Harold Ramis, Dead at 69

Image from Hollywood Gossip

This one came out of left field for me. Maybe because Harold Ramis was a bit older than I thought he was (though certainly not old old). My clearest memories of him are his characters from Stripes and Ghostbusters, in which he was spry and youthful. Sometimes it's easy to freeze a celebrity at a certain age in your mind, particularly when they do the bulk of their work behind the scenes. And there, Ramis really made some memories too. Groundhog Day and National Lampoon's Vacation are two of my mainstay comedy favorites, and he wrote and directed both of them.

He was multi-talented, funny, and wasn't at all hard on the eyes. And he was a chunk of my generation's pop culture. With his exit (and others to inevitably follow), that generation has to finally realize that over 30 years have passed with us hardly noticing.

RIP, Mr. Ramis.

[Excerpt]
 
Harold Ramis, 'Buddha of Comedy,' remembered By Rainn Wilson, Patton Oswalt

Harold Ramis influenced a generation of comedians by writing, directing and acting in films such as "Ghostbusters," "Caddyshack" and "Groundhog Day." So when news broke Monday of Ramis' death, the comedy world took to Twitter, often a forum for jokes, to eulogize and commemorate. . .

Read more at: MSN