Ghostbusters Star Harold Ramis Dead at 69

Egon Spengler has given up the ghostbusting. Actor and director Harold Ramis died just after midnight today, due to complications from a rare disease, his wife tells the Chicago Tribune. He was 69. Ramis was probably best known for his aforementioned role in Ghostbusters, which he also co-wrote, but his fingerprints are all over a host of other beloved comedies; he directed Caddyshack and Groundhog Day, co-wrote Animal House, and starred in Stripes, among others, according to IMDB.

Ramis had been sick since 2010 with autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that causes blood vessels to swell and forced Ramis to re-learn how to walk. "He was the person that I wanted to be when I was growing up," says Judd Apatow, who cast Ramis as Seth Rogen's dad in Knocked Up. "His work is the reason why so many of us got into comedy." (More Harold Ramis stories.)