Dan Aykroyd

For his work on the show, he received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1977. Since his departure, he has returned for guest roles. Aykroyd's most famous roles are as Elwood J. Blues in The Blues Brothers (1980) and Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), and Dr. Raymond "Ray" Stantz in Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989). He reprised his role in various projects within the Ghostbusters franchise. He is also known for his comedic roles in 1941 (1979), Trading Places (1983), Spies Like Us (1985), Dragnet (1987), The Great Outdoors (1988), Nothing but Trouble (1991) and Coneheads (1993). In 1990, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Boolie Werthan in Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Other dramatic roles include My Girl (1991), Chaplin (1992), North (1994), and Pearl Harbor (2001). Aykroyd has had supporting roles in comedy films such as Tommy Boy (1995), Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Loser (2000), Evolution (2001), 50 First Dates (2004), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), and Tammy (2014). He starred as Reverend Mike Weber in the sitcom Soul Man (1997–1998). He has made guest appearances on various television shows, including The Nanny (1994), According to Jim (2002–2009), Living with Fran (2006), The Defenders (2011) and Workin' Moms (2017–2023). Aykroyd is also a businessman, having co-founded the House of Blues chain of music venues and the Crystal Head Vodka brand.

Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952, at Ottawa General Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario. His father, Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd (1922–2020), a civil engineer, worked as a policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and his mother, Lorraine Hélène Marie (née Gougeon; 1918–2018), was a secretary. His mother was of French Canadian descent and his father of English, Scottish, Irish, French, and Dutch ancestry. His paternal ancestor was Englishman Samuel Aykroyd from Halifax, Yorkshire, who emigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Upper Canada near Kingston, Ontario, in 1810. His brother, Peter (1955–2021), was also an actor. He 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. He worked as a comedian in various Canadian nightclubs and ran an after-hours speakeasy, Club 505, in Toronto for several years. Aykroyd developed his musical career in Ottawa, particularly through his regular attendance at Le Hibou, a club that featured many blues artists. He describes these influences: 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 did actually jam 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 Terry and 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. 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 Hour, with Lorne Michaels, among others. He was a member of the Second City comedy troupe in 1973 in both Toronto and Chicago.

Aykroyd gained fame on the American late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). He was originally hired, and paid $278 a week (equivalent to $1,603 in 2024), as a writer, but became part of the cast before the series premiered. The original cast was called "The Not Ready For Prime Time Players". Aykroyd was the youngest member and appeared on the show for its first four seasons, from 1975 to 1979. He brought a sensibility that combined youth, unusual interests, talent as an impersonator, and manic intensity. Guest host Eric Idle of Monty Python said that Aykroyd's ability to write and act out characters made him the only member of the SNL cast capable of being a Python. He was known for his impersonations of celebrities such as Jimmy Carter, Vincent Price, Richard Nixon, Rod Serling, Tom Snyder, and Julia Child. He was also known for his recurring roles, such as Beldar, father of the Coneheads family; with Steve Martin, Yortuk Festrunk, one of the "Two Wild and Crazy Guys" brothers from Bratislava, Slovakia; sleazy late-night cable TV host E. Buzz Miller and his cousin, corrupt maker of children's toys and costumes Irwin Mainway (who extolled the virtues and defended the safety of the "Bag-o-Glass" toy); Fred Garvin, a male prostitute; and high-bred but lowbrow critic Leonard Pinth-Garnell. Aykroyd and Jane Curtin parodied the CBS news show 60 Minutes Point/Counterpoint segment, which featured the liberal Shana Alexander and the conservative segregationist James Kilpatrick, by portraying the two as hating each other; Aykroyd's first words in response to Curtin's point were, "Jane, you ignorant slut!" Aykroyd's eccentric talent was recognized by others in the highly competitive SNL environment; when he first presented his "Super Bass-O-Matic '76" sketch, a fake TV commercial in which a garish pitchman based on Ron Popeil touts a food blender that turns an entire bass into liquid pulp, the other writers and cast members considered the sketch "so exhilaratingly strange that many remember sitting and listening, open-mouthed... Nobody felt jealous of it because they couldn't imagine writing anything remotely like it." Aykroyd later said the sketch was inspired by seeing his aunt Helene Gougeon (a culinary writer and food columnist in Montreal) put a bass into a blender to make a bouillabaisse when he was 12 years old. Aykroyd was a close friend and partner of fellow cast member John Belushi and shared some of his sensibilities, but was more reserved and less self-destructive. Aykroyd later recalled that, unlike Belushi and others of his peers, he was uninterested in recreational drug use. In 1977, he received an Emmy Award for writing on SNL; he later received two more nominations for writing and one for acting. In Rolling Stone's February 2015 appraisal of all 141 SNL cast members to date, Aykroyd ranked fifth (behind Belushi, Eddie Murphy, Tina Fey, and Mike Myers). "Of all the original greats, Aykroyd is the least imitated", they wrote, "because nobody else can do what he did." In later decades, Aykroyd made occasional guest appearances and unannounced cameos on SNL, playing the politician Bob Dole and talk show host Tom Snyder. He also brought back characters including Irwin Mainway and Leonard Pinth-Garnell. In 1995, he introduced a performance by Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. A fan of the band, he had personally lobbied Lorne Michaels to book them as musical guests. During some guest appearances, he resurrected the Blues Brothers musical act with frequent host John Goodman in place of Belushi, who was by then deceased. He became the second member of the original cast to host SNL in May 2003, when he appeared in the season finale. During his monologue, he performed a musical number with James Belushi similar to the Blues Brothers, but neither man donned the black suit and sunglasses. On March 24, 2007, Aykroyd appeared as a crying fan of American Idol finalist Sanjaya Malakar (played by Andy Samberg) during "Weekend Update". On February 14, 2009, he appeared as U.S. House Minority leader John Boehner. Aykroyd also made a surprise guest appearance, along with many other SNL alumni, on the show of March 9, 2013.

Backed by such experienced professional R&B sidemen as lead guitarist Steve Cropper, sax man Lou Marini, trumpeter Alan Rubin, and bass guitarist Donald "Duck" Dunn, The Blues Brothers proved more than an SNL novelty. Taking off with the public as a legitimate musical act, they performed live gigs and in 1978 released the hit album Briefcase Full of Blues (drawn from the fact that Aykroyd, as "Elwood Blues", carried his blues harmonicas in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist in the manner of a CIA courier; Belushi originally carried the key to the handcuffs). Briefcase Full of Blues sold 3.5 million copies and is one of the highest-selling blues albums of all time. The band was much further popularised by the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, which Aykroyd co-wrote. A sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, was released in 1998 with John Goodman as Belushi's replacement. Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles was a regular haunt for the original Blues Brothers in their early days. Belushi and Aykroyd became fixtures at the recording studio, while Blues Brothers band member Steve Cropper called Cherokee his producing home. When they needed a bass player, they were joined by another band member, Donald "Duck" Dunn. During this time, Cropper, along with producing partner and Cherokee owner Bruce Robb, worked on a number of music projects with the two comedians/musicians, including Belushi's favourite band, Fear, and later Aykroyd's movie Dragnet. The Blues Brothers Band continues to tour, both with and without Aykroyd. It features original members Cropper and Marini, along with vocalist Eddie Floyd. Aykroyd sometimes performs as Elwood, along with Belushi's younger brother Jim Belushi, who plays "Brother Zee" on stage. They are most frequently backed by the Sacred Hearts Band.

Aykroyd participated in the recording of "We Are the World" in 1985, as a member of the chorus. He wrote the liner notes for fellow Ottawa-born blues musician JW-Jones's album Bluelisted in 2008. Until it ended in 2018, he hosted the internationally syndicated radio show "Elwood's BluesMobile", formerly known as the House of Blues Radio Hour, under his Blues Brothers moniker Elwood Blues.

In 1992, Aykroyd and Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Isaac Tigrett founded the House of Blues, a chain of music venues, with the mission to host all genres of musical performances with a primary theme focused on blues music and folk art. Many other music and Hollywood personalities helped to finance this chain at its start. It began as a single location in Cambridge, Massachusetts, although other locations quickly followed, starting with a venue in New Orleans in 1994. On New Year's Eve that year, Aykroyd opened the "Aykroyd's Ghetto House Cafe" featuring one of the eight police cars from the first Blues Brothers movie protruding from the second story, on Princess Street in Kingston, Ontario. In 2004, "House of Blues" became the second-largest live music promoter in the world, with seven venues and 22 amphitheatres in the United States and Canada. It was bought by Live Nation in 2006. In 2007, Aykroyd and artist John Alexander founded Crystal Head Vodka, a brand of high-end vodka known for its skull-shaped bottle and for being filtered through Herkimer diamond crystals. In 2016, 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. He provided the in-game voice of Elwood Blues via voiceover. Aykroyd is also owner in part of several wineries in Canada's Niagara Peninsula, and the company that distributes Patrón tequila in Canada.

In 2009, Aykroyd contributed a series of reminiscences about his upbringing in Canada for a charity album, Dan Aykroyd's Canada. He helped start the Blue Line Foundation, which is redeveloping flood-damaged lots in New Orleans and helping first responders buy them at reduced prices. Coastal Blue Line LLC, hopes to eventually rebuild 400 properties in New Orleans. Aykroyd was a member of Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.

Aykroyd was briefly engaged to actress Carrie Fisher, proposing to her on the set of The Blues Brothers. In the film, she appeared as a jilted girlfriend of John Belushi's character, Jake Blues. Their engagement ended when she reconciled with her former boyfriend, musician Paul Simon. On April 29, 1983, Aykroyd married actress Donna Dixon on a friend's rooftop in Martha's Vineyard. The couple met on the set of Doctor Detroit and appeared together in four additional films: Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Spies Like Us (1985), The Couch Trip (1988), and Exit to Eden (1994). Together they have three daughters, including Danielle, known by her stage name, Vera Sola. In 2022, the couple announced that they were separating but would remain legally married. 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 he had been diagnosed in childhood with Tourette syndrome (TS). He said his TS was successfully treated with therapy. In 2015, he said in an interview on HuffPost with hosts Roy Sekoff and Marc Lamont Hill that he has Asperger syndrome which was "never diagnosed", but was "sort of a self-diagnosis" based on several of his own characteristics, contradicting his earlier claim in the Daily Mail that he had been officially diagnosed in the early 1980s after his wife Donna persuaded him to see a doctor. Aykroyd's family members noticed a pattern of behavior consistent with the syndrome when he was in middle school and was evaluated by a psychologist, but the condition had not yet been identified at the time. Aykroyd is a former reserve commander for the police department in Harahan, Louisiana, working for Chief of Police Peter Dale. While on the force, he carried his badge with him at all times. 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 Mississippi. Aykroyd's passions for the outdoors, geology and paleontology, which he attributes to watching his father work on constructing the Gatineau Parkway which included blasting through granite rock formations to run the highway. This led him to join Canadian paleontologist Philip J. Currie on a number of digs, including fundraising digs and galas as fundraisers for the construction of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Wembley, Alberta, which recognised Aykroyd's contributions by naming its theatre the Aykroyd Family Theatre. Aykroyd has obtained American citizenship.

Aykroyd was a close friend of John Belushi. According to Aykroyd, their first meeting helped spark the Blues Brothers act. When they met in a club that Aykroyd frequented, he played a blues record in the background, and it stimulated a fascination with blues in Belushi, who was primarily a fan of heavy rock bands at the time. 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. In an appearance on the Today show, Aykroyd called Belushi and himself "kindred spirits". In the biography Belushi, Aykroyd claims that Belushi was the only man with whom he could ever dance. The pair were scheduled to present the Academy Award for Visual Effects in 1982, but Belushi died a few weeks before the ceremony. Devastated by his friend's death, Aykroyd presented the award alone, saying 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." Aykroyd was an outspoken critic of the 1989 film Wired, a biopic of Belushi based on the 1984 book of the same name by Bob Woodward and starring Michael Chiklis in his film debut as Belushi and Gary Groomes as Aykroyd. Along with Belushi's widow Judith, his brother Jim, and many other friends, associates and relatives of Belushi, he boycotted the film and the associated book for misrepresenting Belushi's life. In an interview for MTV's The Big Picture in June 1988, he expressed his desire that the film would underperform at the box office, which ultimately happened. He said, "I have witches working now to jinx the thing... I hope it never gets seen and I am going to hurl all the negative energy I can and muster all my hell energies. My thunderbolts are out on this one, quite truthfully." He had actor J. T. Walsh removed 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. Walsh, who had played Woodward in Wired, was replaced by Paul Koslo, causing the film a $125,000 production delay.

Aykroyd considers himself a Spiritualist, stating: I am a Spiritualist, a proud wearer of the Spiritualist badge. Mediums and psychic research have gone on for many, many years... Loads of people have seen spirits, heard a voice, or felt the cold temperature. I believe that they are between here and there, that they exist between the fourth and fifth dimensions, and that they visit us frequently. 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. Other than Spiritualism, Aykroyd is also interested in various other aspects of the paranormal, particularly UFOlogy. He is a lifetime member of and official Hollywood consultant for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). Along these lines, he served, from 1996 to 2000, as host of Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, which claimed to describe cases drawn from the archives of "The Office of Scientific Investigation and Research". In 2005, Aykroyd produced the DVD Dan Aykroyd: Unplugged on UFOs. Aykroyd was interviewed for 80 minutes by UFOlogist David Sereda, discussing in depth many aspects of the UFO phenomenon. In September 2009, Peter Aykroyd Sr., Dan's father, published a book entitled A History of Ghosts. This book chronicled the family's historical involvement in the Spiritualist movement, to which Aykroyd readily refers. 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 other public-relations initiatives. Aykroyd also read the introduction for the audio version of the book. In 1997, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry awarded Aykroyd in absentia the Snuffed Candle Award for hosting Psi Factor and being a "long-time promoter... of paranormal claims". Following the awards, Joe Nickell wrote to Aykroyd asking for the research behind the "cases" presented on Psi Factor, particularly a claim that NASA scientists were "killed while investigating a meteor crash and giant eggs were found and incubated, yielding a flea the size of a hog".