70 Facts About Dan Aykroyd

Daniel Edward Aykroyd is a Canadian actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician.

Dan Aykroyd gained prominence for writing, and starring as Dr Raymond "Ray" Stantz in Ghostbusters, and Ghostbusters II and has reprised his role in various projects within the Ghostbusters franchise.

Dan Aykroyd is known for his comedic roles in Trading Places, Spies Like Us, Dragnet, Coneheads, The Great Outdoors, The Blues Brothers, and its 1998 sequel.

Dan Aykroyd has done supporting roles in Tommy Boy, Grosse Pointe Blank, 50 First Dates, The Campaign, and Behind the Candelabra.

Dan Aykroyd starred as Reverend Mike Weber in his sitcom, Soul Man.

Dan Aykroyd has since appeared on various television shows including It's Garry Shandling's Show, Home Improvement, Family Guy, The Simpsons and The Conners.

Dan Aykroyd is a businessman, having co-founded the House of Blues chain of music venues and the Crystal Head Vodka brand.

Dan Aykroyd was born on July 1,1952, at The Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario.

Dan Aykroyd's father, Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer, worked as a policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and his mother, Lorraine Helene Marie, was a secretary.

Dan Aykroyd's mother was of French Canadian descent and his father was of English, Scottish, Irish, French, and Dutch ancestry.

Dan Aykroyd attended St Pius X and St Patrick's high schools, and studied criminology and sociology at Carleton University, but dropped out before completing his degree.

Dan Aykroyd worked as a comedian in various Canadian nightclubs and ran an after-hours speakeasy, Club 505, in Toronto for several years.

Dan Aykroyd said 'keep that beat going, you make Muddy feel good.

Dan Aykroyd was a member of the Second City comedy troupe in 1973 in both Toronto and Chicago.

Dan Aykroyd gained fame on the American late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live.

Dan Aykroyd was originally hired, and paid $278 a week, as a writer for the show, but became a part of the cast before the series premiered.

Dan Aykroyd was the youngest member of the cast, and appeared on the show for its first four seasons, from 1975 to 1979.

Dan Aykroyd brought a sensibility to the show which combined youth, unusual interests, talent as an impersonator, and a manic intensity.

Dan Aykroyd was known for his impersonations of celebrities such as Jimmy Carter, Vincent Price, Richard Nixon, Rod Serling, Tom Snyder, and Julia Child.

Dan Aykroyd later recalled that, unlike Belushi and others of his peers, he was uninterested in recreational drug use.

In Rolling Stones February 2015 appraisal of all 141 SNL cast members to date, Dan Aykroyd was ranked fifth.

In later decades, Dan Aykroyd made occasional guest appearances and unannounced cameos on SNL, often impersonating the American politician Bob Dole.

Dan Aykroyd brought back past characters including Irwin Mainway and Leonard Pinth-Garnell.

Dan Aykroyd, who is a fan of the band, had personally lobbied Lorne Michaels to book them as musical guests.

Dan Aykroyd became the second member of the original cast to host SNL in May 2003, when he appeared in the season finale.

On March 24,2007, Dan Aykroyd appeared as a crying fan of American Idol finalist Sanjaya Malakar during "Weekend Update".

Dan Aykroyd made a surprise guest appearance, along with many other SNL alumni, on the show of March 9,2013.

Dan Aykroyd educated Belushi 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.

Belushi and Dan Aykroyd became fixtures at the recording studio, while fellow Blues Brother Steve Cropper called Cherokee his producing home.

Concurrent with his work in Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd played the role of Purvis Bickle, lift operator at the fictitious office block 99 Sumach Street in the CBC Television series Coming Up Rosie.

Dan Aykroyd originally wrote the role of Dr Peter Venkman with Belushi in mind, but rewrote it for Bill Murray after Belushi's death.

Dan Aykroyd joked that the green ghost, later known as "Slimer", was "the ghost of John Belushi" and was based on Belushi's party-animal personality.

Ghostbusters was released in 1984 and became a huge success for Dan Aykroyd, who appeared as one of the lead actors; the film earned nearly million on a million budget.

Dan Aykroyd had again intended for Belushi to be the other lead in the film; the part was instead given to SNL alumnus Chevy Chase.

Dragnet, in which Dan Aykroyd co-starred and co-wrote, was released in 1987.

Dan Aykroyd appeared in five films released in 1988, all of them critical and commercial failures.

Dan Aykroyd was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1989's Driving Miss Daisy.

Dan Aykroyd was the fourth SNL cast member to be nominated for an Oscar, after Joan Cusack, who was the third.

Three exceptions were My Girl, which starred Jamie Lee Curtis, and Macaulay Culkin, Tommy Boy, which starred SNL alumni David Spade and Chris Farley, in which Dan Aykroyd played the role of Ray Zalinsky, and Grosse Pointe Blank, in which Dan Aykroyd had a well-received role as a rival hit man.

In 1994, Dan Aykroyd made a guest appearance in an episode of the sitcom The Nanny as a refrigerator repairman.

In 1998, Dan Aykroyd voiced the role of Chip, a wasp, in Antz.

Dan Aykroyd appeared in two February 2011 episodes of CBS's The Defenders as Judge Max Hunter, which starred Jim Belushi.

Dan Aykroyd appeared on Top Chef Canada as a guest judge.

In 2013, Dan Aykroyd voiced the role of Scarecrow in Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return.

Dan Aykroyd was one of the executive producers of Ghostbusters, a long-discussed reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise, which was released in 2016.

Dan Aykroyd had a cameo appearance in the film, along with many of the rest of the original Ghostbusters cast.

Dan Aykroyd reprised his role of Dr Ray Stantz in the movie Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Dan Aykroyd participated in the recording of "We Are the World" in 1985, as a member of the chorus.

Dan Aykroyd wrote the liner notes for fellow Ottawa-born blues musician JW-Jones's album Bluelisted in 2008.

On New Year's Eve, 1994, Dan Aykroyd opened the Dan Aykroyd's Ghetto House Cafe on Princess Street in Kingston, Ontario.

Dan Aykroyd is part owner of several wineries in Canada's Niagara Peninsula, and the company that distributes Patron tequila in Canada.

In 2016, Dan Aykroyd partnered with TV producers Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey and game developer Ike McFadden to release an online-casino game that features the Blues Brothers.

Dan Aykroyd provided the in-game voice of his Elwood Blues character via voiceover.

Dan Aykroyd helped start the Blue Line Foundation, which is redeveloping flood-damaged lots in New Orleans and helping first responders buy them at reduced prices.

Dan Aykroyd is a member of Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.

Dan Aykroyd was briefly engaged to actress Carrie Fisher, proposing to her on the set of The Blues Brothers.

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

Dan Aykroyd stated that his TS was successfully treated with therapy.

Dan Aykroyd is a former reserve commander for the police department in Harahan, Louisiana, working for Chief of Police Peter Dale.

Dan Aykroyd currently serves as a reserve deputy of the Hinds County Sheriff's Department in Hinds County, Mississippi.

Dan Aykroyd was openly hostile to the 1989 film Wired, a biopic of Belushi which was based on the 1984 book of the same name by journalist Bob Woodward, starred Michael Chiklis in his film debut as Belushi, and featured him as a character played by actor Gary Groomes.

Dan Aykroyd's great-grandfather, a dentist, was a mystic who corresponded with author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the subject of Spiritualism, and was a member of the Lily Dale Society.

Dan Aykroyd is a lifetime member of and official Hollywood consultant for the Mutual UFO Network.

In 2005, Aykroyd produced the DVD Dan Aykroyd: Unplugged on UFOs.

Dan Aykroyd was interviewed for 80 minutes by UFOlogist David Sereda, discussing in depth many aspects of the UFO phenomenon.

Dan Aykroyd wrote the introduction and accompanied his father on a series of promotional activities, including launches in New York and Toronto, appearances on Larry King Live and Coast to Coast AM, and various other public-relations initiatives.

Dan Aykroyd read the introduction for the audio version of the book.

In 1977, Dan Aykroyd received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series for his collaborative work on Saturday Night Live.

In 1999, Dan Aykroyd was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Dan Aykroyd was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2002.