I don’t usually post obituaries on my blog but there are certain exceptions to this rule, especially when the individual in question had indirectly defined my childhood. Harold Ramis passed away yesterday due to some rare blood vessel disease (gotta thank my wife for this piece of info!). Ramis was not only a reputable comedy writer with hit films such as Ghostbusters, Stripes, Animal House and many more under his belt, he was also a director, having directed Groundhog Day and acted in many of these movies himself.
But to me, he was always (and still is) the great Egon Spengler. Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II left such a big impression on me during my childhood that I even dreamt of becoming one for real! I’m sure many kids had the same dream then (and we ALL still do!!!). Egon Spengler is my favourite character out of the four guys.....geeky, Mr Know-It-All and had even taught us that it is in fact fun to collect spores, molds and fungus.
Director/producer Jason Reitman summed it up perfectly when he said that “It’s as if we’ve just lost a Beatle...” ....True dat.
The burning question in every fanboys’ mind is this....what is the fate of the planned ‘Ghostbusters 3’ now? Bill Murray has been initially quoted as being ‘50-50’ towards the project but in recent years he had lost interest altogether. Ramis and co-stars Dan Aykroyd & Ernie Hudson had in fact planned to do a ‘Venkman-less’ sequel but now that Egon has left the scene it is very unlikely that the highly-anticipated second GB sequel will come to fruition at all. That’ll most probably put an end to the long mystery surrounding the proposed film. GB:3 can’t possibly proceed without Egon...plus Ramis was one of the writers. Such a sad and bleak day for Ghostbusters fans everywhere.
Bye-bye Egon...thanks for the memories.
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