Murray was considered essential to "Ghostbusters" potential success, but he was known for not committing to projects until the last minute. Price agreed to fund Murray's passion project "The Razor's Edge", believing if it failed it would lose very little money, but he hoped the gesture would secure Murray's commitment to "Ghostbusters". Christopher Walken, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Jeff Goldblum were considered to portray Egon. Ramis was inspired by the cover of a journal on abstract architecture for Egon's appearance. It featured a man wearing a three-piece tweed suit, wire-rim glasses, with his hair standing straight up. He took the character's first name from a Hungarian refugee he attended school with and the surname of historian Oswald Spengler. Apart from the three main stars, Medjuck was largely responsible for casting the other roles. Ernie Hudson went through about five auditions for the character of Winston Zeddemore. According to him, an earlier version of the script gave Winston a larger role as an Air Force demolitions expert with an elaborate backstory. Excited by the part, he agreed to the job for half his usual salary. The night before shooting began, he was given a new script with a greatly reduced role; Reitman told him the studio wanted to expand Murray's part. Aykroyd has said this was the role intended for Eddie Murphy, although Reitman refuted this. Gregory Hines was also considered for the part.