Actors - Dan Aykroyd

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	Actors - Dan Aykroyd

Daniel Edward Aykroyd, C.M. (born July 1, 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is an Academy Award nominated Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter and musician. He was an original and innovative cast member of Saturday Night Live
, an originator of the Blues Brothers, and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.

Early life

Aykroyd grew up in Ottawa, Ontario. His father, Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, was a policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His mother, Lorraine Gougeon, is French-Canadian.

Aykroyd was born with syndactyly (webbed toes) and heterochromia (the condition of having two differently-colored eyes). In an interview with Terry Gross, he described himself as having mild Tourette syndrome that was successfully treated with therapy when he was a preteen, as well as mild Asperger syndrome. The latter can manifest itself in a fascination with narrowly-defined interests, such as police work, and Aykroyd carries a police badge at all times. (It is unclear if Aykroyd received these diagnoses from a medical source or whether they were self-made.)

Dan Aykroyd attended Roman Catholic high schools at Ottawa, St Pius X and St. Patrick's, where he was briefly expelled from the latter. Aykroyd went on to study criminology at Carleton University but dropped out before completing.

He worked as a comedian in various Canadian nightclubs. Aykroyd went on to gain experience in The Second City comedy troupe and in the National Lampoon stage shows.

Saturday Night Live

Aykroyd gained fame on the American late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live
, where he was a writer and cast member for its first four seasons, from 1975 to 1979. Aykroyd brought a unique sensibility to the show, combining youth, unusual interests, and an almost lunatic intensity. (Eric Idle, of Monty Python, once said that Aykroyd's ability to write and act out characters flawlessly made him the only member of the SNL cast capable of having been a Python.)

He was known for his impersonations of celebrities like Jimmy Carter (where the President talked someone down from a bad acid trip by telling them to listen to some Allman Brothers), Richard Nixon, Julia Child (in an oft-replayed sketch where she cannot stop bleeding after cutting herself while cooking), Tom Snyder, and others. He was also known for his recurring roles, such as Beldar, father in the Coneheads family; with Steve Martin, one of the "Two Wild and Crazy Guys" Czech brothers; sleazy late-night cable TV host E. Buzz Miller and his cousin, corrupt maker of children's toys and costumes Irwin Mainway; a beleaguered male prostitute named Fred Garvin; and high-bred but low-brow critic Leonard Pinth-Garnell. He also co-hosted the Weekend Update segment for a season with Jane Curtin, coining the popular catchphrase "Jane, you ignorant slut" during point-counterpoint segments.

Aykroyd's talent was recognized by others in the highly competitive SNL environment: when he first presented his famous "Super Bass-O-Matic '76" sketch, a fake commercial in which a garish, hyper pitchman (modeled after Ron Popeil) touts a food blender that turns an entire bass into liquid pulp, "to the 'Bass-O-Matic' was so exhiliratingly strange that many remember sitting and listening, open-mouthed ... Nobody felt jealous of it because they couldn't imagine writing anything remotely like it."

While Aykroyd was a close friend and partner with fellow cast member John Belushi and shared some of the same sensibilities, Aykroyd's variant was more reserved and less self-destructive. By the time each show reached its end, Aykroyd was changed into street clothes and quickly got onto his Harley Davidson, riding all night to parts unknown in Canada.

In 1977 he received an Emmy Award for writing on Saturday Night Live; he later received two more nominations for writing, and one each for acting and Outstanding Comedy-Variety series.

In later decades, Aykroyd made occasional guest appearances and unannounced cameos on Saturday Night Live, often impersonating the humourous but slightly bitter American politician Bob Dole.

Blues and the Blues Brothers

Aykroyd was good friends with John Belushi, who recruited him for Saturday Night Live. According to Aykroyd, it was his first meeting with Belushi that helped spark their popular Blues Brothers act. When they met in a speak easy Aykroyd frequented, Aykroyd put on a blues record to play in the background, and it stimulated a fascination with Blues in Belushi, who was primarily a fan of heavy metal despite being a Chicago native. Dan educated John 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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Dan Aykroyd ]

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