Creator / Rick Moranis

"I always find it flattering when somebody recognizes me."

Frederick Alan "Rick" Moranis (born April 18, 1953) was born to a Jewish family in Toronto, Ontario. As a boy, he spent his summers at Camp New Moon, located in Baysville, Ontario, north of his native Toronto. During his last summer as a camper, Moranis achieved his Master Canoeist's award, qualifying him to teach canoeing.

In the 1970s, he worked (using the stage name Rick Allen) as a disc jockey at various radio stations in Toronto, including CFTR, CKFH, and CHUM-FM. Together with Ken Finkleman, he tried his hand at stand-up and did some comedy for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He followed that with his work at SCTV, enjoying particular success portraying "Bob" of Bob and Doug McKenzie. Doug was played by Canadian actor Dave Thomas. His other memorable SCTV characterizations include motor-mouthed film producer Larry Siegel, terminally-ill rock star Clay Collins, smooth-voiced video deejay Gerry Todd, cool Leutonian pop star Linsk Minyk, kid-brother amateur comic Skip Bittman, head cheese butcher Carl Scutz, and morning homily intellect Rabbi Karlov.

After SCTV and its NBC continuation, SCTV Network 90, Rick ended up in a bunch of movies throughout the '80s and for over half of the '90s. During his career, he got married to an artist named Ann, and they had two kids, Rachel and Mitchell. In late 1990, Ann was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, prompting Rick to decline the offer of doing City Slickers in order to nurse her back to health. Sadly, she died 5 months later.

By 1997, he had become sick of the lackluster roles he was then taking, which were making him, in his own words, "a marketable entity," and was struggling with the impossible task of being a full-time actor and full-time single father, convincing him to semi-retire from acting. Since then, he's contributed the occasional witty article for The New York Times and voice-over for animated films.

In 2005, Rick also released a comedy album entitled The Agoraphobic Cowboy, which draws influence from country music. To his and everyone else's surprise, it was nominated for a Grammy Award. 8 years later in 2013, Rick made a comeback with My Mother's Brisket & Other Love Songs, an album based around his Jewish heritage. Special orders of the CD came with a purple yarmulke, similar to what Rick wore on the album cover.

In 2020, it was announced that Rick is coming out of retirement after 24 years and 14 years after his last film (Brother Bear 2) for a reboot of Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. In September 2020, he appeared in a commercial for American mobile virtual network operator Mint Mobile alongside fellow Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds (who owns that company).

Some information can be found here.

---

Films and shows (pre-hiatus):

• SCTV (1976)^note Joined the cast in 1980.
• Strange Brew (1983)^note Movie debut - Bob McKenzie
• Streets of Fire: A Rock and Roll Fable (1984)^note One of his more memorable performances, if for no other reason as he utterly subverts his own stereotype as a pencil-necked geek. He, however, didn't like the role because he was banned from ad-libbing by director Walter Hill. - Billy Fish
• Ghostbusters (1984)^note His most famous project, though he plays only a supporting role. - Louis Tully
• Head Office (1985) - ^note As an Expy of SCTV's Larry Siegel, who dies after 3 minutes of screentime. - Howard Gross
• Club Paradise (1986) - Barry Nye
• Little Shop of Horrors (1986)^note Out of all the movies he did, he says it was his favorite, and for good reason. - Seymour Krelborn
• Spaceballs (1987) - Lord Dark Helmet
• Ghostbusters II (1989) - Louis Tully
• Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)^note Arguably his biggest role, the first time he received top billing, and the first time he was Billed Above the Title. - Wayne Szalinski
• Parenthood (1989) - Nathan Huffner
• My Blue Heaven (1990) - Barney Coopersmith
• Gravedale High (1990)^note Short-lived cartoon series on NBC.
• Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992) - Wayne Szalinski
• Splitting Heirs (1993) - Henry Bullock
• The Flintstones (1994) - Barney Rubble
• Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (1994)^note 4D film spin-off of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids shown at Disney Theme Parks until 2010, when it was replaced by the very film it replaced, Captain EO. - Wayne Szalinski
• Little Giants (1994) - Danny O'Shea
• Big Bully (1995) - David Leary
• Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997)^note Final live action feature to date. - Wayne Szalinski

Films and shows (post-hiatus):

• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer And The Island Of Misfit Toys (2001) - The Toy Taker / Mr. Cuddles (voice)
• Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids (2003) - Holley (voice)
• Brother Bear (2003) - Rutt (voice)
• Brother Bear 2 (2006) - Rutt (voice)
• The Goldbergs (2018)^note Reprised the role of Dark Helmet for a voice-only cameo.

Albums:

• The Great White North (1982; alongside Dave Thomas)
• You, Me, The Music and Me (1989)
• The Agoraphobic Cowboy (2005)
• My Mother's Brisket & Other Love Songs (2013)

---

• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Partially due to James Rolfe, Rick is believed to have said, "It just makes no sense to me", in regards to there being a Ghostbusters remake. While Rick did say those words, the statement was taken out of context. What he meant was that doing a cameo didn't make sense, because it would have been nothing more than an in-joke, and thus, pointless.
  "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?"
• Creator Backlash: He hated filming Streets of Fire, as director Walter Hill forbade him from improvising, and hated the final product even more as a result.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Many of his most celebrated roles involve considerable improvisation on his part, and one of the reasons he left Hollywood is because he was increasingly being offered roles which required him to stick to the scripts he was given, most of which he found decidedly sub-par.
  • The Great White North on SCTV was entirely unscripted.
  • Much of his dialogue on Ghostbusters was ad-libbed.
  • Mel Brooks gave him free rein to improvise on Spaceballs, and one of the film's most beloved scenes (Dark Helmet playing with his dolls) was entirely unscripted.
  • He was allowed to improvise in his scenes with the twin boys who played his character's son Adam on Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, as toddlers don't take direction well and the filmmakers needed his help to get usable takes out of them.
  • One of his conditions for coming out of retirement to do Brother Bear is that he and Thomas be allowed to improvise all their scenes, which they did.
• Reclusive Artist: He famously disappeared from acting in the late '90s to become a full-time single father, refusing most any role offered to him, including vocally reprising Louis in Ghostbusters: The Video Game. As mentioned above, he's only willing to spend time away from his family if the role is good enough, as most of the movies he made in the '90s only used him for his recognition and not for the talents; he was getting fewer and fewer opportunities to show off.
• Star-Making Role: Made it big on SCTV with characters such as Bob McKenzie and Gerry Todd. And as for the big screen, it's his role as Louis in Ghostbusters.
• Those Two Actors: Moranis frequently appeared in multiple projects with the same small group of collaborators.
  • He and his fellow McKenzie brother, Dave Thomas, shared the screen not only in SCTV and Strange Brew, but also Brother Bear and its DTV sequel. These latter films are among the very few projects he's worked on since retiring.
  • He also appeared with another SCTV co-star, John Candy, in Spaceballs, Little Shop of Horrors, and Brewster's Millions (1985).
  • He and Steve Martin worked on four films together: Little Shop of Horrors, Parenthood, My Blue Heaven, and L.A. Story. Their partnership was so successful that Moranis has (jokingly) said he would come out of retirement if Martin ever wanted to make another movie with him.
• Typecasting: His characters range between nerds, sleazes, weasels, geeks, and goofs. Keep in mind that the roles are more versatile than you think (in Streets of Fire, for example, he got to play a nerdy Jerk with a Heart of Gold badass).
• Vocal Dissonance: His natural voice is deep and sonorous (think of Lord Helmet but less goofy), which is not surprising considering he got his start as a radio DJ. But it can be surprising hearing it coming out of someone who looks like, well, Rick Moranis. Moranis is aware of this and many of his most famous roles have him affecting a higher, more nasal, "bumbling" character voice.