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Born April 18, 1953
Rick Moranis (born April 18, 1953, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is an actor, comedian, and musician best known to Ghostbusters fans as Louis Tully, the hapless accountant-turned-Keymaster who appears in both Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989). Like Dan Aykroyd, Moranis came to Hollywood from Canada, cutting his teeth on sketch comedy before landing some of the defining comedic film roles of the 1980s.
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Moranis got his start on the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV. His most popular character there was "Bob" of Bob and Doug McKenzie, a duo he performed alongside Dave Thomas. The McKenzie brothers trafficked in almost every negative Canadian stereotype and became a cultural touchstone; Moranis later reprised the character Bob McKenzie in the 1983 film Strange Brew.
Beyond Ghostbusters, Moranis built a remarkable comedic filmography during the 1980s and early 1990s. Notable roles include Spaceballs (1987), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Brewster's Millions (1985), and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989). He was also drawn early in his career toward material he could shape himself, frequently being brought in to rewrite and refine his own dialogue rather than simply perform lines as given.
John Candy was initially considered for the role of Louis Tully but ultimately passed on it. The script was then sent to an agent who passed it along to Moranis, who had been waiting for the right project. Once attached, Moranis played a substantial role in developing the character, including coming up with the idea that Louis should be an accountant.
During production of Ghostbusters, Moranis improvised lines throughout the famous party scene. He also conceived the idea of Louis hosting the party, pitching it to the production right before principal photography began. Director Ivan Reitman chose to shoot the party sequence as one long unbroken take specifically to preserve Moranis' comedic flow and spontaneity. For the scene in which Egon and Janine interview the possessed Louis, Moranis simply ducked off camera while the crew used a rubber Terror Dog head to represent Vinz Clortho on screen.
Moranis reprised Louis Tully in Ghostbusters II, in which Louis takes on a larger role as the Ghostbusters' legal counsel before eventually suiting up as an auxiliary Ghostbuster.
Moranis's wife died of liver cancer in 1991. Following her death, he significantly reduced his acting work before stepping away from the industry entirely by 1997 to devote his time to raising their children. He has since indicated that he is not opposed to taking on a role under the right circumstances, but that he remains selective.
In 2005, Moranis released a comedy album called The Agoraphobic Cowboy, which received a 2006 Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album. His contributions to Canadian culture earned him the Order of Canada.
When Ghostbusters: The Video Game was in development, Bill Murray actively pushed the production team to bring Moranis back as Louis Tully, going so far as to call Moranis directly. Moranis came around toward the end of production and indicated he was willing to participate. His likeness was modeled and ready, but the production team ran out of time and resources to rig the character for animation, as all remaining crew were focused on completing the cinematics. Ideas were floated, including having Louis appear only partially on screen or in a body cast, but nothing came together. Louis was ultimately written out of the game with the explanation that he had gone on sick leave after scouting cities for new Ghostbusters franchise locations.
Around 2009 to 2010, Moranis was contacted by an associate of Dan Aykroyd about participating in another Ghostbusters film. He passed on a cameo role in Ghostbusters (2016) because the specific role did not appeal to him. He was also approached to reprise Louis Tully for Ghostbusters: Afterlife by Ivan Reitman before Reitman's passing, and by others affiliated with that production, but he declined.
"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."
