Biography for
Dan Aykroyd

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Date of Birth

1 July 1952, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Birth Name

Daniel Edward Aykroyd

Nickname

Danny

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Mini Biography

Dan Aykroyd attended Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada (1969), where he majored in Criminology and Sociology. He dropped out to work 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, he has two 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.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gustaf Molin

Mini Biography

Dan's acting career was well established in high school, he performed in Carnival in 1968 and Murder in the Cathedral in 1969 at St Pats. At the same time he was at St Pats he was appearing in other plays at other Ottawa high Schools.

IMDb Mini Biography By:

Spouse

Donna Dixon

(29 April 1983 - present) 3 children

Trade Mark

His comically rapid yet steady delivery of a series of tiny details.

Trivia

As an avid blues fan, he hosted a nationally syndicated radio show "House of Blues" as his The Blues Brothers (1980) character Elwood Blues.

A third daughter with wife Donna Dixon, Stella Irene August, was born on April 5, 1998, weighing 6 lb.

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 good friends with John Belushi.

Is very interested in the supernatural and has an extensive collection of books on the subject.

His grandfather was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Was once engaged to Carrie Fisher.

Daughters with Donna Dixon; Danielle (b. 1989) and Kingston Belle (b. 1993).

Worked as a mail sorter for Canada's national postal service before he became an actor.

Older brother of Peter Aykroyd. Like Peter, an alumnus of the Second City comedy troupe in Toronto.

Roman Catholic of English and French extraction. On his father's side, he can trace his ancestry to the 15th century.

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.

Co-owns House of Blues with friend Isaac Tigrett

On his passport, he lists his occupation as "Writer".

Has played harmonica since he was 17 years old.

Holds an advisory commission with the Police Department in Payne City, Georgia.

Once helped to subdue a drunk and disorderly passenger on a Montreal-to-Los Angeles flight.

Was offered the role of "D-Day" in Animal House (1978), but turned it down.

After working together on three films, Jamie Lee Curtis called him the best "screen kisser" who ever had a scene with her.

Though he has made numerous appearances on "Saturday Night Live" (1975) since leaving the show in 1979, he did not actually host it until the 2002-2003 season finale.

Has a "Blues Brothers" type band with John Belushi's brother, James Belushi.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 32-33. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Proposed to Donna Dixon on Fran Drescher's porch. Drescher played a major role in getting them together from the start.

Received the Order of Canada in 1999.

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.

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."

His right eye is blue and his left eye is brown.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ranked #14 on Tropopkin's Top 25 Most Intriguing People [Issue #100]

His original idea for Ghost Busters (1984) was set in the future, where an army of Ghostbusters fought hordes of ghosts.

He used to refer to the green Slimer ghost from Ghost Busters (1984) as "the ghost of John Belushi", as Slimer's party animal personality reminded him very much of his friend.

A 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.

Supports MUFON, a UFO study group.

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.)

His parents are Lorraine and Peter Aykroyd (not to be confused with his younger brother Peter Aykroyd). His father is best known as P.H. Aykroyd.

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.

Is ambidextrous, as is evident by his writing left-handed during the examination scene in Spies Like Us (1985).

He was awarded the C.M. (Member of the Order of Canada) on October 21, 1998 for his services to entertainment, scientific research, Carleton University, and Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Is a big fan of The Beach Boys and his first piece of writing was a sketch that appeared in the 1976 documentary The Beach Boys: It's OK (1976) (TV).

Was very close with River Phoenix during the filming of "Sneakers". Aykroyd can even been seen wearing the shirt of Phoenix's band, Aleka's Attic, in the movie.

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).

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.

Owns Dan Aykroyd's Wine, an Ontario-based distillery/vineyard and plans to open up for the market in 2008. His idea for the name he got from Paul Newman.

He is a huge fan of the TV Series "Dragnet" and the show's 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" when Elwood describes the specifications of the Bluesmobile. 2. In "Ghostbusters" when Dr. Raymond Stanz "orders" the demi-god Zuul to leave New York. 3. In "1941" 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 Curtain.

Is portrayed by Dan Di Julio in Gilda Radner: It's Always Something (2002) (TV).

Spends every Canada Day (July 1) performing some sort of civic duty in Kingston, Ontario and one year was appointed a Citizenship Judge where he sworn in some immigrants as Canadian citizens.

Personal Quotes

"If it hadn't been for Carleton [University], The Blues Brothers (1980) would never have been made."

"'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."

[On The Blues Brothers (1980) sequel] "Basically they gave us the budget to make the film. We got paid zero. I wanted James 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."

"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."

[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)."

[eulogizing his good friend and fellow Blues Brother, the late great John Belushi] "...A good man, but a bad boy."

The entertainment business is not the be-all and end-all for me.

I have this kind of mild nice-guy exterior, but inside my heart is like a steel trap. I'm really quite robotic.

I get off on fantasy. I love fiction of all kinds. I've always been a big fan of science fiction and of the worlds of the spiritual and the mystic. I think those areas are a never-ending source for story ideas.

My attitude has always been, "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if -." If this makes me laugh, maybe somebody else will laugh at it, too. That's really where I've always come from. My whole thing is to entertain, make people laugh and to forget about the real world for awhile. It's not always easy doing that. I'm never completely happy with anything I've done. If I've been successful with 80 percent of everything I've done, then I'm doing all right by the audience and myself.

Where Are They Now

(2004) Hosts "House Of Blues Radio Hour" - An hour of blues music and interviews as Elwood Blues of "The Blues Brothers"

(July 2005) Attending the "Live 8" concert to raise money to end Poverty in Africa.

(June 2007) Kingston, Ontario, Canada

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