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Background:
Canadian actor and Emmy winning star Dan Aykroyd first achieved stardom as a
talented mimic and impersonator in the original crew of television’s “Saturday
Night Live” (1975-1979), in which he nabbed an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a
Comedy, Variety or Music Series in 1976/77. The huge success led to a triumphant
movie career and launched Aykroyd as one of the busiest Hollywood actors. He has
made over 50 movies since the end of the 1970s.
During his long-term career, Aykroyd had two enormous hits, John Landis’ The
Blues Brothers (1980, with his good friend John Belushi) and Ghostbusters (1984,
opposite Bill Murray), in which both movies launched franchises that still
flourish. A versatile actor, Aykroyd received critical raves with his fine
dramatic turn as the dutiful son of Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy (1989),
a role that brought Aykroyd an Academy Award nomination. He also sparkled as the
antagonistic killer in George Armitage’s glossy, snappy, stylized Grosse Pointe
Blank (1997). He is also known by fans for playing various characters in such
movies as Trading Places (1983, with Eddie Murphy), Dragnet (1987, opposite Tom
Hanks), the comedy-drama My Girl (1991) and its 1994 sequel My Girl 2, This Is
My Life (1992), the big screen version of Coneheads (1993, also scripted) and
the comedy Diamonds (1999, alongside Kirk Douglas). His more recent film credits
include Denys Arcand’s Stardom (2000), the romantic comedy Loser (2000, with
Jason Biggs), House of Mirth (2000), Pearl Harbor (2001), Evolution (2001),
Woody Allen’s The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001), Britney Spears vehicle
debut Crossroads (2002), Unconditional Love (2002, opposite Kathy Bates), the
comedy Bright Young Things (2003), the romantic comedy 50 First Dates (2004,
with Drew Barrymore) and Christmas with the Kranks (2004, with Tim Allen and
Jamie Lee Curtis). On television, Aykroyd added three Emmy Awards to his
accomplishments with his outstanding body of work in Tuesdays with Morrie (2000)
and The Simpsons (1998 and 2001, as a voice actor).
Off screen, the blues lover, Aykroyd, with many other prominent music and
Hollywood personalities, co-founded the House of Blues, whose duty is to sponsor
African-American cultural contributions of blues music and folk art, in 1992. It
has become the second-largest live music promoter in the world, with seven
venues and 22 show grounds in the United States and Canada, by the year of 2004.
The recipient of an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Carleton
University, he also serves on the Board of Directors for the
restaurant-nightclub-entertainment company the House of Blues. As for his
private life, in 1984, Aykroyd happily married actress Donna Dixon, with whom he
shares three daughters, Danielle Alexandra (born in 1989), Belle Kingston (born
in 1993) and Stella Irene Augustus (born in 1998). He also has three sons,
Oscar, Lloyd and Mark, from his previous marriage with Maureen Lewis. Aykroyd
was once romantically involved with Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher. Aykroyd and
Fisher worked together in The Blues Brothers, where she was featured as the
mysterious woman trying to kill Belushi’s character. Fisher also hosted the
Saturday Night Live episode in which Aykroyd and Belushi gave their first
graceful performance as the Blues Brothers.
Hyper Danny
Childhood and Family:
A Roman Catholic of English and French descent, Daniel Edward Aykroyd was born
on July 1, 1952, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His father is Samual Cuthbert Peter
Hugh Aykroyd, a policy adviser to Pierre Trudeau’s government, and his mother is
Lorraine Aykroyd, an executive secretary in the Canadian government. Danny, as
he was often called by his family, has a younger brother, actor and writer Peter
Aykroyd, who followed in Danny’s shadow to join the cast of Saturday Night Live.
Young Danny grew up in a strict Roman Catholic family. He was educated at the
prestigious St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary, but was briefly expelled due to
naughtiness. Adding to his bad boy image, the 14-year-old hyperactive boy was
arrested for drunkenness in Messina, New York. After eventually completing high
school from a coed Catholic school, Danny attended Carleton University in Ottawa
to study Criminology and Sociology. Taking his first lessons in improvisational
theatre when he was 12, Danny left college before he graduated to join the
Second City Stage Troupe.
Danny has been married twice. He first tied the knot with Maureen Lewis on May
10, 1974, but the couple later divorced. They share three sons, Oscar, Lloyd and
Mark. In 1984, Danny married actress Donna Dixon, with whom he has three
beautiful daughters, Danielle Alexandra (born on November 18, 1989), Belle
Kingston (born on June 9, 1993) and Stella Irene Augustus (born on April 5,
1998).
Driving Miss Daisy
Career:
Initiating acting in improvisational theater at age 12, Dan Aykroyd continued to
act in high school, appearing in a 1968 production of “Carnival” and “Murder in
the Cathedral” (1969). During his college years, Aykroyd actively participated
in the college’s Sock and Buskin Drama Guild, as well as played the harmonica
for several bands. Multi-talented Aykroyd later dropped out of collage to pursue
a stage career. In 1972, Aykroyd, who once took a job as a pitchman for cable
television commercials, honed his crafts by joining the newly formed Toronto
Second City, the notorious Chicago-based improvisational comedy troupe, where he
gained exposure as a writer and performer. The same year, he also acted in,
produced and co-wrote “A Change for a Quarter,” a series of 15-minute comedy
shows, for a private cable company. A year later, he served as a writer for a
syndicated Canadian variety/talk show called “Everything Goes.” After two years
working with his colleagues, which included future Saturday Night Live
performers Bill Murray and Gilda Radner, Aykroyd left the comedy troupe in 1974.
A year after the departure, his first brush toward fame soon arrived when
producer Lorne Michaels recruited Aykroyd as one of the original cast members of
NBC’s new late-night series “Saturday Night Live” in 1975. In the 90-minute
production that featured topical and satirical sketches and monologues, as well
as a weekly musical guest, Aykroyd charmed many viewers with his brilliant
impersonations of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon, as well as
celebrities Tom Snyder and Julia Child. Also serving as a show writer, Aykroyd
won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy, Variety or Music Series (shared
with 13 other writers) in 1976/77, in addition to receiving Emmy nominations.
Aykroyd, with the series original cast John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase,
Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman, christened themselves the “Not
Ready for Prime Time Players.” He decided to leave “SNL” in 1979.
“SNL” paved the way for Aykroyd to begin a successful film career. Breaking into
Hollywood movies with the 1979 Steven Spielberg’s period slapstick epic 1941,
Aykroyd became a favorite among comedic fans. In 1980, he costarred with close
friend and collaborator John Belushi in the successful rock & roll comedy The
Blues Brothers (1980), in which Aykroyd also co-wrote with the film director
John Landis. The following years saw the comic actor join Belushi in Neighbors
(1981), headline Doctor Detroit (1983), costar with Eddie Murphy in John Landis’
Trading Places (1983), offer his marvelous comic duet with Albert Brooks in the
Landis-helmed shaggy dog prologue to Twilight Zone - The Movie (1983) and play
Earl Weber in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
In 1984, Aykroyd scored a huge hit with the first multimillion-dollar scare
comedy Ghost Busters (1984), a film which he co-scripted with costar Harold
Ramis. They reunited in 1989 for Ghostbusters 2.
After costarring opposite Chevy Chase in Landis’ Spies Like Us (1985), Aykroyd
delivered a hilarious turn as Sgt. Joe Friday, opposite Tom Hanks, in Dragnet
(1987). By the late 80s, he had successfully transformed his screen image to a
dramatic actor with his Oscar-nominating performance as the dutiful son of
Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy (1989).
In the 1990s, Aykroyd made a reputation for himself as an appreciated character
actor by playing roles in a variety of genres. He was fairly unemotional as a
young girl’s widowed father, Harry Sultenfuss, in the comedy-drama My Girl
(1991) and its 1994 sequel My Girl 2. In 1992, he powerfully supported rising
comic Julie Kavner, as her eccentric manager, in Nora Ephron’s This Is My Life.
He next worked well with Robert Redford in the caper comedy Sneakers, and was
seen as Mack Sennett in Richard Attenborough’s ruthless, but blemished, biopic
Chaplin. The same year, Aykroyd made a rare TV guest appearance in “Yellow”
(1991), was seen in an episode of “Tales From the Crypt,” directed by Robert
Zemeckis, and debuted as a writer-director with the box office bomb Nothing But
Trouble. He fared better writing and starring in the feature length version of
Coneheads (1993), a ridiculous family film that offered amusing cameos by a
throng of “SNL” cast members from different eras. 1994-1995 saw roles in North
(1994), Exit to Eden (1994), Tommy Boy (1995), Sgt. Bilko (1996), Getting Away
with Murder (1996), Celtic Pride (1996), Rainbow (1996), Feeling Minnesota
(1996) and My Fellow Americans (1996). In 1997, Aykroyd shined as a hit man in
George Armitage’s glossy, snappy, stylized Grosse Pointe Blank.
Aykroyd headlined the sitcom “Soul Man” in the spring of 1997. Portraying a
widowed, motorcycle-riding Protestant minister raising four kids, Aykroyd failed
to win an audience that resulted in the series’ cancellation in the fall of
1998. Aykroyd had a victory in his hands with his bright work as a voice actor
in The Simpsons, where he nabbed a 1998 Emmy for Outstanding Voiceover
Performance.
In 1998, Aykroyd starred in Blues Brothers 2000, where John Goodman substituted
for the late John Belushi as his partner in blue. Once again co-written by
Aykroyd and Landis, the film featured comeback performances by Aretha Franklin
and James Brown and reestablished Kathleen Freeman (Sister Mary Stigmata) and
Frank Oz (corrections officer) in their original roles. The same year, he also
served as a creative consultant for the animated “The Blues Brothers” (1998), a
mid-season replacement on the UPN Network, where Belushi’s widow, Judith Belushi
Pisano and husband Victor Pisano, also received credit as creative consultants.
At the end of decade, Aykroyd was cast as the journalist son of an ex-boxer
(Kirk Douglas) in the comedy Diamonds (1999).
In the new millennium, Aykroyd continued to be a regular presence on the silver
screen. He costarred as Barry Levine in Denys Arcand’s Stardom (2000), supported
Jason Biggs in the mild teen romantic comedy Loser (2000), delivered a
villainous turn as Gus Trenor in the film adaptation of Edith Wharton’s period
drama House of Mirth (2000), was featured as a military officer in Pearl Harbor
(2001), appeared as the Arizona governor in Reitman’s miserable UFO comedy
Evolution (2001), teamed up with Woody Allen in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion
(2001), played Britney Spears’ father in her film debut Crossroads (2002) and
was cast as the husband of Kathy Bates in Unconditional Love (2002).
On television, Aykroyd attracted attention for his bravura supporting role in
Tuesdays with Morrie, for which he took home a 2000 Emmy for Outstanding
Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. The subsequent year, the actor again
picked up the trophy, this time for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for The
Simpsons, for playing various characters in the episode Worst Episode Ever
(2001).
After taking the small role of Lord Monomark in the comedy Bright Young Things
(2003), a film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel “Vile Bodies,” he portrayed a
kind-hearted neurologist, opposite Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, in the
romantic comedy 50 First Dates (2004), helmed by Peter Segal. Aykroyd made his
last big screen performance (so far) with the 2004 holiday comedy Christmas with
the Kranks (2004), starring opposite Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Awards:
- Emmy: Outstanding Voice-Over Performance, The Simpsons: Worst Episode
Ever, 2001
- Emmy: Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, Tuesdays
with Morrie, 2000
- Emmy: Outstanding Voiceover Performance: The Simpsons, 1998
- Emmy: Outstanding Writing in a Comedy, Variety or Music Series, Saturday
Night Live (shared with 13 other writers), 1976/77
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