50 Fun Facts About Dan Aykroyd

Which actress was Dan Aykroyd briefly engaged to after proposing to her on the set of The Blues Brothers?

Carrie Fisher, who plays Jake's jilted girlfriend in the film, ended the engagement when she reconciled with musician Paul Simon.

Which TV chef did Dan Aykroyd parody on Saturday Night Live in a famously blood-soaked cooking sketch?

Julia Child reportedly loved the gory parody so much that she kept a videocassette of it and showed it to friends at parties.

Which spirit does Dan Aykroyd sell in a skull-shaped glass bottle under his Crystal Head brand?

Vodka from Crystal Head gets its final filtering through Herkimer diamonds, which are really quartz crystals, and artist John Alexander designed the bottle.

Dan Aykroyd wrote Ghostbusters' Peter Venkman for John Belushi, but which actor ended up playing the role?

Bill Murray got the rewritten part after Belushi died in March 1982, when the far-future, space-hopping story was brought down to New York City.

In Trading Places, Dan Aykroyd's Louis Winthorpe ruins the Duke brothers by trading futures in which commodity?

Orange juice, in frozen concentrate form, was chosen because the writers thought audiences would never expect something so mundane to be traded.

A museum in Alberta named its theatre after Dan Aykroyd's family because he raised funds for the study of what?

Dinosaurs fascinate him so much that he organised a two-day celebrity fossil dig, a ball and an auction to help get the museum built.

Which instrument did Dan Aykroyd carry on stage in a case handcuffed to his wrist as a Blues Brother?

Harmonica in a handcuffed briefcase became the act's trademark, and the duo's 1978 debut album was called Briefcase Full of Blues.

Dan Aykroyd sang in the chorus of which 1985 all-star charity single, alongside Bette Midler and Smokey Robinson?

We Are the World topped the Hot 100, which makes the comic actor an unlikely number-one recording artist among the session's pop and soul stars.

Which gluttonous green Ghostbusters ghost has been described as the ghost of Dan Aykroyd's late friend John Belushi?

Slimer was likened by the film-makers to Bluto, Belushi's Animal House character, and only got that name later, in the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters.

In The Blues Brothers, what kind of used vehicle does Dan Aykroyd's character buy at auction as the Bluesmobile?

A police car was his own pick as co-writer: he considered the Dodge Monaco the hottest patrol car of the 1970s.

Which paranormal investigator did Dan Aykroyd play in the 1984 hit Ghostbusters, which he also co-wrote?

Ray Stantz is the one who accidentally summons the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man by thinking of a mascot he loved in his boyhood.

What is the first name of the Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd played opposite John Belushi's Jake?

Elwood was modelled partly on Donnie Walsh of the blues band Downchild, whose songs the duo covered on their first album.

Which fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus plays the street hustler who swaps lives with Dan Aykroyd in Trading Places?

Eddie Murphy stepped into a film first developed for Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, with Aykroyd taking the part meant for Wilder.

Which actress starred opposite Dan Aykroyd in both Trading Places and the 1991 tearjerker My Girl?

Jamie Lee Curtis won a BAFTA for Trading Places, cast against the studio's wishes when she was known mainly for horror films.

Which 1989 Best Picture winner earned Dan Aykroyd an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor?

Driving Miss Daisy cast the comedian against type as Boolie Werthan, the businessman son who hires a chauffeur for the stubborn Daisy.

Which future Oscar winner played Dan Aykroyd's laid-back partner Pep Streebek in the 1987 comedy Dragnet?

Tom Hanks got the part because first choice Jim Belushi was unavailable; he played foil to Aykroyd's Joe Friday, nephew of the TV original.

Which Canadian comic played the brother-in-law whose lakeside holiday Dan Aykroyd gatecrashes in The Great Outdoors?

John Candy played Chet Ripley in a comedy written and produced by John Hughes, with Annette Bening making her film debut.

Which original Saturday Night Live castmate joined Dan Aykroyd as a bumbling decoy agent in Spies Like Us?

Chevy Chase took a part first meant for John Belushi, in a comedy styled after the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby road movies.

Dan Aykroyd's alien Coneheads explain their odd habits to neighbours by claiming to come from which country?

France was the cover story for a family actually stranded on Earth from the planet Remulak.

Which Hanna-Barbera cartoon character did Dan Aykroyd voice in a 2010 film mixing live action and computer animation?

Yogi Bear was a childhood favourite of his, and pop star Justin Timberlake voiced sidekick Boo-Boo in the same film.

Dan Aykroyd was born on July 1 in which city, where he later studied at Carleton University?

Ottawa's club Le Hibou booked the great bluesmen of the era, and the teenage Aykroyd was a regular in the audience.

Before dropping out to pursue comedy, Dan Aykroyd studied sociology and which other subject at Carleton University?

Criminology stayed with him: he later became a reserve law-enforcement officer in Louisiana and then in Mississippi.

At 17, Dan Aykroyd joined a short-lived Canadian sketch show starring which future Saturday Night Live producer?

Lorne Michaels fronted The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour with Hart Pomerantz on CBC, years before he hired Aykroyd again for his NBC show.

Which improv comedy troupe did Dan Aykroyd join in 1973, performing with its Toronto company before television fame?

The Second City has also been a starting point for John Belushi, Mike Myers and Tina Fey.

Dan Aykroyd's father, a civil engineer, worked as a policy adviser to which Canadian prime minister?

Pierre Trudeau's adviser Peter Aykroyd later wrote A History of Ghosts, tracing the family's long involvement in Spiritualism.

Dan Aykroyd's great-grandfather, a dentist and mystic, exchanged letters about Spiritualism with which famous author?

Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a devoted Spiritualist, and Aykroyd proudly calls himself one too.

Which actress, his co-star in the 1983 comedy Doctor Detroit, did Dan Aykroyd marry that same year?

Donna Dixon married him on a friend's rooftop in Martha's Vineyard and went on to appear with him in four more films.

Which director co-wrote The Blues Brothers with Dan Aykroyd and later directed him in Trading Places?

John Landis had to cut Aykroyd's enormous first draft down into a usable screenplay, a job that took him about two weeks.

Which Ghostbusters co-star, who played the team's bespectacled scientist, helped Dan Aykroyd rewrite the script?

Harold Ramis was hired to ground the story in present-day New York, and the pair went on to write the 1989 sequel together.

Which director cast Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in the 1979 war comedy 1941?

Steven Spielberg later turned up on the other side of the camera, playing a county clerk in The Blues Brothers.

Dan Aykroyd's The Blues Brothers is set and was filmed in which city, ending with a pursuit to City Hall?

Chicago was home turf for John Belushi, who spent his time off set at old haunts such as Wrigley Field.

In The Blues Brothers, Dan Aykroyd's character reunites the band to pay the taxes owed by which institution?

An orphanage run by nuns raised both brothers, and it will close unless it finds $5,000 in property taxes.

Which soul singer plays a restaurant owner who belts out "Think" in Dan Aykroyd's The Blues Brothers?

Aretha Franklin was cast at Aykroyd's insistence, one of several R&B stars given speaking parts built around their songs.

In My Girl, Dan Aykroyd plays Harry Sultenfuss, a widowed father who runs what kind of family business?

A funeral home doubles as the family house, which feeds his 11-year-old daughter Vada's fear of dying.

In Tommy Boy, Dan Aykroyd plays tycoon Zalinsky, the self-described king of which business?

Auto parts made Zalinsky rich, and he wants the rival Callahan firm only for its brand name, planning to close it and lay off its workers.

In Grosse Pointe Blank, Dan Aykroyd's Grocer pushes John Cusack's character to join a union for which profession?

Assassins deserve a union, Grocer insists, and when his rival keeps refusing, Grocer tips off two federal agents to his next job.

What is the name of the Conehead father Dan Aykroyd played on Saturday Night Live and in a 1993 film?

Beldar was secretly a spy sent to tell his home planet the best moment to invade Earth, a job he failed to do.

Which castmate co-anchored Weekend Update with Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live in the late 1970s?

Jane Curtin also traded scripted insults with him in the show's Point/Counterpoint debates, a spoof of a 60 Minutes segment.

Which guest host played Dan Aykroyd's brother in Saturday Night Live sketches about two Czechoslovak playboys?

Steve Martin and Aykroyd played the swinging Festrunk brothers, and Martin built a hit 1978 comedy album around his half of the act.

Dan Aykroyd's famous fake commercial on Saturday Night Live sold a blender that liquefied which whole animal?

A fish, a whole bass, went into the Super Bass-O-Matic '76; he got the idea at 12, watching his aunt blend one for bouillabaisse.

Which chain of live music venues did Dan Aykroyd found in 1992 with Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Isaac Tigrett?

House of Blues began as a single hall in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with Aerosmith among its early backers.

Which silent-era comedy producer did Dan Aykroyd portray opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the 1992 biopic Chaplin?

Mack Sennett opened Keystone Studios in 1912 and became famous for slapstick staples such as pie-throwing and car chases.

In the 1992 caper Sneakers, what nickname does Dan Aykroyd's conspiracy-theorist technician go by?

Mother's wild theories drew on real conspiracy material that Aykroyd's brother Peter supplied to spice up the character.

In the animated film Antz, Dan Aykroyd voices Chip, a snobbish picnic-goer who is what kind of insect?

A wasp with upper-class airs, Chip ends up flying the hero Z back to his colony after a fly swatter kills his companion Muffy.

Dan Aykroyd spent the late 1990s hosting which TV series that dramatised supposedly real paranormal case files?

Psi Factor was co-created by his brother Peter, and it won Dan a mock Snuffed Candle Award from a committee of sceptics.

By his own account, Dan Aykroyd once filled in on drums as a teenager behind which blues legend?

Muddy Waters asked the crowd for a drummer after his own left the kit, and the young fan in the audience stepped up.

Which 1991 horror comedy, co-starring Demi Moore, was the first feature film Dan Aykroyd directed?

Nothing but Trouble also had him play a 106-year-old small-town judge under heavy make-up, in a story by his brother Peter.

Which 1988 comedy, featuring him as a squeaky-voiced mercenary, won Dan Aykroyd a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor?

Caddyshack II let him use a grating high-pitched voice that annoyed the producers; he said he based it on Colonel Oliver North.

Dan Aykroyd jokingly delivered his oversized first script for The Blues Brothers bound inside the cover of what?

A phone book cover, taken from the Los Angeles Yellow Pages, was his way of softening the blow of a very thick first screenplay.

In the late-1990s ABC sitcom Soul Man, Dan Aykroyd starred as a widowed father of four with which job?

A priest in the Episcopal Church, his character fronted a sitcom that took its name and theme tune from a soul hit the Blues Brothers had covered.