Read ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ actor Paul Rudd’s touching tribute to Harold Ramis

Ghostbusters: Afterlife wouldn’t be here without the amazing, hilarious work of the original Ghostbusters actors from the 1980s films. Paul Rudd is very aware of this, and he took some time during his appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert recently to pay tribute to one of those actors.

Harold Ramis, who played Egon Spengler in the first two films in the franchise, passed away from complications due to autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis in 2014. He was 69. Rudd told Colbert that although he didn’t get to spend a lot of time with the actor, even the short instances when they met made an impact.

“I was such a huge Harold Ramis fan. That’s a movie where, really, you watch it and go, ‘Every single person in it is brilliant.’ I felt that way and feel that way about everybody, including not just all of the Ghostbusters, but Rick Moranis and Sigourney Weaver, across the board,” Rudd said. “It was interesting to, all of a sudden, know this movie my whole life then get to work on it with Jason Reitman, whose father directed the original.” 

He then talked about how acting in the movie made him think about Ramis from time to time.

“It did make me think about Harold Ramis. I knew him a little, yeah. Actually, he played [Seth Rogen’s] dad in Knocked Up and he was a director, I worked on a movie he directed just for a day or two, but he was such a lovely guy. And, as you know, you’re a comedy fan, I think any comedy enthusiast knows just what an important figure he is in the world of comedy.”

Rudd’s tribute didn’t end there. He mentioned how Ramis was a magically magnetic individual.

“Such a brilliant guy and Second City and an incredible writer, an amazing director, his body of work that he left behind … [He was] the sweetest person. I got to go out to dinner with him and he was really forthcoming about his life and talking about different people he’s worked with and there was something special, just, I think, if you entered his orbit a little bit, you got sucked into it and thought, ‘Man, this guy’s incredible.’ So being around all of this now, it makes me miss him.”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife comes out on Nov. 19. Are you looking forward to it or do you think it might miss the mark? Let us know in a comment!