Daniel Edward Aykroyd
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Reading time
2,500
Words
Published
185
Film credits
6
Books
7
Awards
Dan Aykroyd co-wrote and starred in Ghostbusters in 1984 as Dr. Raymond Stantz. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live starting in 1975, where he created the Blues Brothers with John Belushi. Aykroyd earned a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series and was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998.
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Dan Aykroyd — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Dan Aykroyd, born on July 1, 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, to Lorraine and Peter Aykroyd — a civil engineer who advised Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau — managed the after-hours speakeasy Club 505 in Toronto and joined the Second City stage troupe while working as a comedian. He attended Carleton University in 1969 studying Criminology and Sociology but dropped out.
Aykroyd became an original cast member of Saturday Night Live in 1975, where he and John Belushi created the Blues Brothers, later a hit film in 1980. He co-wrote and starred in Ghostbusters in 1984, a cultural phenomenon. In 1989, he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Driving Miss Daisy. Aykroyd also directed and starred in Nothing But Trouble in 1991, earning a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor.
Aykroyd married actress Donna Dixon in 1983 after meeting on the set of Doctor Detroit; Fran Drescher helped bring them together. They have three daughters: Danielle born in 1989, Belle in 1993, and Stella in 1998. Diagnosed as a child with Tourette’s syndrome and Asperger syndrome, his symptoms mostly subsided by age 14. He has heterochromia, one brown eye and one green eye, and syndactylism.
In 1998, Aykroyd was made a Member of the Order of Canada and received an honorary doctorate from Carleton University in 1994. His films The Blues Brothers from 1980 and Ghostbusters from 1984 are in the National Film Registry. He hosts the syndicated radio show Elwood’s BluesMobile as his Blues Brothers character. He co-created the 1980 film The Blues Brothers and the 1984 film Ghostbusters, and shaped Saturday Night Live’s early years.
Browse the complete filmography of Dan Aykroyd — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Dan Aykroyd — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Dan Aykroyd's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Dan Aykroyd — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
The Entertainment Business Is Not the Be All and End All for Me.
I Have This Kind of Mild Nice Guy Exterior, but Inside My Heart Is Like a Steel Trap. I’m Really Quite Robotic.
I Get off on Fantasy. I Love Fiction of All Kinds. I’ve Always Been a Big Fan of Science Fiction and of the Worlds of the Spiritual and the Mystic. I Think Those Areas Are a Never Ending Source for Story Ideas.
My Attitude Has Always Been, Hey, Wouldn’t It Be Funny If . If This Makes Me Laugh, Maybe Somebody Else Will Laugh at It, Too. That’s Really Where I’ve Always Come From. My Whole Thing Is to Entertain, Make People Laugh and to Forget About the Real World for Awhile. It’s Not Always Easy Doing That. I’m Never Completely Happy with Anything I’ve Done. If I’ve Been Successful with 80 Percent of Everything I’ve Done, Then I’m Doing All Right by the Audience and Myself.
Little-known facts about Dan Aykroyd — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Jamie Lee Curtis, after three films together, called Aykroyd the best screen kisser she ever shared a scene with.
He was born with complete heterochromia: one eye is brown and one eye is green.
He and Bill Murray resumed their Ghostbusters roles to visit a terminally ill child who was a fan of the film and wanted to meet them.
He is part owner of a company that owns the exclusive distribution rights to Patron tequila for Canada and now distills a vodka called Crystal Head in a skull-shaped glass bottle.
As a child in the early 1960s, he was diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome and Asperger syndrome, symptoms mostly subsiding by age 14.
Aykroyd and John Belushi were scheduled to present the first Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 1982 Academy Awards, but Belushi died weeks before. Aykroyd presented alone, saying, My partner would have loved to have been here tonight to present this award, since he was a bit of a Visual Effect himself.
He used to refer to the green Slimer ghost from Ghostbusters 1984 as the ghost of John Belushi, as Slimer’s party animal personality reminded him of his friend.
He met John Belushi in a Chicago speakeasy and put on a blues record while they discussed Aykroyd joining Saturday Night Live. Belushi became fascinated with blues music, leading to their Blues Brothers act with input from SNL music director Howard Shore.
His original finished script for The Blues Brothers 1980 was over 300 pages, roughly the size of a phone book, which he sent to director John Landis in a phone book guise as a joke.
He was very close with River Phoenix during filming of Sneakers 1992, and can be seen wearing Phoenix’s band Aleka’s Attic shirt in the movie.
He spends every Canada Day July 1 performing civic duty in Kingston, Ontario; one year he was appointed a Citizenship Judge and swore in immigrants as Canadian citizens.
He is ambidextrous, evident when he writes left-handed during the examination scene in Spies Like Us 1985.
He proposed to Donna Dixon on Fran Drescher’s porch; Drescher played a major role in getting them together after they all starred in Doctor Detroit 1983.
A police buff, he rides an Ontario Provincial Police motorcycle, collects police badges, sometimes rides shotgun with detectives, and owns a business with Toronto police officers.
As an avid blues fan, he hosted the nationally syndicated radio show House of Blues as his Blues Brothers character Elwood Blues.
He is very interested in the supernatural and has an extensive collection of books on the subject.
He is a big fan of paleontology and natural history; his wife and three daughters appeared on Born to Explore in 2014 at the Pipestone Creek dinosaur dig in Alberta.
He has a Blues Brothers-type band with John Belushi’s brother Jim Belushi.
He is a victim of syndactylism, a birth defect where several digits are fused together; in Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video 1979 he reveals this anomaly on-screen.
He wrote Ghostbusters as a tribute to his family’s belief in astrology, mediumship, and spirituality.
On his passport, he lists his occupation as Writer.
He is the first male regular cast member of Saturday Night Live to be nominated for an Academy Award. Joan Cusack was the first regular cast member overall.
When Michael Palin guest-hosted, he remarked that Aykroyd was the only American who could have joined Monty Python, ironically noting Aykroyd is Canadian.
He has owned or co-owned several bars and restaurants, including the Hard Rock Cafe in New York and the House of Blues chain with John Belushi’s widow Judy.
He is a big fan of The Beach Boys; his first piece of writing was a sketch in the documentary The Beach Boys: It’s OK 1976.
He once helped subdue a drunk and disorderly passenger on a Montreal-to-Los Angeles flight.
His original idea for Ghostbusters 1984 was set in the future with an army of Ghostbusters fighting hordes of ghosts.
He supports MUFON, a UFO study group.
He has played harmonica since he was 17 years old.
His daughters with Donna Dixon: Danielle Alexandra born November 18, 1989, Belle Kingston born June 9, 1993, and Stella Irene August born April 5, 1998 weighing 6 lb.
A false story states he was married in the 1970s to a woman named Maureen Lewis and had three sons, but it was invented in a phony biography questionnaire.
His grandfather was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
One SNL writer said his ultimate fantasy was to commit a crime then arrest himself; he has a fascination with both police and criminals.
He worked as a mail sorter for Canada’s national postal service before becoming an actor.
He owns Dan Aykroyd’s Wine, an Ontario-based distillery or vineyard, with the name inspired by Paul Newman.
He is the only one of the four main Ghostbusters actors to play his role outside the two movies, appearing as Dr. Raymond Stantz in Casper 1995.
He and M. Night Shyamalan are the only two men to direct themselves in performances that won a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor; Aykroyd won for Nothing But Trouble 1991, which he also directed.
He hosts the nationally and internationally syndicated radio show Elwood’s BluesMobile, formerly House of Blues Radio Hour, under his Blues Brothers moniker Elwood Blues.
He was good friends with John Belushi.
He is a huge fan of Dragnet and Jack Webb; many of his characters rapidly spit out technical information like Webb’s Sgt. Joe Friday, e.g., in The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, 1941, and SNL Weekend Update.
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