LOS ANGELES -- Actor Dan Aykroyd is mourning the passing of his friend Harold Ramis.

Ramis died of complications from an autoimmune inflammatory disease on Monday morning in his suburban Chicago home.

Aykroyd and Ramis knew each other for years. They both were alums of the famed Chicago comedy troupe, Second City. And they both starred in "Ghostbusters" with fellow Second City alum Bill Murray.

In a brief statement, Aykroyd calls Ramis his "brilliant, gifted, funny, friend, co-writer/performer and teacher." He ends the statement with his hope that Ramis might "now get the answers he was always seeking."