Dan Aykroyd - Other Work

Other Work

Concurrent with his work in Saturday Night Live, Aykroyd played the role of Purvis Bickle, lift operator at the fictitious office block 99 Sumach Street in the CBC Television series Coming Up Rosie.

After leaving Saturday Night Live, Aykroyd starred in a number of films (mostly comedies), with uneven results both commercially and artistically. He co-starred with Belushi in three films, 1941, which was his American feature-film debut, The Blues Brothers, and Neighbors. One of his best-received performances was as a blueblood-turned-wretch in the 1983 comic drama Trading Places; a notable flop was in the earlier 1941. (Director Steven Spielberg received the brunt of the criticism, but Aykroyd's performance as an Army Sergeant was either played straight or completely manic.)

Aykroyd originally wrote the role of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984) with Belushi in mind, but rewrote the part for Bill Murray after Belushi died. Aykroyd used to joke that the green ghost (who would later come to be known as "Slimer") was "the ghost of John Belushi," based on the similar party animal personality. Ghostbusters became a huge success for Aykroyd as a co-creator, co-writer, and one of the lead actors; the film's inspiration came from Aykroyd's fascination with parapsychology. Aykroyd participated in the recording of "We Are the World" in 1985.

Aykroyd was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1989's Driving Miss Daisy. He was the second SNL cast member to be nominated for an Oscar, the first being Joan Cusack. (Randy Quaid also received an Academy Award nomination before either of them, but that was before he became a Not Ready For Prime Time actor himself.)

Aykroyd's directorial debut was 1991's Nothing but Trouble. It starred Demi Moore, Chevy Chase, John Candy and Aykroyd sporting an oddly phallic prosthetic nose. The film was a critical and box office flop. Other films that starred Aykroyd in the 1990s included Exit to Eden, Blues Brothers 2000, and Getting Away with Murder; these were also poorly received. He also made an uncredited appearance in the Michael Moore film, Canadian Bacon, as a motorcycle cop.

In 1994, Aykroyd made a guest appearance in an episode of the sitcom The Nanny as a refrigerator repairman. In 1997, Aykroyd starred in a short-lived sitcom on ABC called Soul Man. The show lasted one season. In the 2000s, Aykroyd's film appearances have tended to be small character parts in big-budget productions, such as a signals analyst in Pearl Harbor and a neurologist in 50 First Dates. In 2001, Aykroyd starred in the Woody Allen film, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.

In February 2007, Aykroyd revealed that he would be providing voice-acting for a Ghostbusters III CGI project, though these rumours were clarified later on, that the CGI project was a next-gen video game that was currently in production. In 2009, Aykroyd along with Harold Ramis, wrote and appeared in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which also featured Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton, and Brian Doyle-Murray. On June 14, 2009, GameStop used an outgoing phone message pre-recorded by Aykroyd to invite pre-order customers to the launch event at 10 p.m.

Aykroyd wrote the liner notes for fellow Ottawa born blues musician JW-Jones' album Bluelisted in 2008.

In 2009, Aykroyd contributed a series of reminiscences on his upbringing in Canada for a charity album titled Dan Aykroyd's Canada.

Most recently, Aykroyd and Chevy Chase guest starred in the Family Guy episode "Spies Reminiscent of Us." (The two had co-starred in the film Spies Like Us, another film in which Aykroyd had hopes, which Belushi's death had dashed, that John Belushi would co-star with him.) He also hosts the nationally-syndicated radio show House of Blues Radio Hour under his Blues Brothers moniker Elwood Blues.

Aykroyd appeared in two February 2011 episodes of CBS' The Defenders. which starred Jim Belushi. This information was announced November 29, 2010. He also appeared on Top Chef Canada as a guest judge.

Aykroyd announced in February 2012 that Bill Murray was not going to appear in Ghostbusters III and said that at this point the film had been indefinitely suspended. Aykroyd said Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis felt there had to be a way to do it without Murray.

On March 20, 2012, Aykroyd said he is about to work on a script for a comedy that would also star Chevy Chase. It would be the first time Aykroyd and Chase have appeared together onscreen since 1991's Nothing But Trouble.