Harold Ramis was posthumously awarded the Writers Guild of America’s Laurel Award for Screenwriting Achievement at its awards ceremony this weekend. The comic/writer/director passed away a year ago at the age of 69.
His widow Erica Mann Ramis accepted the award. Lisa Kudrow hosted the WGA west coast awards show.
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The son of Ruth and Nathan Ramis, grocery store owners in Chicago, got his start in that city’s famed Second City improvisation group and appeared in its first television incarnation, the syndicated SCTV show in the 1970s.
He would go on to write and/or direct such classic comedies as “Caddyshack, ” “Stripes, ” “Ghostbusters” and “Groundhog Day.”
Previous Jewish winners of the WGAW Laurel Award, which has been presented every year since 1953, include Neil Simon (1979), Woody Allen (1987), Mel Brooks (2003), David Mamet (2005), Barry Levinson (2010) and Eric Roth (2012) and Paul Mazursky.
When the award was first announced WGAW Vice President Howard Rodman stated that, “Harold Ramis changed the face of comedy. His death last year deprived us of his unique way of seeing the world, at once hilarious and wise. From his early work with National Lampoon and SCTV through Animal House, Meatballs, Caddyshack, and Ghostbusters, Ramis’ voice was strong, clear, outrageous in all the best ways.”
