Rick Moranis

Rick Moranis

Moranis at the 1990 Academy Awards
Born Frederick Allan Moranis
(1953-04-18) April 18, 1953
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Other names Richard Moranis
Occupation Actor, comedian, screenwriter, songwriter
Years active 1976–present[1]
Spouse(s) Ann Belsky (m. 1986; died of breast cancer 1991)[2]
Children 2

Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis (born April 18, 1953) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter and songwriter. He came to prominence in the sketch comedy series Second City Television (SCTV) in the 1980s and later appeared in several Hollywood films, including Strange Brew (1983), Ghostbusters (1984), Spaceballs (1987), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989, and its 1992 and 1997 sequels), Parenthood (1989), My Blue Heaven (1990), and The Flintstones (1994).

In 1997, Moranis began a long hiatus from acting to raise his children as a widowed father.[3] He has not appeared in a live-action film since, although he has provided voice-over work for a few animated films, notably Walt Disney Animation Studios' Brother Bear (2003), released comedy albums and made appearances at fan conventions.

Early life

Moranis was born in Toronto, Ontario, to a Jewish family.[4] He went to elementary school with Geddy Lee, frontman of the rock band Rush.[5]

Career

His career as an entertainer began as a radio disc jockey in the mid-1970s, using the on-air name "Rick Allan" at three Toronto radio stations.[5]

In 1977 he teamed up with Winnipeg-born writer/director and performer Ken Finkleman on a series of live performances on CBC's 90 Minutes Live, comedy radio specials and television comedy pilots including one called Midweek and one called 1980 (produced at CBC Toronto in 1979). Both pilots starred Finkleman and Moranis in a series of irreverent sketches including an early mockumentary sketch featuring Moranis as a Canadian movie producer and another featuring the dubbed in voiced overs of Nazi war criminals as they appear to be discussing their Hollywood agents and the money one can earn being interviewed on major documentary series like The World At War.

In 1980, Moranis was persuaded to join the third-season cast of Second City Television (SCTV) by friend and SCTV writer/performer Dave Thomas.[6] At the time, Moranis was the only cast member who had not come from a Second City stage troupe. He is known for such impressions as Woody Allen, Merv Griffin and David Brinkley.

With SCTV moving to CBC in 1980 (and syndicated to the United States), Moranis and Thomas were challenged to fill two additional minutes with "identifiable Canadian content", and created a sketch called The Great White North featuring the characters Bob and Doug McKenzie. By the time NBC ordered 90-minute programs for the U.S. in 1981 (the fourth season of SCTV overall), there had been such positive feedback from affiliates on the McKenzies that the network requested that the duo have a sketch in every show.[7]

Bob and Doug became a pop culture phenomenon, which led to a top-selling and Grammy nominated album, Great White North,[8] and the 1983 movie Strange Brew, Moranis's first major film role.

Feature films

The handprints of Rick Moranis in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's theme park, Disney's Hollywood Studios

After his SCTV work and the Strange Brew movie, Moranis had a busy career in feature films that lasted over a decade, most notably Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, Little Shop of Horrors (film), and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and its sequels. He also did the voice-over for a short lived cartoon series on NBC called Gravedale High (1990).

In a 2004 interview, Moranis talked about his favorite kinds of films:

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.[9]

Moranis's last film roles were Barney Rubble in The Flintstones (1994) and the box-office flop Big Bully (1996). Other than the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids sequels, by the mid-1990s his only appearance in that genre was a 1993 music video, Tomorrow's Girls by Donald Fagen, in which he played a man married to an extraterrestrial woman. Disney's final film in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise is 1997's direct-to-video film Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, in which Moranis is the final remaining original cast member. The series Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show also launched in 1997 but without Moranis, then concluding in 2000. He worked for Disney twice more (with his fellow SCTV alumnus Dave Thomas), voicing Rutt the moose in the 2003 animated film Brother Bear and its direct-to-video sequel.

Moranis was also slated to appear in The Breakfast Club, but was released by John Hughes because his interpretation of the role was not what Hughes was looking for.[10]

In 2000, Moranis received his first film credit since 1997 when he provided voice work in the animated film, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys. In 2003, he provided his voice to the animated film Brother Bear.

As of 2004, Moranis was on the Advisory Committee for the comedy program at Humber College.[11]

In 2005, Moranis released an album titled The Agoraphobic Cowboy, featuring country songs with lyrics which Moranis says follow in the comic tradition of songwriters/singers such as Roger Miller, Kinky Friedman, and Jim Stafford. The album was produced by Tony Scherr and is distributed through ArtistShare, as well as Moranis's official web site. Commenting on the origins of the songs, he said that in 2003, "Out of the blue, I just wrote a bunch of songs. For lack of a better explanation, they’re more country than anything. And I actually demoed four or five of them, and I'm not sure at this point what I’m going to do with them—whether I’m going to fold them into a full-length video or a movie. But, boy, I had a good time doing that."[9]

On December 8, 2005, The Agoraphobic Cowboy was announced as a nominee for the 2006 Grammy for Best Comedy Album. On February 3, 2006, Moranis performed "Press Pound" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and discussed the development of his music career.

In 2006, Moranis reprised his role in the animated film Brother Bear 2.

In November 2007, Moranis reunited with Dave Thomas for a 24th anniversary special of Bob and Doug McKenzie, titled Bob and Doug McKenzie's 2–4 Anniversary. The duo shot new footage for this special. Thomas subsequently created a new animated Bob and Doug McKenzie series, Bob & Doug, for his company Animax Entertainment. Moranis declined to voice the role of Bob, which was taken over by Dave Coulier, but remained involved in the series as an executive producer.[12]

In May 2013, Moranis announced that he would release a brand new comedy album titled My Mother's Brisket & Other Love Songs, his first album in eight years. The album was released on June 18, 2013.[13] Moranis said of the release "When I first began writing jokes and sketches with various Jewish partners one of us would inevitably stop at some point and announce, "Too Jewish!" Too Jewish for the star, the show, the network, or the audience. The songs on this album are all in that category. I grew up hearing the Allan Sherman and the You Don't Have To Be Jewish albums in the 60s. Now I am in my 60s."[14]

In June 2013, Moranis gave an interview where he talked about reprising his role as Louis Tully in a third Ghostbusters film and his disappointment with the sequel. Moranis said "I haven't talked to Dan Aykroyd about it. Somebody he's associated with called me and I said, 'I wouldn't not do it, but it's got to be good.' You know, I'm not interested in doing anything I've already done, and I thought the second one was a disappointment. But I guess I'm interested in where that guy is now. I sort of see him as being Bernie Madoff's cellmate in jail. Both of them being so orderly that they race to get up and make their beds."[15] In 2015, regarding an offer for a brief appearance in the film, he concluded: "[Ghostbusters] didn't appeal to me. ... I wish them well. ... I hope it's terrific. But it just makes no sense to me. Why would I do just one day of shooting on something I did 30 years ago?"[3]

Acting hiatus

Moranis took a hiatus from working in the film industry in 1997 after the death of his wife Ann from breast cancer in 1991. He later explained that he began to pull out of making movies in about 1996 or 1997. "I'm a single parent and I just found that it was too difficult to manage raising my kids and doing the traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn't miss it."[16] After having declined an invitation to do a cameo appearance in 2016's Ghostbusters reboot, Moranis clarified in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he had not, in fact, retired from film acting, but instead had become selective about future roles, or as he put it, "picky".[3]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1983 Strange Brew Bob McKenzie Also co-writer and co-director
1984 Streets of Fire Billy Fish
1984 Ghostbusters Louis Tully
1984 Wild Life, TheThe Wild Life Harry
1985 Brewster's Millions Morty King
1985 Head Office Howard Gross
1986 Club Paradise Barry Nye
1986 Little Shop of Horrors Seymour Krelborn
1987 Spaceballs Lord Dark Helmet
1989 Ghostbusters II Louis Tully
1989 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Wayne Szalinski
1989 Parenthood Nathan Huffner
1990 My Blue Heaven Barney Coopersmith
1991 L.A. Story Gravedigger Uncredited cameo[17]
1992 Honey, I Blew Up the Kid Wayne Szalinski
1993 Splitting Heirs Henry Bullock
1994 Flintstones, TheThe Flintstones Barney Rubble
1994 Little Giants Danny O'Shea
1996 Big Bully David Leary
1997 Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves Wayne Szalinski Direct-to-video
2001 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys The Toy Taker / Mr. Cuddles Voices
Direct-to-DVD
2003 Brother Bear Rutt Voice
2006 Brother Bear 2 Rutt Voice
Direct-to-DVD

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1980–1981 SCTV Various roles 25 episodes; also writer
1981–1982 SCTV Network Various roles 26 episodes; also writer
1983, 1989 Saturday Night Live Himself (host) 2 episodes
1984 Hockey Night Coach Television film
1985 The Last Polka Linsk Minyk Television film
1989 Rocket Boy, TheThe Rocket Boy Automatic Safety System Television film
1990 Gravedale High Max Schneider Voice
13 episodes
1990 The Earth Day Special Vic's Buddy Television special
2003 Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids Holley Voice
Television special
2007 Bob & Doug McKenzie's Two-Four Anniversary Bob McKenzie Television special
2009 Bob & Doug Co-creator and executive producer

Discography

Albums

Bob and Doug McKenzie

Other soundtrack appearances

Year Film Songs Artist(s)/Writer(s) Role
1986 Little Shop of Horrors "Skid Row Downtown"
"Da-Doo"
"Grow For Me"
"Feed Me (Git It!)"
"Suddenly, Seymour"
"The Meek Shall Inherit"
Howard Ashman, Alan Menken Seymour Krelborn
1997 Muppets Tonight "High Hopes"
"Salute to the late fifties crooners, obscure British bands and Bill Withers"
Various artists Himself

Audio/video

Awards and nominations

Year Association Category Work Result
1982 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program SCTV (shared with other writers) Nominated
1990 American Comedy Awards Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Parenthood Won
1995 Gemini Awards Earle Grey Award for Best Cast SCTV Won
2006 Grammy Awards Best Comedy Album[19] The Agoraphobic Cowboy Nominated

References

  1. Parker, Ryan. "Rick Moranis Reveals Why He Turned Down 'Ghostbusters' Reboot: "It Makes No Sense to Me"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  2. Parker, Ryan. "Rick Moranis Reveals Why He Turned Down 'Ghostbusters' Reboot: "It Makes No Sense to Me"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Parker, Ryan (October 6, 2015). "Rick Moranis Is Not Retired". The Hollywood Reporter.
  4. "Rick Moranis, going from 'Ghostbusters' to mom's brisket, draws on Jewish roots in new album". JNS.org. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Rick Moranis". Yuddy.com.
  6. "SCTV Guide - People - Cast". sctvguide.ca. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  7. Plume, Kenneth. "Interview with Dave Thomas (Part 1 of 5)" at movies.img.com, February 10, 2000.
  8. Hanna, Erin (2009). "Second City or Second Country?". cineaction.ca.
  9. 1 2 Mettler, Mike. "An Hour with SCTV's Rick Moranis – Web Exclusive, eh: The popular Canadian comedian welcomes SCTV to DVD", Sound & Vision, August 2004
  10. "The Lost Roles of Rick Moranis". Splitsider. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  11. Peterson, Dean. "HEY, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO RICK MORANIS?". mydamnchannel.com. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
  12. Rob Salem, "Bob & Doug taking off again". Toronto Star, April 19, 2009.
  13. Dionne, Zach. "Rick Moranis Is Ready to Return to the World". Vulture. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  14. "Rick Moranis - My Mother's Brisket & Other Love Songs - Amazon.com Music". amazon.com. Retrieved October 8, 2015.
  15. Plumb, Ali (June 25, 2013). "Exclusive: Rick Moranis On Ghostbusters 3". Empire. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  16. "Rick Moranis: From 'Spaceballs' to country 'Cowboy'". USA Today. October 13, 2005.
  17. "L.A. Story (1991) Acting Credits". The New York Times.
  18. Rock Radio Scrapbook Airchecks: 1973
  19. Gerstein, Ted; Berman, John (February 5, 2006). "Rick Moranis on His Transformation Into a Grammy-Nominated Country Western Singer". ABC News.

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