MovieChat Forums > Ghostbusters (1984) Discussion > Could Harold Ramis had worked as the lea...

Could Harold Ramis had worked as the lead in a movie?

posted 4 years ago by TMC-4 (19408)
3 replies | jump to latest

To the best of my knowledge, he was never the true, out and out lead in the movies that he actually acted in. Ghostbusters was really an ensemble and while you can argue that he was the co-lead in Stripes with Bill Murray, he was otherwise the straight-man to Murray and his smug asshole shtick. He was also in Baby Boom, where he plays Diane Keaton's boyfriend at the beginning who disappears 30 minutes in. Do you think that had Ramis acted more instead of focuses solely on directing that he could've gotten parts that Jeff Goldblum turned down? Ramis you can say, sort of had a "sexy nerd" type of vibe, at least as Egon (I mean, why else was Janine digging him).

[–] Kowalski (57902) 4 years ago

I LOVE HIS WORK....A LESSER MENTIONEDE ROLE IS IN STEALING HOME,HE IS GREAT IN THAT...HE WAS GETTING GOOD AT PLAYING OLDER FATHERS TOWARDS THE END OF HIS LIFE TOO...I THINK HE COULD HAVE BEEN A VERY ENTERTAINING LEAD...I DONT THINK HE EVER WANTED THAT THOUGH.

[–] pioneergrrrl (2389) 3 years ago

He was doing stuff less kid oriented--unlike Murray and Akroyd. Egon was the serious one. Yes he probably needed to hook up with Janine. She dug him bc he did not goof off/mess up and actually wanted to save the day. The second one should have been about the two of them.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7401) 3 years ago

Somehow I can see him working in Jeff Goldblum's roles in Jurassic Park and Independence Day. But he really wanted to focus on directing. The last movie I saw him in was the 1997 movie As Good as it gets. Though I didn't see it til the mid 2000s.