Dan Aykroyd

At 71 years old, Dan Aykroyd has this physical status:

Daniel Edward Aykroyd, (born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, producer, comedian, and film director who appeared on "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" (1975–1979).

On SNL, the Blues Brothers, he performed a musical sketch, which later became a live band, and then the 1980 film The Blues Brothers. He created and starred in Ghostbusters (1984), which resulted in a sequel and then a complete media company.

He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1989's Driving Miss Daisy.

Soul Man (1997–1998), he appeared on his own sitcom.

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 July 1, 1952 (Canada Day) at The Ottawa Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario. He grew up in Ottawa, Canada's capital, where his father, Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd (1922–2020), a civil engineer, served as a policy advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (1922–2022). Lorraine Hélène Marie (née Gougeon; 1918-February 8, 2018), his mother, Lorraine Hélène Marie (née Gougeon; April 27, 1918 – February 8, 2018), was a secretary. His mother was of French Canadian descent, and his father was of English, Scottish, Irish, French, and Dutch ancestry. Peter, Peter's brother, was also an actor.

He went to St. Pius X and St. Patrick's high schools and studied criminalology and sociology at Carleton University, but dropped out before finishing his degree. He performed in several Canadian nightclubs and operated Club 505, a late-hours speakeasy in Toronto for many years.

Aykroyd is a heterochromiac syndactylite. Both feet have webbed middle toes and he has different colored eyes: one is brown and the other is green.

Aykroyd began his musical career in Ottawa, particularly through his regular attendances at Le Hibou, a club that featured many blues artists. He cites these influences as follows:

Aykroyd's first professional work, which he obtained at the age of 17, was as a participant in Lorne Michaels' short-lived Canadian sketch comedy series The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour. He appeared in both Toronto and Chicago as a member of the Second City comedy troupe in 1973.

Personal life

On the set of The Blues Brothers, Aykroyd was briefly engaged to actress Carrie Fisher, who suggested to her on the set of The Blues Brothers. She appeared in the film as a jilted girlfriend of John Belushi's character Jake Blues. The couple's relationship came to an end when she reunited with her ex boyfriend, singer Paul Simon. Donna Dixon, a 1983 wedding gown, married actor Ackroyd. The couple met on the set of Doctor Detroit's 1999 film and appeared together in four other films: The Couch Trip (1983); and Exit to Eden (1994). They have three children together, including Danielle (known by her stage name, Vera Sola). After 39 years of marriage, the couple announced in April 2022 that they were splitting but that they would remain legally married.

With his estate on Loughborough Lake, Aykroyd maintains his Canadian roots as a long-time resident of Sydenham, Ontario.

Aykroyd said he had been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome in childhood (TS). He said that therapy had been fruitful in his case. During a HuffPost Show interview with host Roy Sekoff and Marc Lamont Hill in 2015, he said he had Asperger syndrome, which had never diagnosed, but it was "sort of a self-diagnosis" based on several of his own characteristics.

Aykroyd is a retired reserve commander for the police department in Harahan, Louisiana, who is currently under custody of Chief of Police Peter Dale. Aykroyd wore his badge with him at all times when on the service. He currently works as a reserve deputy with the Hinds County Sheriff's Department in Hinds County, Mississippi. He and other blues and gospel artists in Mississippi support the reserves with a fundraiser concert.

Aykroyd's passions for the outdoors, geology, and paleontology, which he attributes to his father's efforts in building the Gatineau Parkway, which included blasting through granite rock formations to run the highway, have led him to join Dr. Philip J. Currie, a well-known Canadian paleontologist, who praised Aykroyd's contributions by naming its theater the Aykroyd Family Theatre in Wembley,

Aykroyd described John Belushi and himself as "kindred spirits" during a visit to the Today show. Belushi, according to Aykroyd's biography, was the only man with whom he could ever dance. In 1982, Aykroyd and Belushi had been supposed to present the Academy Award for Visual Effects, but Belushi died only a few weeks before the event. Aykroyd was alone during the tragedy of his friend's death: "My partner would have loved to have been here to present this," the host said on stage: "I'd be happy to have been here to present this."

Aykroyd was openly hostile to the 1989 film Wired, a Belushi biopic based on journalist Bob Woodward's 1984 book of the same name, starring Michael Chiklis, who was portrayed as Belushi in his film debut as Belushi and starring actor Gary Groomes. He and Belushi's widow, Judith and Jim, as well as several other Belushi associates, acquaintances, and relatives, all predicted that the film would fail at the box office, which it eventually did not. "I have witches working now to jinx the thing," he said during an interview with MTV's The Big Picture in June 1988. I hope it never gets seen, and I am going to hurl all the bad energy I can and muster [against them]. "My thunderbolts are dead on this one, and I'm not surprised." After learning that Walsh had been in the cast of Wired, actor J. T. Walsh was removed from the film Loose Cannons. Walsh, who had appeared in Wired as Bob Woodward, was replaced as Grimmer by fellow Canadian Paul Koslo, triggering the film's production delay of $125,000.

Aykroyd claims he is a Spiritualist..

Aykroyd's great-grandfather, a dentist, was a mystic who corresponded with author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the topic of Spiritualism and he was a member of the Lily Dale Society. Aykroyd is also interested in other aspects of the paranormal, particularly UFOlogy. He is a lifetime member of and official Hollywood consultant for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). He served as the host of Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, from 1996 to 2000, claiming to refer to cases gathered from "The Office of Scientific Investigation and Research" archives. Dan Aykroyd, the fifth film from Aykroyd, was released in 2005. Unplugged on UFOs.

UFOlogist David Sereda's interview with Aykroyd was extended for 80 minutes, covering many aspects of the UFO phenomenon.

A History of Ghosts, published by Peter Aykroyd Sr., Dan's father, on September 29, 2009. The family's historic participation in the Spiritualist movement was chronicled in this book, which Aykroyd readily refers to. Aykroyd authored the article and accompanied his father in a slew of fundraising efforts, including launches in New York and Toronto, appearances on Larry King Live and Coast to Coast AM, and various other public relations campaigns. The book's audio version was also read by Aykroyd. The Commission for Skeptical Inquiry granted Aykroyd in absence for hosting Psi Factor and being a "long-time promoter... of paranormal claims" in 1997. Following the awards, Joe Nickell wrote to Aykroyd, asking for the facts behind the "cases" presented on Psi Factor, especially the assertion that NASA scientists were "killed while analyzing a meteor crash and resulting in a flea the size of a hog.

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