Harold Ramis

Harold Ramis was one of the most versatile comic talents of his generation, as well as one of the most influential. His work in the 1970s with Second City and National Lampoon defined the direction that stage, television and film comedy would take in the 1980s, a period when he wrote, directed and/or co-starred in some of most profitable films of the era, including "National Lampoon's Animal House" (1978), "Caddyshack" (1980), "Stripes" (1981), "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983) and "Ghostbusters" (1984). His signature film, "Groundhog Day" (1993), went on to become one of the most acclaimed films of the 1990s, not only regularly appearing on various lists of the best movies of all-time, but inspiring serious academic discussion of its philosophical underpinnings. By the 2000s, Ramis was a beloved elder statesman of film comedy; his avuncular acting appearances in Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up" (2007) and Jake Kasdan's "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" (2007), and his work as a director on the hit series "The Office" (NBC 2005-2013), were seen as his blessing of the new generation of comic filmmakers. Although Ramis had to retire following his film "Year One" (2009), due to his struggle with an autoimmune disorder that robbed him of the ability to walk, his death on February 24, 2014 still came as a shock to the comedy community and his fans.