- Tony Shaloub, Galaxy Quest, 1999. A TV sf cast answer another planet’s cry for help! First developed by Ramis for Disney as Captain Starshine, he left the conspicuously non-Asian Tech Sergeant Chen before the project finally took off at DreamWorks.Ramis always set out to be a combo of Cary Grant, Errol Flynn and Harpo Marx – “that was my ideal man.”
- Eddie Murphy, The Haunted Mansion, 2003. Phantoms were in and Disney was ready with this this spectre special… as long as one of the 1983 Ghostbusters agreed to be Jim Evers. None did. Not Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray or Rock Moranis. Twenty years later, Murphy headed the tale named after rather than based upon the Disneyland attrraction.
- Gary Shandling, Over The Hedge, 2006. The DreamWorkers wanted Bill Murray and Ramis to voice racoon RJ and turtle Verne. And settled for Bruce Willis and Shandling. But this was no Shrek.Ramis and Bill Murray never spoke to each other for 21 years after Groundhog Day. “At times, Bill was just irrationally mean and unavailable,” said Ramis. “He was constantly late on set. What I’d want to say to him is just what we tell our children: You don’t have to throw tantrums to get what you want. Just say what you want.” They made up shortly before Ramis died in 2014.
Birth year: 1944Death year: 2014Other name: Casting Calls: 3