At age 12, he was already training in an improv comedy class. “My parents knew I had something,” he says. “They knew I could make people laugh and encouraged it.” (Still, he adds that his mom, Lorraine, was “sad” when he dropped out of college at Carleton University, where he was studying criminology.) He joined the Toronto and Chicago chapters of the Second City comedy troupe and then performed on a local TV special called The Great Canadian Humor Test. That’s where he met another comedian by the name of LorneMichaels. Aykroyd, of course, would eventually end up an original Not Ready for Prime Time Player on Saturday Night Live in 1975, joining a cast that included ChevyChase, GildaRadner and GarrettMorris. But he says Michaels, who created and still oversees the show, had his doubts about him. Because he auditioned with his comedy partner JohnBelushi (the two met in Second City), “Lorne had a little trepidation,” he says. “We were walking in the door with the Blues Brothers already concocted and he’s thinking, I’ll hire Belushi, but if Aykroyd comes, they’re going to want to get their act on the air and that will be their prime motivation. I almost didn’t get the job.” During his four-year tenure, Aykroyd imitated everyone from JimmyCarter to JuliaChild and did indeed do the Blues Brothers with his friend and comedy partner; it proved so popular that a hit stand-alone film followed in 1980. Then in 1982, he was at his family’s summer cottage in Kingston, Ontario—where his great-grandfather held séances in the 1920s—and started leafing through old psychic journals and magazines. “I married the vernacular of the real research with my grandfather’s journals and honed in the concept of an old-fashioned Abbott and Costello–like ghost comedy,” he explains. In fact, he’s calling in from that very same estate and says, “I’m looking at the séance room right now.” He never sensed that Ghostbusters would be a comedy smash. He recalls that halfway through production, Bill Murray (who took the role of Peter Venkman after Belushi died in 1982) stopped by for lunch and gave an inkling of what may be in store. “We’re eating sandwiches and Billy is looking at the pool and says to me, ‘You know that you’ve written what might be one of the greatest and largest comedies of all time,’” he says. “That’s nice to hear and I had a feeling but I never took it to heart.” Cut to the summer of 1984, when the film was tops at the box-office for seven consecutive weeks and spawned a No. 1 theme song, toys, ghost-emblazoned T-shirts and an animated series. And yet, Aykroyd says that when he looks back on his career highlight reel, his extraterrestrial SNL character from the Coneheads, which he reprised in a 1993 film, is at the top. “It’s by far the best work I have ever done and will ever do,” he says. (He also relays an anecdote in which he lost his temper on the Coneheads’ Paramount lot during production and threw a fax machine on the ground while dressed in full character!) Noting that he is one of a few people on the planet with two-colored eyes and webbed fingers and toes, “I’m very close to the alien spirit and ready for them to arrive!” While he’s waiting, Aykroyd happily resides in an “old farmhouse” in Ontario with his wife of 37 years, actress DonnaDixon. (The two met on the set of his comedy Dr. Detroit and have appeared in four other films together). They have three daughters: Danielle (a singer-songwriter who goes by VeraSola), Stella and Belle. Semi-retired from acting, he still helps oversee the 11 House of Blues concert venues and is the co-founder of Crystal Head Vodka, sold in 55 countries all over the world. “I have a bass vodka in a black bottle now that’s winning awards everywhere!” he raves. He gives PaulRudd, star of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, his personal email address and offers to send him a case to New York. Next, Paul Rudd, From Anchorman to Ant-Man, on His New Role as Ghostbuster in Ghostbusters: Afterlife
