Dan Aykroyd's Lucky 1980s --- And Comfortable Decline Thereafter

It's too bad the Coneheads movie didn't come a bit sooner. It wasn't released until 1993... a good decade or so past it's "sell by" date.

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Yes, I recall thinking: "This is a little late, isn't it?" SNL producer Lorne Michaels had a Paramount contract to make movies out of certain SNL sketches. Waynes World was a blockbuster. The others were not -- and were mainly of 90s sketches(the guys in the bar snapping their necks; "The Ladies Man"; the Catholic girl). But I guess he felt that Coneheads was worth a try.

I can't say I much enjoyed the Coneheads sketches. Not my kind of comedy. There's a funny scene in the otherwise serious "Miracle" a period piece about the 1980 Olympic ice hockey team) where super-serious hockey coach Kurt Russell is told of the Coneheads by his assistant coach and can't even picture the concept.

Consider also, by the 90's, Belushi was long dead, Chase was a fading, tempermental star(he had star power in 1992 as "The Invisble Man," but not much longer)...but Akryoyd was available and not hard to work with at all. So Lorne might go for a Coneheads revival.

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CONT

My Girl was good

Yes, it was. 1991 -- out of the 80s . A dad role. A widower role. A romantic role(opposite Jamie Lee Curtis.)

Looking over Aykroyd's long list of acting credits, it just seems that he worked a lot in "meh" movies after his 80's heyday. As with most movie stars who aren't "tippy top" (your Nicholsons, DeNiros and Pacinos)...Akroyd sort of took work to take work. Sometimes good, but more often, not.

And I think the bizarre "Nothing But Trouble" was his baby entirely -- writing, directing, and taking Chevy Chase, John Candy and Demi Moore down with him (the kind of movie that rather kills a career, actually.)

I still think he's great as a psycho hit man trying to organize a "hit man's union" in Grosse Point Blank:

He definitely was not fit to be a leading man but awesome as a character actor, cameos, voice work.

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Yes...certainly has kept him rich, and kept him his gorgeous wife (an accomplishment, so many of those Hollywood marriages break up.)

Indeed, the gorgeous wife (Donna Dixon) put Ayrkoyd in an interesting "humane real life role" in the 90s.

The famous but fading actor Anthony Perkins (Psycho, of course) directed Dixon in a movie called "Lucky Stiff," about a cannibal family who use their gorgeous member(Dixon) to lure obese men home "for dinner." Not an A movie, but Perkins and Aykroyd became pals, and when Perkins was bedridden and dying at home in 1992, Aykroyd for some days came to the house and "managed" all the guests and Perkins care. To the end.

And this: Donna Dixon is one of the two hotties who become the girlfriends of Aykroyd and Chevy Chase in Spies Like Us, but Dixon is CHASE's love interest. They gave a different hottie to Ackroyd. Maybe his choice.

But this: Ms. Dixon DOES make a cameo -- as a floating ghost "servicing" Aykroyd in bed -- in Ghostbusters. Not quite a kid's movie.

Ackroyd invested well enough that he doesn't need to work as an actor, lucky him!

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A lot of "golden era" movie stars -- big ones -- didn't get paid all THAT much(for rich people) and if they didn't properly invest it, found themselves doing TV series and bad movies to survive.

The modern folks make more money and usually can't help but invest it well.

Ayrkroyd is always pushing his "House of Blues" chain(is it still active, or did it go the way of Planet Hollywood) and his vodka. (George Cloony supposedly made 300 million off his tequila -- is this a THING?)

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If he doesn't, I assume it's his choice and not Hollywood's.

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Probably. After his run of early 80s hits, Bill Murray took four years off and evidently loved the break. Al Pacino did the same thing between Revolution and Sea of Love. Its a nice fantasy -- make some millions and retire early.

Bill Murray now has a late in life career as a "very respected legend." He can be a little bit funny, but he reins it in now and sometimes doesn't even take leads.

Dan Aykroyd maybe kind of, sort of, could try for that "Bill Murray elder statesman" role, but he just doesn't seem to want to.

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He can do what he likes, but if he hadn't struck it rich, the odds are that he'd have a decent and unremarkable career as a character actor, playing dads and bosses and high school principals. He'd be well-liked and earn a good living, maybe get a good role in a few TV shows, but he'd still be writing and hoping the magic will happen again

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All true. In the final analysis, Ackroyd was part of a very unique , and now classic group of people: The "original cast of SNL." The current show has scores of players, none of whom have star level movie careers(not even Kate McKinnon). But Chase, Belushi, Ackroyd, Murray and Radner were IMMEDIATELY launched as movie stars in an era when new ones were needed.) And SNL did it for them. And that keeps Ackroyd classic.