Rick Moranis Biography

Frederick Allan "Rick" Moranis (born April 18, 1953) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, musician, and songwriter. He is currently on film acting hiatus. 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), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Spaceballs (1987), 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. He has not appeared in a live-action film since, although he has provided voice-over work for a few animated films, notably Disney's Brother Bear (2003). He has also released comedy albums and made appearances at fan conventions.

Early life

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

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.

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 another 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 voiceovers 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. 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.

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

Feature films

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; 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 favourite kinds of films:

Moranis' 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.

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.

, Moranis was on the Advisory Committee for the comedy program at Humber College.

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."

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.

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. 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."

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." 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?"

Acting hiatus

In 1997, Moranis took a hiatus from working in the film industry. He later explained: "I'm a single parent and I just found that it was too difficult to manage to raise my kids and to do 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." 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 due to his hiatus, but instead had become selective about future roles.

In July 2017, Moranis and Dave Thomas reprised their Bob & Doug characters at a benefit concert in Toronto. Proceeds from the benefit will go toward caring for Jake Thomas, Dave Thomas' nephew, who suffered a spinal cord injury that has left him paralyzed from the waist down.

In May 2018, Moranis was announced to return as the character Dark Helmet in an episode of The Goldbergs albeit as a voice.

Also announced in May 2018, Moranis will join the Martin Scorsese directed Second City TV (SCTV) reunion documentary premiering on Netflix in 2019.

Personal life

Moranis married costume designer Ann Belsky in 1986; together they had two children, Rachel and Mitchell. Belsky died of cancer in February, 1991.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Strange Brew	Bob McKenzie	Also co-writer and co-director
1984	Streets of Fire	Billy Fish
	Ghostbusters	Louis Tully
	'	Harry
1985	Brewster's Millions	Morty King
	Head Office	Howard Gross
1986	Club Paradise	Barry Nye
	Little Shop of Horrors	Seymour Krelborn
1987	Spaceballs	Lord Dark Helmet
1989	Ghostbusters II	Louis Tully
	Honey, I Shrunk the Kids	Wayne Szalinski
	Parenthood	Nathan Huffner
1990	My Blue Heaven	Barney Coopersmith
1991	L.A. Story	Gravedigger	Uncredited cameo
1992	Honey, I Blew Up the Kid	Wayne Szalinski
1993	Splitting Heirs	Henry Bullock
1994	'	Barney Rubble
	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
1982	Twilight Theater		Television film
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	'	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
2018	The Goldbergs	Lord Dark Helmet (voice)	Voice 1 episode
2019	An Afternoon with SCTV	Himself	Television special

Discography

Albums

• 1989: You, Me, the Music and Me
• 2005: The Agoraphobic Cowboy
• 2013: My Mother's Brisket & Other Love Songs

Bob and Doug McKenzie

• 1981: The Great White North
• 1983: Strange Brew soundtrack

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

• 1973: "Rock Radio Scrapbook" (as Rick Allen)

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)
1990	American Comedy Awards	Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture	Parenthood
1995	Gemini Awards	Earle Grey Award for Best Cast	SCTV
2006	Grammy Awards	Best Comedy Album	The Agoraphobic Cowboy