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."