Harold Ramis, Alchemist of Comedy

This TBook — featuring reviews and stories from The New York Times archives — focuses on Harold Ramis, the influential film comedy actor, writer and director who died of an autoimmune disease at age 69 in February 2014. In an appraisal of Mr. Ramis’s work, Jason Zinoman wrote in The New York Times that “as much as anyone, Mr. Ramis invented modern film comedy.”
Throughout his career, Mr. Ramis collaborated with many of comedy’s leading lights, including John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner and Billy Crystal. Mr. Ramis got his big break in 1978 as a co-writer on “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” which became a box-office smash and still remains one of the most popular comedies of all time. After that, he achieved more success in a string of hit movies, including “Caddyshack” (his directorial debut), “Meatballs,” “Stripes,” “Ghostbusters,” “Groundhog Day” and “Analyze This.”