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For a time, Aykroyd was engaged to ''[[Star Wars]]'' actress [[Carrie Fisher]] (who hosted the Saturday Night Live episode in which Aykroyd and Belushi gave their first polished performance as the Blues Brothers, and had a cameo role in the Blues Brothers film). He has been inducted into [[Canada's Walk of Fame]] and maintains his Canadian roots as a longtime resident of [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Ontario]]. In [[1994]] Aykroyd received an [[honorary degree|honorary]] Doctor of Literature degree from Carleton University. In [[1998]], he was made a Member of the [[Order of Canada]].
For a time, Aykroyd was engaged to ''[[Star Wars]]'' actress [[Carrie Fisher]] (who hosted the Saturday Night Live episode in which Aykroyd and Belushi gave their first polished performance as the Blues Brothers, and had a cameo role in the Blues Brothers film). He has been inducted into [[Canada's Walk of Fame]] and maintains his Canadian roots as a longtime resident of [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Ontario]]. In [[1994]] Aykroyd received an [[honorary degree|honorary]] Doctor of Literature degree from Carleton University. In [[1998]], he was made a Member of the [[Order of Canada]].


Akkroyd also received a dubious honor in [[1997]], when the [[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]] "awarded" him the Snuffed Candle award, for "contributing to the public's lack of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry." CSICOP did this in response to Akroyd's program Psi Factor.<ref>http://www.csicop.org/si/9705/news.html</ref>
Akkroyd also received a dubious honor in [[1997]], when the [[Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]] "awarded" him the Snuffed Candle award, for "contributing to the public's lack of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry." CSICOP did this in response to Akroyd's program Psi Factor.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.csicop.org/si/9705/news.html<ref>


Aykroyd married actress [[Donna Dixon]] in 1983. They have three daughters.
Aykroyd married actress [[Donna Dixon]] in 1983. They have three daughters.

Revision as of 12:57, 12 November 2006

Dan Aykroyd

Daniel Edward Aykroyd CM (born July 1, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, and musician. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of the Blues Brothers (with John Belushi), and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.

Biography

Early life

Aykroyd was born in Hull, Quebec and grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. His father, Peter Hugh Samuel Cuthbert Aykroyd, was a policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His mother, Lorraine Gougeon, is Franco-Ontarian. Brother Peter also became a comedy actor.

Aykroyd was born with syndactyly (webbed toes) and heterochromia (the condition of having two differently-colored eyes). In an audio interview with Terry Gross, he described himself as having mild Tourette's syndrome that was successfully treated with therapy when he was a preteen, as well as mild Asperger syndrome. The latter can manifest itself in a fascination with narrowly-defined interests, such as police work, and Aykroyd carries a police badge at all times. (It is unclear if Aykroyd received these diagnoses from a medical source or whether they were self-made. The interviewer indicated that she couldn't tell if Aykroyd was kidding.)

Aykroyd attended Roman Catholic high schools at Ottawa, St Pius X and St. Patrick's, where he was briefly expelled from the latter. (He dressed up a pig to look like the pope and brought it to school for show and tell. Predictably, the nuns were not amused.) Aykroyd went on to study criminology and sociology at Carleton University but dropped out before completing.

He worked as a comedian in various Canadian nightclubs. Aykroyd went on to gain experience in The Second City comedy troupe and in the National Lampoon stage shows. While working with Second City, Aykroyd moonlighted as the announcer for Citytv in Toronto.

Saturday Night Live

Aykroyd gained fame on the American late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live, where he was a writer and cast member for its first four seasons, from 1975 to 1979. Aykroyd brought a unique sensibility to the show, combining youth, unusual interests, talent as an impersonator and an almost lunatic intensity. (Eric Idle, of Monty Python, once said that Aykroyd's ability to write and act out characters flawlessly made him the only member of the SNL cast capable of having been a Python.)

He was known for his impersonations of celebrities like Jimmy Carter (where the President talked someone down from a bad acid trip by telling them to listen to some Allman Brothers), Richard Nixon, Julia Child (in an oft-replayed sketch where she cannot stop bleeding after cutting herself while cooking), Tom Snyder, and others. He was also known for his recurring roles, such as Beldar, father in the Coneheads family; with Steve Martin, one of the "Two Wild and Crazy Guys" Czech brothers; sleazy late-night cable TV host E. Buzz Miller and his cousin, corrupt maker of children's toys and costumes Irwin Mainway; Fred Garvin – male prostitute; and high-bred but low-brow critic Leonard Pinth-Garnell. He also co-hosted the Weekend Update segment for a season with Jane Curtin, coining the famous catchphrase "Jane, you ignorant slut" during point-counterpoint segments.

Aykroyd's talent was recognized by others in the highly competitive SNL environment: when he first presented his famous "Super Bass-O-Matic '76" sketch, a fake commercial in which a garish, hyper pitchman (modeled after Ron Popeil) touts a food blender that turns an entire bass into liquid pulp, "to [other writers and cast members] the 'Bass-O-Matic' was so exhilaratingly strange that many remember sitting and listening, open-mouthed ... Nobody felt jealous of it because they couldn't imagine writing anything remotely like it." [Hill and Weingrad p. 143]

While Aykroyd was a close friend and partner with fellow cast member John Belushi and shared some of the same sensibilities, Aykroyd was more reserved and less self-destructive.

In 1977 he received an Emmy Award for writing on Saturday Night Live; he later received two more nominations for writing, and one each for acting and Outstanding Comedy-Variety series.

In later decades, Aykroyd made occasional guest appearances and unannounced cameos on Saturday Night Live, often impersonating the humorous but slightly bitter American politician Bob Dole.

The Blues Brothers

Dan Aykroyd (left) with John Belushi in The Blues Brothers

Aykroyd was good friends with John Belushi, who recruited him for Saturday Night Live. According to Aykroyd, it was his first meeting with Belushi that helped spark their popular Blues Brothers act. When they met in a speakeasy Aykroyd frequented, Aykroyd put on a blues record to play in the background, and it stimulated a fascination with Blues in Belushi, who was primarily a fan of heavy metal. Aykroyd educated John on the finer points of blues music and, with a little encouragement from then-SNL music director Paul Shaffer, it led to the creation of their Blues Brothers characters.

Aykroyd and Belushi were scheduled to present the first ever Visual Effects Award, but Belushi died only a few weeks prior to the ceremony. Though devastated by his friend's death, Aykroyd presented the award alone, remarking from the stage "My partner would have loved to have been here to present this, given that he was something of a visual effect himself." Not a few years before, when he and John Belushi were making an appearance on the "Today" show, he referred to them as "kindred spirits." In the biography "Belushi", Aykroyd claims that John Belushi was the only man he could ever dance with.

In 1992, Aykroyd, along with many other notable music and Hollywood personalities, founded the House of Blues. Its mission is to promote African-American cultural contributions of blues music and folk art. As of 2004, it was the second-largest live music promoter in the world, with seven venues and 22 amphitheaters in the United States and Canada.

Film career

After leaving Saturday Night Live, Aykroyd starred in a number of mainly comedy films, with uneven results both commercially and artistically. When starting out in the film industry Aykroyd would star with his old friend Belushi in three films, the above-mentioned The Blues Brothers as well as Neighbors and 1941. One of his best-received performances was as a blueblood-turned-wretch in the 1983 comic drama Trading Places; a notable flop was in the earlier 1941 (though director Steven Spielberg received the brunt of the criticism).

Aykroyd originally wrote the role of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984) with John Belushi in mind, but rewrote the part for another famous SNL player, Bill Murray, after Belushi died. Aykroyd used to joke that the green ghoul (who would later come to be known as "Slimer" in the animated series) was "the ghost of John Belushi", based on the similar party animal personality. Ghostbusters became a huge success for Aykroyd as a co-creator, co-writer, and one of the lead actors.

Aykroyd's acting career reached its peak when he received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for 1989's Driving Miss Daisy'.

His directorial debut was 1991's Nothing But Trouble. It starred Demi Moore, Chevy Chase, John Candy and Aykroyd himself, sporting an oddly phallic prosthetic nose. The film was a critical and box office flop. Other efforts in the 1990s, including Exit to Eden, Blues Brothers 2000, and Getting Away with Murder, were also poorly received.

In the 2000s, Aykroyd's film appearances have tended to be small character parts in big-budget productions, such as a signals analyst in Pearl Harbor and a neurologist in 50 First Dates.

Family and honors

For a time, Aykroyd was engaged to Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher (who hosted the Saturday Night Live episode in which Aykroyd and Belushi gave their first polished performance as the Blues Brothers, and had a cameo role in the Blues Brothers film). He has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame and maintains his Canadian roots as a longtime resident of Kingston, Ontario. In 1994 Aykroyd received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Carleton University. In 1998, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Akkroyd also received a dubious honor in 1997, when the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal "awarded" him the Snuffed Candle award, for "contributing to the public's lack of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry." CSICOP did this in response to Akroyd's program Psi Factor.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.csicop.org/si/9705/news.html<ref>

Aykroyd married actress Donna Dixon in 1983. They have three daughters.

He is Canadian of French and English extraction and can trace his family name back to the Norman Conquest.

Soul Man

In 1997, Aykroyd starred in a short-lived sitcom on ABC called Soul Man, a spinoff of the popular sitcom Home Improvement. The show only lasted one season, although the reasons for its cancellation are hard to come by. Aykroyd has said he no longer wanted to do the show and didn't like its schedule.

Wine Maker

As of 2006 Dan Aykroyd has entered a partnership with a Niagara region winery called Lakeview. Lakeview is an established winery that includes EastDell estates, Thomas & Vaughn, and Birchwood Cellars. Dan is in the process of getting a red wine under his name and has teamed up with winemaker Tom Green (not the TV actor) and is also considering a beer and vodka label with the Coneheads name.

Filmography

Trivia

  • There is a Scottish band called Dananananaykroyd, signed to England's Jealous Records label, whose single was rated 8/10 on Channel 4's Planet Sound Teletext service.
  • In a large number of his films, the actor appears barechested.

References

  • Hill, Doug, and Weingrad, Jeff, Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. Vintage Books, 1986. ISBN 0-394-75053-5.
Preceded by Weekend Update
1977–1978 		Succeeded by
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