CHICAGO — On Friday, Alderman Brandan Reilly, alongside the cast of the 1993 film “Groundhog Day,” declared Feb. 2 as Harold Ramis Day in the City of Chicago.
Bill Murray and the cast of “Groundhog Day” reunited for the first time since it premiered to celebrate the holiday, the movie and the filmmaker.
“We were looking out for each other,” Murray said about his friend Ramis. “From the beginning it wasn’t very serious, we did things for fun, and we were having fun. If we we’re making each other laugh it was okay. There would be like a glint in your eye.”
Ramis, a Chicago native and the director of “Groundhog Day,” received a BAFTA Film Award for the 1993 classic after winning the “Best Writing” category.
“Groundhog Day,” starring comedian and Chicago’s own Murray, was famously filmed in the Chicago suburb of Woodstock.
The 1993 film followed “a narcissistic, self-centered weatherman (who) finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day,” IMBd states.
Murray, whose character was a weatherman in the 1993 film, met WGN’s Chief Meteorologist Tom Skilling for the first time to discuss the weather during filming of “Groundhog Day.”
“It was the worst winter ever,” Murray said to Skilling.
“I know and McHenry County can have some real doozies. I’ll tell you,” Skilling responded.
Murray even said he thinks the weather itself should retire along with Skilling.
“I don’t think we’re going to have weather anymore. I don’t see the point. I don’t see the point in looking out the window anymore,” Murray said.
After he launched his career as a Second City performer, Ramis first broke onto the big screen as a writer, with film credits such as National Lampoon’s Animal House, Caddyshack, and the Analyze This and Analyze That sequels. He also directed episodes of “The Office.”
Ramis also starred in Stripes, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Knocked Up, as well as the “Ghostbusters” franchise alongside Groundhog Day’s star Bill Murray. His last appearance on screen was in the 2009 film “Year One.”
He started his career as a freelance writer and joke editor for the Chicago Daily News and Playboy.
Harold Ramis died on Feb. 24, 2014, due to complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels. He was 69.
Actor Bill Murray, the filmmaker’s wife Erica Mann-Ramis, Sen. Dick Durbin, along with cast members David Pasquesi, Marita Geraghty, Robin Duke, Ken Hudson Campbell, Peggy Roeder, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Bill Murray spoke during Friday’s ceremony as they honored the filmmaker.
To learn more about Harold Ramis’ career, click here.
