Throughout the late 1980s, the lanky, curly-haired bespectacled Ramis carved a secondary career as a character player, making appearances as Diane Keaton's live-in lover who leaves with she takes in a child in "Baby Boom" (1987) and offered a somewhat dramatic turn as Mark Harmon's former childhood buddy in "Stealing Home" (1988). Returning behind the camera, he had a surprise hit with the genial romantic comedy "Groundhog Day" (1993), wherein Bill Murray essayed a weatherman doomed to relive a February 2 over and over until he got it right. "Stuart Saves His Family" (1995), based on a sketch from "Saturday Night Live", however, proved less impressive to audiences, although it had a few amusing moments, many provided by writer-star Al Franken. "Multiplicity" (1996) offered a plethora of Michael Keatons as the actor played a harried businessman who allows himself to be cloned. After a cameo as Jack Nicholson's psychiatrist in "As Good As It Gets" (1997), Ramis tackled the popular comedy "Analyze This" (1999) a canny mismatched buddy film which cast Billy Crystal as a therapist who becomes embroiled in the affairs of one his patients, mob boss Robert De Niro--Ramis and his cast would later reunite for the lackluster 2002 sequel "Analyze That." Next up was "Bedazzled," a 2000 update of the original 1967 British comedy penned by Peter Cook, in which a hopeless dweeb (Brendan Fraser) is granted seven wishes by the Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) to snare the girl of his dreams in exchange for his soul. The funny film had its admirers but wound up in box office hell. Another minor acting gig followed in the low-profile comedy "I'm with Lucy" (2002) before Ramis attempted a semi-radical shifting of gears with "The Ice Harvest" (2005), a bleak film noir layered with pitch-black comedy, featuring John Cusack as a small-town mob accountant trying to survive a dangerous, icy Christmas Eve after he and his accomplice (Billy Bob Thornton) steal millions from his client (Randy Quaid). Though not for all audiences--or even Ramis core fan base--the film very effective and grimly amusing effort.