broadway revue National Lampoon's Lemmings. Ramis was also a writer and performer on the SCTV television series. Memorable characterizations by Ramis on SCTV include corrupt Dialing for Dollars host Moe Green, amiable cop Officer Friendly, exercise guru Swami Banananda, board chairman Allan "Crazy Legs" Hirschman and home dentist Mort Finkel. Celebrities impersonated by Ramis on SCTV include Kenneth Clark and Leonard Nimoy.
Ramis left SCTV to pursue a film career. He wrote his first film, National Lampoon's Animal House, with National Lampoon alumni Douglas Kenney and Chris Miller. The film followed the struggle between a rowdy fraternity house and the college's dean. Its humor was raunchy for its time. Animal House "broke all box-office records for comedies" and earned "a hundred and forty-one million dollars”. His next film was Meatballs starring Bill Murray, which Ramis wrote. The film was a financial success and it was notable for being the first of six film collaborations between Murray and Ramis. His third film and his directorial debut was Caddyshack, which he wrote with Kenny and Brian Doyle-Murray. The film starred Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray. Like Ramis's previous two films, Caddyshack was also a large commercial success. In 1982, Ramis was attached to direct the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. The film was to star John Belushi and Richard Pryor, but the project was aborted when Belushi died that year. His later film, Groundhog Day, has been called "Ramis's masterpiece”.
His films were noted for attacking "the smugness of institutional life ... with an impish good that is unmistakably American". They are also noted for "Ramis's signature tongue-in-cheek pep talks”. Sloppiness and improv are also important aspects of his work. Ramis frequently depicts the qualities of "anger, curiosity, laziness, and woolly idealism" in "a hyper-articulate voice". Sex, drugs, and alcohol play an important role in much of his work.
In 2004, Ramis was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. In 2004, he turned down the oppportunity to direct the Bernie Mac-Ashton Kutcher film Guess Who because he considered it to be poorly written. Also in 2004, Ramis began filming the low budget The Ice Harvest, "his first attempt to make a comic film noir”. Ramis spent six weeks trying to get the film greenlit because he had difficulty reaching an agreement between stars John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton's salaries. The film received a mixed reaction. His typical directing fee, as of 2004, is $5 million.
Ramis's films have had an important impact on subsequent generations of comedians and comedy writers. Filmmakers Jay Roach, Jake Kasdan, Adam Sandler, and Peter and Bobby Farrelly have cited his films as amongst their favorites.
(Television series) Director, episodes:"A Benihana Christmas", “Safety Training", "Beach Games"2007 |
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