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WORK TITLE: Ghostbuster’s Daughter
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1977
WEBSITE:
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
Daughter of Harold Ramis.
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | n 2017068019 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/n2017068019 |
| HEADING: | Ramis Stiel, Violet |
| 000 | 00405cz a2200121n 450 |
| 001 | 10604571 |
| 005 | 20171113110258.0 |
| 008 | 171113n| azannaabn |a aaa |
| 010 | __ |a n 2017068019 |
| 040 | __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |
| 100 | 1_ |a Ramis Stiel, Violet |
| 400 | 1_ |a Stiel, Violet Ramis |
| 670 | __ |a Ghostbuster’s daughter, 2018: |b ECIP t.p. (Violet Ramis Stiel) ECIP application (daughter of Ghostbusters star Harold Ramis) |
PERSONAL
Born 1977; daughter of Harold and Anne Ramis; married; children: six.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Homemaker and author. Worked previously as a social worker and teacher. Actor in films, including Caddyshack, 1980; National Lampoon’s Vacation, 1983; and Stuart Saves His Family, 1995. Also appeared in Ghostheads, 2016.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Violet Ramis Stiel has cultivated numerous careers throughout adulthood, including her break into the writing industry. She has also been involved in social work and teaching. However, she is most well known to the public through her father, Harold Ramis, who directed and acted in such movies as Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters.
Ghostbuster’s Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis serves as a remembrance of Ramis through Stiel’s eyes. In an interview featured on the Entertainment Weekly website, Stiel explained that her initial plans were to compose a book on parenting advice in cooperation with Ramis. However, once he passed away, she instead decided to give him homage through writing.
The book starts at the very beginning of Ramis’s own life, starting with his childhood and tracing all the way to when Ramis first began cultivating his career within the film industry. He started off working for Playboy magazine, where he served as a comedy editor. From there, he moved on to work with other publications and programs, such as the National Lampoon Radio Hour. It wasn’t until later in his career that he broke into the world of film.
Stiel devotes as much focus within the book on her own experiences while growing up having Ramis as a father as she does Ramis’s career. She describes Ramis as a lax father, who allowed Stiel abundant freedom as she grew. She spent her early years meeting with some of the biggest names in the film industry, watching the goings-on as they unfolded on set, and indulging in her own misadventures in the form of sex, drugs, and general unruliness. She also shares some of the lesser known details of Ramis’s life, including the fact that both Ramis and Stiel’s mother carried on numerous consensual relationships with other people throughout their marriage. Additionally, Ramis freely experimented with drugs.
All the same, Ramis was able to nurture Stiel throughout her upbringing. In addition to her writings, Stiel also added in pictures of her father, family, and friends over the years, both during simpler moments as well as on different movie sets. Stiel also imparts different tales regarding the movies her father created and the mishaps that occurred on-set. Towards the end of the book, Stiel goes into Ramis’s final years as he battled (and ultimately succumbed to) vasculitis. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book “a touching homage to a beloved father and a sufficiently amusing tribute to a comedy legend, but it’s less compelling as a memoir.” A writer in Publishers Weekly remarked: “Stiel renders a three-dimensional image of her father as an emblematic figure in comedy.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2018, review of Ghostbuster’s Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis.
Publishers Weekly, March 12, 2018, review of Ghostbuster’s Daughter, p. 48.
ONLINE
Chicago Tribune Online, http://www.chicagotribune.com/ (November 28, 2016), Nina Metz, “Harold Ramis’ daughter writing book about her father.”
Entertainment Weekly, http://ew.com/ (January 17, 2018), David Canfield, “Harold Ramis’ daughter, Violet Ramis Stiel, reveals the personal life of a comedy icon in Ghostbuster’s Daughter,” author interview.
Internet Movie Database, https://www.imdb.com/ (July 13, 2018), author profile.
Penguin Random House website, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/ (July 13, 2018), author profile.
Woodstock Independent Online, https://www.thewoodstockindependent.com/ (June 7, 2018), Susan W. Murray, “‘He was most proud of Groundhog Day.’”
About the Author
Violet Ramis Stiel is the eldest child of beloved comedy legend Harold Ramis (Animal House, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day). Formerly a teacher and social worker, Violet is now a full-time writer and disgruntled homemaker. She lives in New York City with her husband and their (blended) six children.
Biography
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Jump to: Mini Bio (1) | Trivia (4)
Mini Bio (1)
Violet Ramis is known for her work on Caddyshack (1980), Stuart Saves His Family (1995) and Ghostheads (2016).
Trivia (4)
Daughter of Harold Ramis and Anne Ramis.
Older stepsister of Julian Arthur Ramis and Daniel Ramis (Daniel Hayes Ramis).
Stepdaughter of Erica Mann.
Goddaughter of Bill Murray.
Hide Hide Actress (3 credits)
1995 Stuart Saves His Family
P.A.
1983 National Lampoon's Vacation
Daisy Mabel (uncredited)
1980 Caddyshack
Noonan Child
Hide Hide Miscellaneous Crew (1 credit)
1995 Stuart Saves His Family (production assistant)
Hide Hide Self (1 credit)
2016 Ghostheads (Documentary)
Herself
Stiel, Violet Ramis: GHOSTBUSTER'S DAUGHTER
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Stiel, Violet Ramis GHOSTBUSTER'S DAUGHTER Blue Rider Press (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 6, 5 ISBN: 978-0-7352-1787-4
The daughter of legendary filmmaker Harold Ramis (1944-2014) chronicles her wild Hollywood upbringing and close relationship with her father.
Even in the pre-internet era, having a permissive and free-wheeling celebrity parent could be challenging, as Stiel proves in detailing her youthful rebelliousness, drug use, and promiscuity. There were, however, obvious advantages as well, ranging from the opportunity to hang out with legendary actors in exotic locations to financial support that enabled a directionless young woman to eventually find her way in the world. By turns frank and fawning when assessing her extended family's ability to navigate the perils of public life, the author's affection for her dad, a beloved figure in Hollywood, dominates the narrative. She joins the #metoo movement by (gently) chiding her father for some of the more questionable scenes in his movies and, more movingly, by sharing her own story of abuse at the hands of her mother's boyfriend at age 9. While there are some juicy nuggets of gossip sprinkled throughout--the most shocking being the revelation that Harold Ramis was the father of Clueless director Amy Heckerling's daughter--fans looking for new insight into the two-decade rift between Ramis and Bill Murray that followed the completion of Groundhog Day or behind-the-scenes Ghostbusters secrets will be disappointed. The book closes with a sobering account of the director's long bout with vasculitis, an ordeal his wife kept under wraps in hopes of preserving his ability to return to work if he recovered, depriving his family of support from the entertainment community when they needed it most. After his death, Ramis received an outpouring of love, though the author struggled to come to grips with his passing even as she focused on raising her own children.
A touching homage to a beloved father and a sufficiently amusing tribute to a comedy legend, but
1 of 3 6/9/18, 12:16 AM
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it's less compelling as a memoir.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Stiel, Violet Ramis: GHOSTBUSTER'S DAUGHTER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. Book
Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528959972/GPS?u=schlager& sid=GPS&xid=2be3ad5d. Accessed 9 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528959972
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Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis
Publishers Weekly.
265.11 (Mar. 12, 2018): p48+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis Violet Ramis Stiel. Blue Rider, $28 (384p)
ISBN 978-0-7352-1787-4
Stiel debuts with a family memoir that offers an intimate view of her father: writer, actor, and director Harold Ramis (Animal House, Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day), who died in 2014. Short, digestible chapters describe Ramis's early life and career, including editing jokes at Playboy, collaborating on National Lampoon Radio Hour, and his subsequent foray into filmmaking. A thorough exploration of family dynamics runs parallel to Ramis's professional arc, showcasing a more intimate side of the comedic legend largely unknown to admirers of his work. Ramis adopted a loose, relaxed approach to parenting, and Stiel writes that he was unabashed about his recreational drug use and had an open marriage arrangement with Stiel's mother. Stiel recalls the warmth and compassion that radiated from Ramis as he nurtured his young daughter and helped shape her personality and worldview. Accounts of Ramis's films are interspersed among these heartfelt anecdotes and hilarious asides, and Stiel often includes personal photos on location and unique insight into her father's state of mind (he was disappointed with his ending of National Lampoon's Vacation, and often apologized to the actors involved). In a work sure to satisfy fans of Ramis, Stiel renders a three-dimensional image of her father as an emblematic figure in comedy. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis." Publishers Weekly, 12 Mar. 2018, p.
48+. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A531285124 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=2dd04122. Accessed 9 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A531285124
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Harold Ramis' daughter, Violet Ramis Stiel, reveals the personal life of a comedy icon in Ghostbuster's Daughter
Rahav Segev/WireImage; Blue Rider Press
David Canfield
January 17, 2018 at 12:00 PM EST
Violet Ramis Stiel is hoping to provide fans with a more nuanced, holistic portrait of her father.
Stiel is the daughter of the beloved late director and actor Harold Ramis, best known for writing such comedy classics as Groundhog Day and Ghostbusters. In May 2010, he contracted an infection that resulted in complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, and in 2014, died of complications from the disease.
Stiel, of course, knew a different side of Ramis than his legion of loyal fans. She grew up with him as a father, confidante, and friend, and losing him dealt a far more personal blow to her than to those who’d long admired his work. It’s why she decided to write Ghostbuster’s Daughter, her upcoming book: to pay tribute to the man, while also offering those who loved him a new way of looking at him.
To write the book, Stiel went through thousands of old photos, many of which she’d never seen before, and letters Ramis wrote, including them in the book for all to see. The more she learned about her father’s life, the more she realized his flaws as well as his virtues: She came away with a better, more complete understanding of the man than when she started the book, and conveys that realization to readers with real intimacy.
Stiel spoke to EW to preview Ghostbuster’s Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis ahead of its release this summer. Read on below for our interview and to check out the book’s cover, and be sure to pre-order here. The book will be published on June 5.
Blue Rider Press
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What made you decide to write this book?
VIOLET RAMIS STIEL: In about 2007, my dad and I had an idea to write a book together on parenting. I had small children at the time and he had two teenagers and so, even though we were very different places, there seemed to be a lot of overlap. My own childhood had been so unusual and I wondered how that affected me as a parent and how it informed his decision to do things differently the second time around. Unfortunately, we never had the chance to write that book, but after he died, I just felt like there was a story to tell there and so much of him as a parent and person that I thought was so great and just wanted to preserve and pay tribute to as much as possible.
Is there anything you learned about your dad as you worked on the book? Did you see him any differently?
I really just started with writing down one-word memories, references to things, and then I would go back and flesh them out a little more, and over time, my timeline developed. We were always so close and he was always very open with me, so I felt like I knew him really well, and I did, but obviously going through, you discover different sides of things or little inconsistencies. Looking at his letters and photos and speeches and trying to synthesize them into my own memories, it definitely raised some questions and made me see a few things in a different way. He wasn’t perfect. Before, I probably would have said, “Well, he wasn’t perfect, but he was pretty darn close,” and now I would say, “Well, no, maybe he didn’t handle that situation very well, and what can I learn from it to avoid making the same mistakes?” Just a deeper understanding.
How did you view your relationship to your dad, growing up with him, and how has that changed?
We were always very close and he was my primary parent throughout my life. Before he died, I identified with him. We really enjoyed each other’s company, we shared a similar sense of humor, sensibility, and it was like a great bonus in life to have a parent that you’re very close to that’s there for you, that cares about you, and that is all of those things to you. But also, he was like that to the world in a lot of ways through this film. I think I wasn’t as aware of his more public life or his public impact. After he died, I really heard from so many people about how much he had meant to them and the things they had learned from him through little interactions and through his work. I just realized, “It wasn’t just with me. He really was this amazing with everybody.”
As far as the private aspect of this: What was it like going through the letters and photos that are included in the book, and reliving those memories?
It was great, actually. Thank God for hoarders, right? My mom was an obsessive photographer when I was young so I went through thousands of snapshots, a lot of which I was familiar with but plenty that I’d never seen. It was exciting to rediscover him and my childhood through those images. The letters were interesting because they gave me a window into his mind, in those very specific times and places that I’d never had before. They offered a new level of insight, and others were more a validation of our family mythology or whatever. But it was fascinating to read things broken down from his perspective in his 20s and 30s and learn about him, from him, in that way.
In terms of providing that portrait of your father as you rediscovered him, how important was it to do a warts-and-all portrait, in as nuanced a way as you could?
It was really important for me to be honest in telling the story. But to be clear: It’s not a biography. There’s no claim to objectivity here; it’s my story of my life with him and the things we went through, the stories he told me from his own childhood and adolescence and early adulthood; The lessons that he taught me and the impact he had on me as a father. I talk about his films because they were a big part of his life and my memories of growing up. I talk about his challenges, the bumps in the road, and my own, because one of the most important things he taught me is that life is messy. Part of living in a conscious and balanced way is acknowledging that and finding a way to embrace it. That’s what I tried to do in this book.
What did you take away from writing this book? Do you hope readers have a similar experience?
I hope that people who were already fans of my dad will enjoy getting to know a much more personal side of him. I hope that people who aren’t really familiar with him will become fans. My dad was a brilliant, hilarious, kind, generous, wonderful, and flawed human being. He lived a full and fascinating life, and it ended way too soon. I know that even with all of my memories and experiences, I’m always wishing there were more of him. I can watch all the movies and read all the interviews, but I still want more. This is my way of sharing what I knew of him with the world. To that end, it’s been a therapeutic process, I guess, but I didn’t intend for it to be therapy. It was great to think about him all the time in a very creative and productive way, instead of just missing him and feeling sad.
Harold Ramis' daughter writing book about her father
Harold Ramis
North Shore film director Harold Ramis died in 2014. (Donna Ward/Abaca Press/MCT)
Nina MetzNina MetzContact ReporterChicago Closeup
Violet Ramis Stiel, the oldest child of film director Harold Ramis, is writing a book about her father called "Ghostbusters' Daughter," which will be published in 2018 in time for Father's Day.
A Chicago native, Harold Ramis spent the latter part of his career based in Glencoe until his death in 2014. He was the director of such films as "Groundhog Day" and "Caddyshack." A Second City alum, he also appeared in films, including "Stripes" and "Ghostbusters."
Violet Ramis confirmed on Twitter that she is working on a book, and told the website Splitsider that it will be "the story of our relationship and the weird circus that I grew up in on locations and in that world, but also the home life and the behind-the-family stories."
She also told Splitsider that she and her father originally had the "idea to write a book together before he got sick about parenting. He had teenage boys, I had small children at the time, and we just thought it would be interesting to write about all the different approaches we were taking. So we had the idea to do that together, and he got sick, and it didn’t happen. But I started to think about my own childhood and what a huge and wonderful influence he’d been, and after he passed away, I knew I had to do something to not let all that go to waste."
MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR
‘He was most proud of Groundhog Day’
by Susan W. Murray | Jun 7, 2018 11:45 am | Tags: Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis, Violet Ramis Stiel
‘He was most proud of Groundhog Day’
Violet Ramis Stiel will discuss her book about her father, director Harold Ramis, in the Harold Ramis auditorium of the Woodstock Classic Cinemas on Sunday, June 10. After her appearance, Stiel will autograph copies of her book for attendees at Read Between the Lynes.
Each February, with a four-day festival to celebrate “the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather,” the town of Woodstock relives the making of “Groundhog Day,” the film directed and written by the late Harold Ramis (with Danny Rubin). On Sunday, June 10, Woodstock residents and visitors can indulge in the movie’s magic once again.
Violet Ramis Stiel, Ramis’ daughter with his first wife, Anne, will discuss her new book “Ghostbuster’s Daughter: Life with my dad Harold Ramis,” at a ticketed event at noon in her father’s namesake auditorium at Woodstock Classic Cinemas. Groundhog Days Chairman Rick Bellairs will interview Stiel and read questions audience members submit.
After her appearance at the movie theater, Stiel will personalize copies of her book at Read Between the Lynes.
On her Facebook page, Stiel said she and her father originally intended to write a parenting book. After her father died from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis on Feb. 24, 2014, Stiel decided to change the focus of the work to be a memoir of her growing up, the story of her relationship with her father, and the tale of his Hollywood filmmaking.
Second visit here
In her book, Stiel recalls visiting her father on location in Woodstock while he was filming “Groundhog Day.”
“I was 14 during the production and visited the set with my friend Lauren for about a week,” she wrote. “My dad joked at the time that the people of Woodstock were so happy to be featured in the film, he probably could have run for mayor (and won) if he’d wanted.”
Five years after the filming, in 1997, Ramis returned to Woodstock to lead a tour of the filming sites. In an emailed response to The Independent, Stiel explained what she thinks “Groundhog Day” meant to her dad:
“I think ‘Groundhog Day’ was probably the most widely loved of my dad’s movies. When people used to ask what his favorite of his own films was, he’d say, ‘I can’t answer that! That’s like asking a parent who their favorite child is.’ But I do think he was most proud of ‘Groundhog Day.’ And a huge part of why it’s such a great film is the authentic small-town magic and warmth that Woodstock provided, both on-screen and behind the scenes.”
In preparation for his role as moderator, Bellairs received an advance copy of the book that came out on June 5. Besides sure-to-be popular “Groundhog Day” topics, Bellairs has a wealth of material from which to draw his questions. Ramis wrote, starred in, and/or directed the definitive blockbuster comedies of the late 1970s and early 1980s, including “Animal House,” “Caddyshack,” “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters.”
Additionally, Stiel writes about the dissolution of Bill Murray and Ramis’ friendship and working partnership after “Groundhog Day,” which persisted for 21 years, until shortly before Ramis’ death.
Stiel is promoting her book in New York, New Jersey, and California, as well as at an appearance with WGN’s Rick Kogan at the Printers Row Lit Fest on Saturday, June 9.
Unexpected appearance
The Woodstock appearance came as a complete surprise to Read Between the Lynes owner Arlene Lynes. Late in May, Lynes picked up the phone at her bookstore and found herself speaking to Maria Whelan, Stiel’s publicist. Could the bookstore put together an appearance for Stiel to talk about her book on Sunday?
“Let me check my calendar,” Lynes recalled calmly replying.
“It was hard for me not to scream into the phone,” Lynes confessed later. She told Whalen that an appearance could be arranged and then got to work on reserving the theater, setting up ticket sales, booking Bellairs as emcee, and procuring two advance copies of the book – one for Bellairs to read and one for herself and her staff to read before the event. Additionally, Lynes and her staff dressed up in Ghostbuster costumes for the Memorial Day parade to promote Stiel’s appearance.
The suggestion for the Woodstock stop on the book tour came from Greg Alloian, who read the tour information on Facebook and suggested that Stiel come to Woodstock. Alloian, too, tipped off Stiel to Read Between the Lynes.
Alloian is something of a mystery matchmaker, as his name does not ring a bell with Bellairs or Lynes, and Stiel has never met him. The man Stiel calls “the key to this whole thing” will be at the June 10 event.
In the meantime, Stiel sent him a shoutout: “Thanks, Greg! Looking forward to seeing you there!”
Tickets for Violet Ramis Stiel’s appearance are available on eventbrite.com for $35, which includes a signed copy of Stiel’s book. Additional copies of the book will be available at Read Between the Lynes for $30.