 ProductLink |
|
 Daniel Edward Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Lorraine H��l��ne (Gougeon), a secretary from a French-Canadian family, and Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer who advised prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Aykroyd attended Carleton University in 1969, where he majored in Criminology and Sociology, but he dropped out before completing his degree. He worked as a comedian in various Canadian nightclubs and managed an after-hours speakeasy, Club 505, in Toronto for several years. He worked with Second City Stage Troupe in Toronto and started his acting career at Carleton University with Sock'n'Buskin, the campus theater/drama club. Married to Donna Dixon since 1983, they have three daughters. His parents are named Peter and Lorraine and his brother Peter Aykroyd is a psychic researcher. Dan received an honorary Doctorate from Carleton University in 1994 and was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998.
Bio:
Daniel Edward Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Lorraine H��l��ne (Gougeon), a secretary from a French-Canadian family, and Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer who advised prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Aykroyd attended Carleton University in 1969, where he majored in Criminology and Sociology, but he dropped out before completing his degree. He worked as a comedian in various Canadian nightclubs and managed an after-hours speakeasy, Club 505, in Toronto for several years. He worked with Second City Stage Troupe in Toronto and started his acting career at Carleton University with Sock'n'Buskin, the campus theater/drama club. Married to Donna Dixon since 1983, they have three daughters. His parents are named Peter and Lorraine and his brother Peter Aykroyd is a psychic researcher. Dan received an honorary Doctorate from Carleton University in 1994 and was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1998.
Tivia:
After working together on three films, Jamie Lee Curtis called him the best "screen kisser" who ever had a scene with her.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.As a child in the early 1960s, he was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome and Asperger syndrome. The symptoms had mostly subsided by the time he was 14.Is part owner of a company that owns the exclusive distribution rights to Patron tequila for the entire country of Canada. Is now also distilling a vodka called "Crystal Head" to be bottled in a skull-shaped glass bottle.Was born with complete heterochromia; one eye is blue and one eye is green.Aykroyd and John Belushi were scheduled to present the first annual Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 1982 Academy Awards, but Belushi died weeks before the ceremony. Aykroyd presented the award alone, and stated from the podium: "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 very much of his friend.A police buff, he rides an Ontario Provincial Police motorcycle, collects police badges, sometimes rides shotgun with detectives in squad cars, and owns a business in partnership with several Toronto police officers.Was very close with River Phoenix during the filming of Sneakers (1992). Aykroyd can even been seen wearing the shirt of Phoenix's band, Aleka's Attic, in the movie.Proposed to Donna Dixon on Fran Drescher's porch. Drescher played a major role in getting them together from the start, after they all starred in Doctor Detroit (1983) together.Spends every Canada Day (July 1, also his birthday) performing some sort of civic duty in Kingston, Ontario and one year was appointed a Citizenship Judge where he swore in some immigrants as Canadian citizens.Wrote Ghostbusters as a tribute to his family's belief in astrology, mediumship and spirituality.Is very interested in the supernatural and has an extensive collection of books on the subject.He met John Belushi in a Chicago speakeasy that was a favorite night spot of his and put on a blues record to play in the background while he and Belushi discussed the possibility of Aykroyd joining Saturday Night Live (1975). Not only did they hit it off and become good friends, Belushi became fascinated with the blues that was being played in the background because, to Aykroyd's surprise, the Chicago-born Belushi was primarily a fan of heavy metal. Aykroyd's familiarizing Belushi with blues music eventually led to them forming their popular "Blues Brothers" act, with a little input from then SNL music director Howard Shore.Is ambidextrous, as is evident by his writing left-handed during the examination scene in Spies Like Us (1985).Said that his original finished script for The Blues Brothers (1980) was over 300 pages long, roughly the size of a phone book. He even sent it to director John Landis in the guise of a phone book as a joke.Is a victim of syndactylism, a birth defect where several digits are fused together. In Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979), he takes his shoes and socks off on-screen, to reveal this anomaly.He has owned or co-owned several bars and restaurants, including the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City and the House of Blues chain, the latter in partnership with John Belushi's widow Judy.Has a "Blues Brothers" type band with John Belushi's brother, Jim Belushi.As an avid blues fan, he hosted a nationally syndicated radio show "House of Blues" as his The Blues Brothers (1980) character Elwood Blues.Is a big fan of Paleontology and natural history, as is his wife, Donna Dixon, and their three daughters, Danielle Aykroyd, Belle Aykroyd, and Stella Aykroyd, who all appeared on the January 1, 2014 airing of Born to Explore (2011) with host and star Richard Weise, at the famous Alberta, Canada dig site of the Pipestone Creek pachyrhinosaur.He has such a fascination with both police officers and criminals, one of the writers from the original Saturday Night Live (1975) said his ultimate fantasy was to commit a crime, then arrest himself for it.On his passport, he lists his occupation as "Writer".His original idea for Ghostbusters (1984) was set in the future, where an army of Ghostbusters fought hordes of ghosts.His grandfather was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.Is a big fan of The Beach Boys and his first piece of writing was a sketch that appeared in the documentary The Beach Boys: It's OK (1976).He's the first male regular cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975) to be nominated for an Academy Award. (Joan Cusack was the very first regular cast member of the show to be Oscar-nominated.)Once helped to subdue a drunk and disorderly passenger on a Montreal-to-Los Angeles flight.He was going to star opposite John Belushi in a film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" until Belushi's death put an end to that.Daughters with Donna Dixon: Danielle Alexandra (Danielle Aykroyd) (born November 18, 1989), Belle Kingston (born June 9, 1993), and Stella Irene August (April 5, 1998, weighing 6 lb at birth).Has played harmonica since he was 17 years old.Worked as a mail sorter for Canada's national postal service before he became an actor.Is a huge fan of the television series Dragnet (1951) and the series' star Jack Webb. So much so, that many of his characters are able to rapidly spit out technical information just as Webb did reciting laws and regulations as Sgt. Joe Friday. Some examples of this are: 1. In The Blues Brothers (1980) when Elwood Blues describes the specifications of the Bluesmobile. 2. In Ghostbusters (1984) when Dr. Raymond Stanz "orders" the demi-god Zuul to leave New York. 3. In 1941 (1979) when Sgt. Tree teaches the Ned Beatty character how to load and fire the anti-aircraft gun. 4. During the "SNL" Weekend Update whenever he would verbally spar with Jane Curtin.Is the only one of the four main Ghostbusters (1984) actors to play his role in anything other than the two "Ghostbusters" movies. He portrayed Dr. Raymond Stantz in a cameo in the film Casper (1995).Was good friends with John Belushi.When Michael Palin guest-hosted Paul Simon, James Taylor & David Sanborn (1980), he remarked that Aykroyd was the only American who could have joined Monty Python. Ironically, Aykroyd is Canadian.Supports MUFON, a UFO study group.Many sources state that he was married in the 1970s to a woman named Maureen Lewis and had three sons (Mark, Lloyd and Oscar). However, the marriage never occurred and the three kids never existed. What happened was that before Aykroyd became famous, he filled out a questionnaire from the publishers of Who's Who and made up a phony biography complete with a wife and kids.He and M. Night Shyamalan, are the only two men to direct themselves in performances that "won" them a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor. Aykroyd "won" the award for, and also directed, the film Nothing But Trouble (1991).Holds an advisory commission with the Police Department in Payne City, Georgia.Owns Dan Aykroyd's Wine, an Ontario-based distillery/vineyard and plans to open up for the market in 2008. He got the idea for the name from Paul Newman.He was awarded the C.M. (Member of the Order of Canada) on October 21, 1998 and invested on April 14, 1999 from the Canadian Governor General in Sydenham, Ontario, Canada. From his roots in the Second City Comedy troupe to his role as one of the original Blues Brothers, he has become an entertainer of international stature. The stage, screen and television characters he has created have brought laughter to audiences around the world and his celebrity status has contributed to the success of many fund-raising events in Canada. His Alma mater, Carleton University in Ottawa, as well as arts, health and youth programs in Kingston have benefited from his involvement.Co-owns House of Blues with friend Isaac TigrettA scene was deleted from Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979) where his character, Sgt. Frank Tree, met John Belushi's character, Wild Bill Kelso. The scene took place right after the tank was dropped into the water by the Japanese sub: Wild Bill was swimming out in the sub's direction just as Frank emerges from the top of the sinking tank, spots Wild Bill and they look at each other curiously, as if recognizing each other, a nod to their real life friendship. It was the only scene in the film where they interacted.He is a Roman Catholic, and is of English, Irish/Scottish, Dutch, French, and French-Canadian ancestry. On his father's side, he can trace his ancestry to the 15th century.Was offered the role of "D-Day" in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), but turned it down due to his commitment to Saturday Night Live (1975). According to John Landis, Lorne Michaels threatened to fire Aykroyd if he took the role.He was openly hostile to Wired (1989), a biopic of Belushi which featured him as a character played by Gary Groomes, and has since claimed to have hired witches to curse the film. Along with Belushi's widow Judith and brother Jim, and many other associates and relatives of Belushi, he boycotted the film for misrepresenting Belushi's life, and during an interview for MTV's "The Big Picture" in June 1988, he expressed his desire that it would flop at the box office, which it ultimately did. He had J.T. Walsh removed from Loose Cannons (1990) after Walsh had already done two days of filming, after finding out that Walsh had been in the cast of Wired.He hosts the nationally, now internationally as well, syndicated radio show "Elwood's BluesMobile", formerly known as House of Blues Radio Hour, under his Blues Brothers moniker Elwood Blues.Came up with the character of Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute, when he lived with former Saturday Night Live (1975) writer Rosie Shuster. He first did it to entertain Rosie at home.He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Blues Brothers (1980) and Ghostbusters (1984). |
| Name: |
Dan Aykroyd |
Type: |
Writer,Actor,Producer (IMDB) |
| Area: |
All World |
Platform: |
IMDB |
| Category: |
|
Business scope: |
Writer,Actor,Producer |
| Products for sale: |
Writer,Actor,Producer |
| Model rank: |
540 |
| Last update: |
2024-07-01 03:46:16 |
| Height: |
6' 1' (1.85 m) |
| Biography: |
Daniel Edward Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Lorraine H��l��ne (Gougeon), a secretary from a French-Canadian family, and Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer who advised prime minister Pierre Trude |
| Trivia: |
After working together on three films, Jamie Lee Curtis called him the best "screen kisser" who ever had a scene with her.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.As a child in the early 1960s, he was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome and Asperger syndrome. The symptoms had mostly subsided by the time he was 14.Is part owner of a company that owns the exclusive distribution rights to Patron tequila for the entire country of Canada. Is now also distilling a vodka called "Crystal Head" to be bottled in a skull-shaped glass bottle.Was born with complete heterochromia; one eye is blue and one eye is green.Aykroyd and John Belushi were scheduled to present the first annual Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 1982 Academy Awards, but Belushi died weeks before the ceremony. Aykroyd presented the award alone, and stated from the podium: "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 very much of his friend.A police buff, he rides an Ontario Provincial Police motorcycle, collects police badges, sometimes rides shotgun with detectives in squad cars, and owns a business in partnership with several Toronto police officers.Was very close with River Phoenix during the filming of Sneakers (1992). Aykroyd can even been seen wearing the shirt of Phoenix's band, Aleka's Attic, in the movie.Proposed to Donna Dixon on Fran Drescher's porch. Drescher played a major role in getting them together from the start, after they all starred in Doctor Detroit (1983) together.Spends every Canada Day (July 1, also his birthday) performing some sort of civic duty in Kingston, Ontario and one year was appointed a Citizenship Judge where he swore in some immigrants as Canadian citizens.Wrote Ghostbusters as a tribute to his family's belief in astrology, mediumship and spirituality.Is very interested in the supernatural and has an extensive collection of books on the subject.He met John Belushi in a Chicago speakeasy that was a favorite night spot of his and put on a blues record to play in the background while he and Belushi discussed the possibility of Aykroyd joining Saturday Night Live (1975). Not only did they hit it off and become good friends, Belushi became fascinated with the blues that was being played in the background because, to Aykroyd's surprise, the Chicago-born Belushi was primarily a fan of heavy metal. Aykroyd's familiarizing Belushi with blues music eventually led to them forming their popular "Blues Brothers" act, with a little input from then SNL music director Howard Shore.Is ambidextrous, as is evident by his writing left-handed during the examination scene in Spies Like Us (1985).Said that his original finished script for The Blues Brothers (1980) was over 300 pages long, roughly the size of a phone book. He even sent it to director John Landis in the guise of a phone book as a joke.Is a victim of syndactylism, a birth defect where several digits are fused together. In Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979), he takes his shoes and socks off on-screen, to reveal this anomaly.He has owned or co-owned several bars and restaurants, including the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City and the House of Blues chain, the latter in partnership with John Belushi's widow Judy.Has a "Blues Brothers" type band with John Belushi's brother, Jim Belushi.As an avid blues fan, he hosted a nationally syndicated radio show "House of Blues" as his The Blues Brothers (1980) character Elwood Blues.Is a big fan of Paleontology and natural history, as is his wife, Donna Dixon, and their three daughters, Danielle Aykroyd, Belle Aykroyd, and Stella Aykroyd, who all appeared on the January 1, 2014 airing of Born to Explore (2011) with host and star Richard Weise, at the famous Alberta, Canada dig site of the Pipestone Creek pachyrhinosaur.He has such a fascination with both police officers and criminals, one of the writers from the original Saturday Night Live (1975) said his ultimate fantasy was to commit a crime, then arrest himself for it.On his passport, he lists his occupation as "Writer".His original idea for Ghostbusters (1984) was set in the future, where an army of Ghostbusters fought hordes of ghosts.His grandfather was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.Is a big fan of The Beach Boys and his first piece of writing was a sketch that appeared in the documentary The Beach Boys: It's OK (1976).He's the first male regular cast member of Saturday Night Live (1975) to be nominated for an Academy Award. (Joan Cusack was the very first regular cast member of the show to be Oscar-nominated.)Once helped to subdue a drunk and disorderly passenger on a Montreal-to-Los Angeles flight.He was going to star opposite John Belushi in a film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" until Belushi's death put an end to that.Daughters with Donna Dixon: Danielle Alexandra (Danielle Aykroyd) (born November 18, 1989), Belle Kingston (born June 9, 1993), and Stella Irene August (April 5, 1998, weighing 6 lb at birth).Has played harmonica since he was 17 years old.Worked as a mail sorter for Canada's national postal service before he became an actor.Is a huge fan of the television series Dragnet (1951) and the series' star Jack Webb. So much so, that many of his characters are able to rapidly spit out technical information just as Webb did reciting laws and regulations as Sgt. Joe Friday. Some examples of this are: 1. In The Blues Brothers (1980) when Elwood Blues describes the specifications of the Bluesmobile. 2. In Ghostbusters (1984) when Dr. Raymond Stanz "orders" the demi-god Zuul to leave New York. 3. In 1941 (1979) when Sgt. Tree teaches the Ned Beatty character how to load and fire the anti-aircraft gun. 4. During the "SNL" Weekend Update whenever he would verbally spar with Jane Curtin.Is the only one of the four main Ghostbusters (1984) actors to play his role in anything other than the two "Ghostbusters" movies. He portrayed Dr. Raymond Stantz in a cameo in the film Casper (1995).Was good friends with John Belushi.When Michael Palin guest-hosted Paul Simon, James Taylor & David Sanborn (1980), he remarked that Aykroyd was the only American who could have joined Monty Python. Ironically, Aykroyd is Canadian.Supports MUFON, a UFO study group.Many sources state that he was married in the 1970s to a woman named Maureen Lewis and had three sons (Mark, Lloyd and Oscar). However, the marriage never occurred and the three kids never existed. What happened was that before Aykroyd became famous, he filled out a questionnaire from the publishers of Who's Who and made up a phony biography complete with a wife and kids.He and M. Night Shyamalan, are the only two men to direct themselves in performances that "won" them a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor. Aykroyd "won" the award for, and also directed, the film Nothing But Trouble (1991).Holds an advisory commission with the Police Department in Payne City, Georgia.Owns Dan Aykroyd's Wine, an Ontario-based distillery/vineyard and plans to open up for the market in 2008. He got the idea for the name from Paul Newman.He was awarded the C.M. (Member of the Order of Canada) on October 21, 1998 and invested on April 14, 1999 from the Canadian Governor General in Sydenham, Ontario, Canada. From his roots in the Second City Comedy troupe to his role as one of the original Blues Brothers, he has become an entertainer of international stature. The stage, screen and television characters he has created have brought laughter to audiences around the world and his celebrity status has contributed to the success of many fund-raising events in Canada. His Alma mater, Carleton University in Ottawa, as well as arts, health and youth programs in Kingston have benefited from his involvement.Co-owns House of Blues with friend Isaac TigrettA scene was deleted from Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979) where his character, Sgt. Frank Tree, met John Belushi's character, Wild Bill Kelso. The scene took place right after the tank was dropped into the water by the Japanese sub: Wild Bill was swimming out in the sub's direction just as Frank emerges from the top of the sinking tank, spots Wild Bill and they look at each other curiously, as if recognizing each other, a nod to their real life friendship. It was the only scene in the film where they interacted.He is a Roman Catholic, and is of English, Irish/Scottish, Dutch, French, and French-Canadian ancestry. On his father's side, he can trace his ancestry to the 15th century.Was offered the role of "D-Day" in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), but turned it down due to his commitment to Saturday Night Live (1975). According to John Landis, Lorne Michaels threatened to fire Aykroyd if he took the role.He was openly hostile to Wired (1989), a biopic of Belushi which featured him as a character played by Gary Groomes, and has since claimed to have hired witches to curse the film. Along with Belushi's widow Judith and brother Jim, and many other associates and relatives of Belushi, he boycotted the film for misrepresenting Belushi's life, and during an interview for MTV's "The Big Picture" in June 1988, he expressed his desire that it would flop at the box office, which it ultimately did. He had J.T. Walsh removed from Loose Cannons (1990) after Walsh had already done two days of filming, after finding out that Walsh had been in the cast of Wired.He hosts the nationally, now internationally as well, syndicated radio show "Elwood's BluesMobile", formerly known as House of Blues Radio Hour, under his Blues Brothers moniker Elwood Blues.Came up with the character of Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute, when he lived with former Saturday Night Live (1975) writer Rosie Shuster. He first did it to entertain Rosie at home.He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Blues Brothers (1980) and Ghostbusters (1984). |
| Trademarks: |
Unique comically rapid yet steady delivery of a series of tiny details
Deadpan comic delivery
Often works with John Landis and Bill Murray
Often plays the straight man of a comedy duo
Different-colored eyes |
| Quotes: |
If it hadn't been for Carleton [University], The Blues Brothers (1980) would never have been made.
<br />
<hr>
'Ghostbusters 3' will never happen. Unless Bill Murray agrees. Everyone else would love to do it--Columbia, [Harold Ramis], myself, [Ivan Reitman]. It's a five-way rights situation and Bill is locking up his piece of the rights because he feels that was work he just wants preserved and he doesn't want it diluted. As an artist I can respect that.
<br />
<hr>
[on Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)] Basically they gave us the budget to make the film. We got paid zero. I wanted Jim Belushi to play the part Joe Morton did, but he was doing a TV show and couldn't do it. But Morton did a great job and John Goodman did a good job. I think it's a good companion piece to the first film.
<br />
<hr>
Chevy Chase was the first to make it huge - people would recognize him in the street: 'Hey Chubby Chase, look at Chubby Chase'. Everybody knew who he was. He was the first to start on a movie career and maybe [John Belushi] was a little jealous. But I liked Chevy and was sorry to see him leave Saturday Night Live (1975)]. He's one of the master physical comedians. I think you can place Buster Keaton and Chevy in the same sentence and be pretty safe there.
<br />
<hr>
[when asked if he ever gets recognized for anything] I have this young female demographic that recognizes me as the dad from My Girl (1991) and this older female demographic that recognizes me as the son from Driving Miss Daisy (1989). |
| Salaries: |
Driving Miss Daisy (1990) - $150,000
<br />
<hr>
Neighbors (1981) - $1 million
<br />
<hr>
Saturday Night Live (1975) - $750 /week (1975 season) |
| Job title: |
Writer,Actor,Producer |
| Others works: |
(2000) TV commercial: FT.com
Music video: Appearerd in Michael Jackson video "Liberian Girl"
Authored a manual for Canadian penitentiary guards.
Music video: Appeared (as horn player) in B.B. King's video "In The Midnight Hour" |
| Spouse: |
Donna Dixon (April 29, 1983 - present) (separated, 3 children) |
| Children: |
Belle AykroydStella AykroydDanielle Aykroyd |
| Parents: |
Lorraine Aykroyd
P.H. Aykroyd |
| Relatives: |
Peter Aykroyd (Sibling) |
|
