WASHINGTON — Successful comedy filmmaker, director and actor Harold Ramis has died, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Ramis, 69, was known for writing “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters.”
Most recently, Ramis directed episodes of “The Office.”
His wife tells the Tribune he died from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels.
Ramis, who also starred in “Ghostbusters,” died in Chicago, the Tribune reports.
He’s known not only for those films, but also for directing “Caddyshack,” “Groundhog Day,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “Analyze This.”
Ramis was a Second City performer and Second City’s first head writer on the TV series, “Second City Television,” which aired from 1976 to 1979.
Before and during his Second City years, he wrote and edited Playboy magazine’s “Party Jokes.”
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