On the heels of Sid Caesar dying, another comedy legend, Harold Ramis, has passed away. He died at the relatively young age of 69 from a rare autoimmune disease. The greatest comedy screenwriter of his era, Ramis was an SCTV alumnus who penned Animal House, Groundhog Day (which he also directed), Caddyshack (directed this one, too), Ghostbusters, Stripes, Analyze This and Meatballs, among others. Hollywood comedy from the late ’70s forward poured from his pen, although he always considered himself a Chicago guy and moved back to the Second City in his 60s.

My first thought when I head about Ramis’ passing was that I hope he and Bill Murray, his great collaborator from whom he was sadly estranged, had made amends. But that’s an unfair demand we put on famous people that we don’t put on ourselves. I think of people who were important to me at one point who I’m estranged from, and no one makes a big fuss about that. Changing and growing–and growing away, sometimes–is a natural part of life. Death makes us wish it wasn’t true, but it is.

The opening of Ramis’ obituary in his hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune:

“Harold Ramis was one of Hollywood’s most successful comedy filmmakers when he moved his family from Los Angeles back to the Chicago area in 1996. His career was still thriving, with Groundhog Day acquiring almost instant classic status upon its 1993 release and 1984’s Ghostbusters ranking among the highest-grossing comedies of all time, but the writer-director wanted to return to the city where he’d launched his career as a Second City performer.

‘There’s a pride in what I do that other people share because I’m local, which in L.A. is meaningless; no one’s local,’ Ramis said upon the launch of the first movie he directed after his move, the 1999 mobster-in-therapy comedy Analyze This, another hit. ‘It’s a good thing. I feel like I represent the city in a certain way.’

Ramis, a longtime North Shore resident, was surrounded by family when he died at 12:53 a.m. from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels, his wife Erica Mann Ramis said.

He was 69. Ramis’ serious health struggles began in May 2010 with an infection that led to complications related to the autoimmune disease, his wife said. Ramis had to relearn to walk but suffered a relapse of the vasculitis in late 2011, said Laurel Ward, vice president of development at Ramis’ Ocean Pictures production company.”

___________________________

Ramis with David Letterman in 1983: