Dan Aykroyd
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Daniel Edward Aykroyd CM OOnt (born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, musician, and filmmaker. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on Saturday Night Live (1975–1979). A musical sketch he performed with John Belushion SNL, the Blues Brothers...
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Daniel Edward Aykroyd CM OOnt (born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, musician, and filmmaker. He was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on Saturday Night Live (1975–1979). A musical sketch he performed with John Belushion SNL, the Blues Brothers, turned into an actual performing band and then the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.

He conceived and starred in Ghostbusters(1984), which spawned a sequel and eventually an entire media franchise. In 1990, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy. He starred in his own sitcom, Soul Man (1997–1998). Aykroyd is also a businessman, having co-founded the House of Blues chain of music venues and the Crystal Head Vodka brand.

Early life[]

Aykroyd was born on Dominion Day (July 1, which is now called Canada Day), 1952 at The Ottawa Hospital[2] in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.[3] He grew up in Ottawa, Canada's capital, where his father, Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer, worked as a policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His mother, Lorraine Hélène (née Gougeon), was a secretary.[3][4] His mother was of French Canadian descent and his father is of English, Irish, Scottish, Dutch, and French ancestry.[5] His brother, Peter, is also an actor.

Aykroyd was born with syndactyly, or webbed toes, which was revealed in the film Mr. Mike's Mondo Video and in a short film on Saturday Night Live titled "Don't Look Back In Anger".[6]Aykroyd was raised in the Catholic Church, and until age 17 he intended to become a priest.[7]He attended St. Pius X and St. Patrick's high schools, and studied criminology and sociologyat Carleton University, but dropped out before completing his degree. He worked as a comedian in various Canadian nightclubs and ran an after-hours speakeasy, Club 505, in Toronto for several years.[citation needed]

Aykroyd developed his musical career in Ottawa, particularly through his regular attendances at The Owl, a club that featured many blues artists. He describes these influences as follows:

there was a little disco club there called Le Hibou, which in French means 'the owl.' And it was run by a gentleman named Harvey Glatt, and he brought every, and I mean every, blues star that you or I would ever have wanted to have seen through Ottawa in the late '50s, well I guess more late '60s sort of, in around the Newport jazz rediscovery. I was going to Le Hibou and hearing James Cotton, Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins, and Muddy Waters. I actually jammed behind Muddy Waters. S.P. Leary left the drum kit one night, and Muddy said 'anybody out there play drums? I don't have a drummer.' And I walked on stage and we started, I don't know, Little Red Rooster, something. He said 'keep that beat going, you make Muddy feel good.' And I heard Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett). Many, many times I saw Howlin' Wolf. As well as the Doors. And of course Buddy Guy, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Sonny Terryand Brownie McGhee. So I was exposed to all of these players, playing there as part of this scene to service the academic community in Ottawa, a very well-educated community. Had I lived in a different town I don't think that this would have happened, because it was just the confluence of educated government workers, and then also all the colleges in the area, Ottawa University, Carleton, and all the schools—these people were interested in blues culture.[8][9]

Aykroyd's first professional experience, which he gained at the age of 17, was as a member of the cast of the short-lived Canadian sketch comedy series The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hourwith Lorne Michaels, among others.[10] He was a member of the Second City comedy troupe in 1973 in both Toronto and Chicago.[11]

Personal life[]

Aykroyd was briefly engaged to actress Carrie Fisher. He proposed to her on the set of The Blues Brothers (1980), in which she appeared as a spurned girlfriend of John Belushi's Jake Blues who was trying to kill both brothers. The engagement ended when she reconciled with her former boyfriend, musician Paul Simon. In 1983, he married actress Donna Dixon; they met on the set of Doctor Detroit released the same year. They went on to appear together in three additional films: Spies Like Us (1985); Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983); and The Couch Trip (1988). They have three daughters, Danielle, Stella, and Belle.

Aykroyd maintains his Canadian roots as a longtime resident of Sydenham, Ontario, with his estate on Loughborough Lake.

In a 2004 NPR interview with host Terry Gross, Aykroyd said that he had been diagnosed in childhood with Tourette syndrome (TS) as well as Asperger syndrome (AS). He stated that his TS was successfully treated with therapy.[31] In 2015, he stated during a HuffPost Showinterview with hosts Roy Sekoff and Marc Lamont Hill that his AS was "never diagnosed" but was "sort of a self-diagnosis" based on several of his own characteristics.[32]

Aykroyd is a former reserve commander for the police department in Harahan, Louisiana, working for Chief of Police Peter Dale. Aykroyd would carry his badge with him at all times.[33]He currently serves as a Reserve Deputy of the Hinds County Sheriff's Department in Hinds County, Mississippi. He supports the Reserves with a fundraiser concert along with other blues and gospel singers in the State of Mississippi.[34]

Friendship with John Belushi[]

In an appearance on the Today show, Aykroyd referred to himself and John Belushi as "kindred spirits". In the biography Belushi, Aykroyd claims that Belushi was the only man he could ever dance with. Aykroyd and Belushi were scheduled to present the Academy Award for Visual Effects in 1982, 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."[35]

Aykroyd was openly hostile to the 1989 film Wired, a biopic of Belushi (which featured Aykroyd as a character played by actor Gary Groomes), and has since refused to work with anyone involved in the film. He had actor J. T. Walsh fired from the film Loose Cannons after Walsh had already done two days of filming, after finding out that Walsh had been in the cast of Wired.[36]

Beliefs[]

Aykroyd considers himself a Spiritualist, stating that: