The actor and comedian Dan Aykroyd was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1952. A student of criminology and sociology at Carleton University, he dropped out before completing his degree to pursue something he was more passionate about: comedy. Which he would sometimes perform in the Canadian nightclubs.

Aykroyd also got into music when he was living in Ottawa, and he had a particular affinity for the blues. He even encountered professional blues musicians and one night he got to play backup drums to Muddy Waters. But it was his pursuit of comedy that would elevate him to stardom, starting when he was cast in Lorne Michaels’ Canadian sketch comedy series The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour in 1970. Three years later Aykroyd would join famous improv comedy troupe The Second City where many famous comedians got their start.

When Lorne Michaels brought his talents to America and NBC hired him to create Saturday Night Live, Michaels once again hired Aykroyd, first as a writer and then as a cast member. SNL premiered in 1975 and as one of the show’s first cast members, Aykroyd gained national fame overnight. He was known by SNL viewers for his often manic persona and his various celebrity impersonations, including those of Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Tom Snyder, Vincent Price and Twilight Zone host Rod Serling. Aykroyd also portrayed original characters like sleazy late night TV host E. Buzz Miller, corrupt toy inventor Irwin Mainway and low-brow critic Leonard Pinth-Garnell, and he was known for recurring sketch roles like the patriarch of space alien family the Coneheads, one half of Slovakian love-seeking siblings the Festrunk Brothers, the correspondent on Weekend Update’s Point/Counterpoint segment and his inimitable fast-talking hyper-pitchman for fake TV commercials like the Super Bass-O-Matic ’76, a performance that often amazed his fellow castmates.

Aykroyd would remain on the show for only the first four seasons before leaving in 1979. Even though Aykroyd never partook in drug use like many other cast members and was usually more reserved than the unruly John Belushi, Aykroyd and Belushi formed a bond on SNL. Blues fan Aykroyd even sparked Belushi’s newfound interest and love for the genre (Belushi was more of a heavy rock fan). This led to the creation of their act the Blues Brothers, for which the two comedians donned black suits and ties, fedoras and sunglasses. The music was actually good and their albums sold well, leading to Aykroyd and Belushi’s eventual departure from SNL to star in the Hollywood comedy The Blues Brothers (1980). That movie became a big hit and is seen as a classic now. Aykroyd not only starred as Elwood J. Blues in the film but he co-wrote the script with director John Landis.

A year earlier Aykroyd had actually starred alongside Belushi in Steven Spielberg’s war comedy 1941, and in 1981 the duo starred together in the black comedy Neighbors, in which they played against type (to mixed results).

Other films starring Aykroyd include the John Landis comedy Trading Places (1983) co-starring Eddie Murphy, Spielberg’s Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and most famously Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters (1984), the sci-fi comedy megahit co-written by and starring Aykroyd alongside Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson as a team of ghost hunters in New York City.

Ghostbusters was inspired by Aykroyd’s fascination with the paranormal and his interest in quantum physics and parapsychology. Aykroyd eventually conceived of how it might be possible to capture ghosts and eventually he built a story around the concept and pitched the idea to Hollywood. Aykroyd originally intended to star in the movie with John Belushi and Eddie Murphy but Belushi’s accidental drug-related death in 1982 ended those plans. Although the film underwent a lot of changes and evolutions beyond the casting. At one point the film was more dark and horror-based and it took place far in the future. And this was all before Aykroyd even settled on it being a comedy. Director Ivan Reitman helped shape the story into something more grounded and soon Reitman, Aykroyd and Ramis reworked the script into what it became. To this day Ghostbusters is Aykroyd’s most well-known film, and he would often go back to reprise the role of Ray Stantz in other projects, including the films Ghostbusters II (1989), Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024).

Aykroyd also appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), he co-wrote and starred in the John Landis spy comedy Spies Like Us (1985) with Chevy Chase, and he co-wrote and starred as LAPD Sergeant Joe Friday in the buddy cop reboot Dragnet (1987) opposite Tom Hanks. After that he starred in Caddyshack II (1988) which was panned (and a commercial bomb), he starred in Best Picture Oscar winner Driving Miss Daisy (1989), he starred in the sappy but commercially successful rom-com My Girl (1991) alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, and he tried his hands at writing and directing himself with the black comedy horror film Nothing but Trouble (1991) starring Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, John Candy and Demi Moore, but that film also got panned by critics and bombed at the box office.

Ever since the nineties, Aykroyd’s career was a lot more mixed, with a filmography that includes a few good films, a few bad films, some hits, some bombs, some forgotten failures and some cult favorites. He played classic comedy producer Mack Sennett in the biopic Chaplin (1992) starring Robert Downey, Jr., he starred in the positively reviewed caper thriller Sneakers (1992) and he reprised his role of SNL character Beldar Conehead in the 1993 sci-fi comedy The Coneheads, which Aykroyd co-wrote with SNL writer Tom Davis and SNL writers and future 3rd Rock from the Sun creators Bonnie and Terry Turner, both of whom would also team up to write the David Spade and Chris Farley buddy comedy Tommy Boy (1995) which also starred Aykroyd.

Aykroyd next starred in the black comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), he voiced a wasp in DreamWorks Animation’s Antz (1998), he traded comedy for drama in The House of Mirth (2000), he starred in Michael Bay’s largely ridiculed but commercially successful war drama Pearl Harbor (2001), he voiced the title character in the live-action animated hybrid comedy Yogi Bear (2010) and he starred in a couple of back-to-back biodramas, first the Liberace film Behind the Candelabra (2013) starring Michael Douglas, and the James Brown film Get On Up starring Chadwick Boseman.

Aykroyd also found success on television after leaving SNL. He had guest roles on It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Tales from the Crypt, The Nanny, Home Improvement, According to Jim, Family Guy, Workin’ Moms, The Conners and The Simpsons. He even briefly had his own sitcom called Soul Man which ran for two seasons from 1997 to 1998 on ABC. More successful however was his television career in Canada. He actually played the role of a Rod Serling-type host in a sci-fi drama called Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal which ran from 1996 to 2000 in syndication on Canadian television, and he starred in and creatively consulted for the acclaimed Gemini Award-winning Canadian miniseries The Arrow which ran for four episodes on CBC in 1997 and starred Aykroyd as Canadian World War II defense production leader Crawford Gordon.

Whether it’s comedy, the blues or the paranormal, Aykroyd has often been able to pursue his passion and entertain people at the same time. What more can someone ask for?