After leaving SNL, Aykroyd starred in a number of films, mostly comedies, with uneven results both commercially and artistically. His first three American feature films all co-starred Belushi. The first, 1941 (1979), directed by Steven Spielberg, was a box-office disappointment.
In 1975, Aykroyd joined the founding cast of “Saturday Night,” later renamed “Saturday Night Live.” He became best friends with John Belushi, a fellow comedian and musician from suburban Chicago.
Dan Aykroyd pays tribute to his dear friend and “Blues Brothers” co-star, John Belushi, reminiscing about their shared journey. Aykroyd shares that he believes John would have found his calling directing Broadway plays had he still been with us.
From the 1973 meeting of two young comic geniuses in a Toronto bar through the careening, madcap production of John Landis's 1980 movie, Ned Zeman chronicles the triumph of an obsession. MEN ON A MISSION Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as the Blues Brothers, shot by Annie Leibovitz for Rolling Stone, in 1979.
Catherine Evelyn Smith (April 25, 1947 – August 16, 2020) was a Canadian occasional backup singer, rock groupie, drug dealer, and legal secretary. Smith served 15 months in the California state prison system for injecting actor John Belushi with a fatal dose of heroin and cocaine in 1982.
Dan Aykroyd on John Belushi and The Blues Brothers
Who did John Belushi leave his money to?
By Albin Krebs and Robert Mcg. Thomas Jr. New York Times subscribers* enjoy full access to TimesMachine—view over 150 years of New York Times journalism, as it originally appeared.
And, during a trip to Toronto in 1974, to check out the local Second City cast, Belushi met Dan Aykroyd. Jacklin became an associate producer for the show, and she and Belushi were married on December 31, 1976. "The National Lampoon Show" toured the country in 1974; it was produced by Ivan Reitman.
“He would have been king in those places. Whenever I walk in and see his picture there, they have the Blues Brothers up at the bar, I get wistful because, boy, he would have loved walking around these palaces.” John's brother, actor Jim, is now Aykroyd's partner in the Blues Brothers.
"I'd like to find the last vehicle and exit on a really high, graceful substantial note in film," Aykroyd told the Toronto Globe and Mail. "I don't feel compelled and driven, career-wise. At 49 years old, I'm really feeling sedentary, reclusive. I really just want to shut everything down for a little while."
In recent radio and print interviews, Aykroyd has acknowledged that he has mild Tourette's syndrome and high-functioning Asperger's. He talked about how therapy helped ease his Tourette's symptoms by his mid-teens, and how he had learned to channel his Asperger's into creativity for his acting and singing career.
Did John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd sing in Blues Brothers?
Origins. The genesis of the Blues Brothers was a January 17, 1976, Saturday Night Live sketch. In it, "Howard Shore and his All-Bee Band" play the Slim Harpo song "I'm a King Bee", with Belushi singing and Aykroyd playing harmonica, dressed in the bee costumes they wore for "The Killer Bees" sketches.
His good friend Dan Aykroyd used to refer to the green ghost Slimer from Ghostbusters (1984) as "the ghost of John Belushi", based on the similar party animal personality.
The film is also notable for the number of cameo appearances by established celebrities and entertainment-industry figures, including Steve Lawrence as a booking agent, Twiggy as a "chic lady" in a Jaguar convertible whom Elwood propositions at a gas station, Steven Spielberg as the Cook County Assessor's clerk, Landis ...
He later regretted turning down the role of Louis Tully in Ghostbusters (1984) so much that when Ghostbusters co-writer and co-star as well as close friend Dan Aykroyd offered him two roles in his directorial debut a similar comedy-horror themed film Nothing But Trouble (1991) he immediately accepted because he felt ...
I also have Asperger's but I can manage it. It wasn't diagnosed until the early eighties when my wife persuaded me to see a doctor.” From WebMD: Asperger's syndrome, also called Asperger's disorder, is a type of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD).
As John Landis explains in a video for the AV Club (via Yahoo!), since John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were not great dancers, he figured he could make them look better by hiring non-professional dancers.
How did Dan Aykroyd react to John Belushi's death?
Dan Aykroyd pays tribute to his dear friend and "Blues Brothers" co-star, John Belushi, reminiscing about their shared journey. Aykroyd shares that he believes John would have found his calling directing Broadway plays had he still been with us.
People who knew Belushi in the early years describe a warm and deeply loyal man, one who always tried to get jobs for his friends and was so gentle that if his cat fell asleep on his lap he would be late for rehearsals rather than wake up his pet.
After more back-and-forth and plenty of laughs from everyone, it was eventually concluded that Aykroyd did not invent Patrón. It was, in fact, invented by John Paul DeJoria in 1989.
Ronald Kornblum, the Los Angeles County coroner, attributed John Belushi's cause of death to acute cocaine and heroin poisoning. Dr. Michael Baden, New York City's former chief medical examiner, later testified that had Belushi not taken drugs, he wouldn't have died. If he was still alive, he would be in his 70s today.
5. 'Neighbors' (1981) Belushi's last movie came with a twist: He and frequent screen partner Dan Aykroyd swapped their usual roles, with Belushi playing the buttoned-down straight man to Aykroyd's over-the-top wild guy.
Of the younger lead actors, only the 28-year-old Belushi was an established star, but even he had not yet appeared in a film, having gained fame as an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, which was in its third season in the autumn of 1977.
Belushi was born in Chicago, the eldest son of Albanian-American parents Agnes Demetri (née Samaras) Belushi, who worked in a pharmacy, and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant owner.
John Belushi has no children, according to Wikipedia. However, he could have very much had one when he was nineteen. After all, at that time, he was playing in a band called The Ravens.
