Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Today, we remember another great filmmaker and actor, Harold Ramis. He died earlier today from complications of autoimmune inflammatory disease. He was 69 years old.
The Chicago Tribune first reported the death of Ramis, who was a resident of that city, early Monday:
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.
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Ramis was a triple threat in the comedy world, an actor, writer and director.
"He had a very professorial presence, and Egon was perfect for him, because he was brilliant. He was sophisticated and literate, and he put all that in these straight man roles," said Entertainment Weekly's Anthony Breznican on Take Two. "He could cut loose, but he played straight men in a way that made them funny. Egon is so straight that he's actually all bent up and so many memorable lines from that character, and I think that's his most famous role, but if he had depended on acting he would have been pretty frustrated. Too many characters lived inside of him. He poured them all into his movies."