Dan Aykroyd

Daniel Edward Aykroyd (July 1, 1952) is a Canadian comedian and a member of The Not Ready For Prime Time Players. He was also an SNL writer, winning an Emmy Award in 1977, and being nominated again, and an acting Emmy.

On the show, Dan and fellow cast member John Belushi became good friends, and became SNL's first real comedy duo. Dan and John left SNL together in 1979 after drugs had overtaken most of the cast and crew, which had been known informally as the Great SNL Exodus. In 1980, Dan and John starred in the first big SNL Movie, The Blues Brothers. They also costarred in the 1981 flop Neighbors, in which John played a staid family man and Dan played a wild party animal. Sadly, this was the last time Dan and John would work together, because, on Friday, March 5, 1982, John died of accidental drug overdose.

Ever since his SNL days, Dan has been consistently performing comedy and blues music.

Although Dan Aykroyd has been primarily associated with comedy, on occasion he has done more serious roles, such as the 2001 film Pearl Harbor where Aykroyd plays a US Navy officer who has been tracking the Japanese Navy but is unable to voice his concerns to his superior officers and the title character's son in "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989) which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Dan has come back to SNL as a guest, but said he didn't want to host. He did, eventually, when he was enlisted as host on May 17, 2003, the 28th Season Finale.