Harold Ramis born

By Nick Dawson

Harold Ramis, born today in 1944 in Chicago, is the kind of director that Hollywood loves – a veteran of the business who started off at Second City, Ramis is egoless in his work, ultra-reliable, and has a knack for creating big hits. Looking over his credits, it’s difficult to argue with Ramis’ importance to American screen comedy: he made his directorial debut in 1980 with Caddyshack (1980), followed it up with National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), and also struck gold with such movies as Groundhog Day (1993), Analyze This (1999) and the Focus Features release The Ice Harvest (2005). He also wrote the majority of the above films, as well as Animal House (1978), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981) and Ghost Busters (1984). He is also an occasional actor: most movie fans will be most familiar with him as Dr Egon Spengler from Ghost Busters, while it is symbolic of his comic legacy that Judd Apatow cast him as Seth Rogen’s father in Knocked Up. The secret of Ramis’ success, as he sees it, is that his comedy has depth to it that audiences can truly connect with: “When I started I did a lot of broad comedy, but there’s a big difference between broad and stupid comedy,” he says. "I also always try to maintain some philosophical and moral ambition in my films. There always needs to be something to be learned from it."