DAN AYKROYD (Vic Frohmeyer) has enjoyed a three decade long career in the entertainment business starting as a writer and performer on his local cable access station in 1970.
Aykroyd was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to a French Canadian Catholic mother and an English Canadian Anglican father, both of whom worked as public servants for the Canadian Federal Government. He moved to Toronto in 1972 to work for Ivan Reitman, his future Ghostbusters director, at the ground breaking Citytv. In the summer of 1970, Aykroyd first performed on the CBC network as a writer-actor for producer Lorne Michaels in the TV special “The Great Canadian Humour Test.”
Although he left Carleton University without a degree, Aykroyd was awarded a Doctorate in Literature from Carleton in 1997 for recognition of his “Saturday Night Live” writing and for the nine produced screenplays on which he shares cowriting credits — Love at First Sight, The Blues Brothers, Spies Like Us, Dragnet, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Coneheads, Nothing But Trouble and The Blues Brothers II.
In 2004, he starred opposite Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in Columbia Pictures’ hit comedy 50 First Dates.
Aykroyd is also a Grammy and Oscar® nominee. The Grammy nomination was for Best New Artist 1979 for the triple platinum selling Briefcase Full of Blues record album which he recorded with his then partner John Belushi. The Oscar® nomination was for his performance as Best Supporting Actor in 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy. In total, the films with which Aykroyd has had principal associations have grossed close to $1 billion worldwide. He was awarded an Emmy Award for his writing on the “Saturday Night Live” show guest-starring Sissy Spacek. In his persona as Elwood Blues he has performed on seven Blues Brothers CDs, which have sold approximately five million units.
In 1983, Aykroyd co-ventured as an investor in Hard Rock Café International to open U.S. outlets of the famous British American establishment in New York, Dallas and Washington, D.C. It was at the New York’s Hard Rock Café Inaugural Concert that Aykroyd reconvened the original Blues Brothers band for the first time since the death of his partner John Belushi.
Performing thereafter in the Elwood Blues Revue, Aykroyd opened the Supreme Court of Rock n’ Roll Hard Rock in Dallas, Texas in 1985. He then recruited Jim Belushi to perform with him at a benefit concert underwriting Carleton University’s Alumni fund in 1997 in the Opera Chamber at the National Arts Center in Ottawa. Aykroyd and Belushi have since performed as Elwood and Zee Blues for audiences at private and corporate events as well as for sold out audiences in casinos around the U.S. They have also opened House of Blues venues across America. There are now eight House of Blues concert halls/restaurants/retail stores around the country. In 2000, House of Blues Entertainment Inc. acquired the Concerts Division of Universal Studios and currently operates 25 venues in North America.
As Elwood Blues, Aykroyd hosts the 10-year-running “House of Blues Radio Hour,” which is syndicated on 180 radio stations through the United Stations Radio Networks. After numerous live musical performances with both the original Blues Brothers Band and with the house band for House of Blues, the Sacred Hearts, Aykroyd and Belushi decided to employ the talents of their current band in an entirely different way. Two years ago, they began an active search for material outside of what they were performing from the traditional Blues Brothers CD repertoire. The result is their new “Have Love Will Travel Revue” in which Aykroyd and Belushi work as co-emcees, vocalists and dancers.
Aykroyd was recently seen in Stephen Fry’s film Bright Young Things and the Dave Thomas-directed comedy Whitecoats.
Movie Database
In Theaters
(311 votes)
(35 votes)
(232 votes)
(8 votes)
(1 votes)
(8 votes)