“I’m terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought.”

That is what I said when I was informed Harold Ramis died today.

To me, it was perhaps the best of the dozens of funny lines from the 1984 move Ghostbusters. And it was spoken with perfect, deadpan clarity by the Ramis character, the stiff parapsychologist Egon Spengler, who isn’t scared, who isn’t frightened, but who is “terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought” — which of course, is a very rational thought.

The movie, which was Ramis’s best, as an actor, also boasted Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Sigourney Weaver.

Some thoughts about Ramis:

–In every movie in which he appeared, he was a likable character. He played a likable smart-ass enlistee in Stripes, and a likable academic in Ghostbusters (I and II), a likeable neurologist in Groundhog Day.

–He is best remembered by movie fans for his acting roles, but he made a bigger impression as a writer, in Animal House, Caddyshack (which I actually hated for being a bit too crude) and the movies mentioned above.

Animal House, for those of you too young to have seen it, was The Hangover of the second half of the Baby Boomer generation, and even some who came after.

(We owned the VHS of Ghostbusters, and my son and I watched it nearly every day for a year or so. He was always frightened by the roaring ghost in the first scene, but the rest of it amused him … he was 4 or 5 … especially the “sliming” and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.)

Ramis seemed like a good guy, which his New York Times obituary seems to confirm, and he certainly was part of the move towards irreverent comedy, from the late 1970s forward, a style which dominated comedy until the arrival of the bromance.

And he was the most interesting character in one of my favorite 20 movies. (For a refresher on Ghostbusters, see the memorable lines from IMDB.com.)

Have to love a guy who can produce the “Don’t cross the streams” dialogue, and I prefer to believe Ramis wrote that bit of the movie, because his character is in the middle of it.

Let’s recap it, with Bill Murray as Venkman and Aykroyd as Stantz.

Spengler: “There’s something very important I forgot to tell you.”

Venkman: “What?”

Spengler: “Don’t cross the streams.”

Venkman: “Why?”

Spengler: “It would be bad.”

Venkman: “I’m fuzzy on this whole good/bad thing. What do you mean ‘bad’?”

Spengler: “Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.”

Stantz: “Total protonic reversal.”

Venkman: “Right. That’s bad. OK. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.”

Harold Ramis, ladies and gentlemen.