Rick Moranis

Stats: Born Frederick Alan Moranis on April 18, 1953 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada Bio: Like Dan Aykroyd, Rick was an export from Canada. His work as an actor garnered him the Order of Canada award for his contribution to Canadian culture. Also as with Aykroyd, Rick cut his teeth on the Canadian comedy show SCTV. After coming to Hollywood, Rick had roles in many classic comedies including, of course, Ghostbusters, but also such films as “Spaceballs” and “Brewster’s Millions”, and “Strange Brew” where he reprised his role as a character who embodies almost every Canadian stereotype. Due to the death of his wife from cancer, Rick has stepped away from the movie making business to concentrate on fatherhood. In 2005 he released a CD of comedy songs called “The Agoraphobic Cowboy” which was nominated for a 2006 Grammy award for Best Comedic album. Quote: “On the last couple of movies I made — big-budget Hollywood movies — I really missed being able to create my own material. In the early movies I did, I was brought in to basically rewrite my stuff, whether it was Ghostbusters or Spaceballs. By the time I got to the point where I was "starring" in movies, and I had executives telling me what lines to say, that wasn’t for me. I’m really not an actor. I’m a guy who comes out of comedy, and my impetus was always to rewrite the line to make it funnier, not to try to make somebody’s precious words work.”