Saturday, July 14, 2012

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: RICK MORANIS

The name Rick Moranis takes me back to the 1980s when I first started going to the movies. I remember seeing the great comic actor in films such as Strange Brew (1983) and Ghostbusters (1984).

I also recall watching reruns of his television appearances on the Canadian comedy show SCTV and be amazed at his ability. That show introduced the world to the talents of Martin Short, Eugene Levy, John Candy, and Rick Moranis. Unfortunately, Rick Moranis has basically retired from show business.

Moranis was born in Toronto, Ontario, and went to high school at the Sir Sandford Fleming Secondary School. He went to elementary school with Geddy Lee, frontman of the rock band Rush. His career as an entertainer began as a radio disc jockey in the mid-1970s, using the on-air name of "Rick Alan" at three Toronto radio stations. He also did the voice over for a short lived cartoon series on NBC called Gravedale High.

He left the film industry in 1997, six years after the 1991 loss of his wife, Anne, to liver cancer. He later explained that he "pulled out of making movies in about '96 or '97. "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".

As of 2004, 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' 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. (A previous album by Moranis was entitled You, Me, The Music, and Me (1989)). On February 3, 2006, Moranis performed Press Pound on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and discussed the development of his music career.

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 remains involved in the series as an executive producer.

On June 24, 2008, Moranis declined to come out of retirement to join the other cast members of Ghostbusters in the production of a new video game based on the films. For almost five years, Rick Moranis has been completely removed from Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Due to overcoming great loss, Moranis realized what was important to him, and a life in Hollywood was not it...




13 comments:

  1. Always found him talentless anyway.

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    1. You are a complete idiot, if you believe that. What have you ever done to make so many people happy? I pity you.

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    2. Found Rick talentless??? LMAO. But I'll bet you think John Wayne was one of the greats right? Get a life.

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  2. Rick Moranis is a genius. The only reason some of the movies he is in is watchable is because he's in them. You can't say he's talentless. You probably think Tyler Perry is funny like the rest of the people that don't know what comedy is.

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  3. Hold on there. Rick Moranis is one of the greatest comedians ever. He's funnier than Jim Carey ever was! BTW, Tyler Perry IS hilarious!

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  4. I love him. Sorry to see that he doesn't work at all any more. He was amazing on SCTV, and really funny in Ghostbusters. Sorry for his loss.

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  5. Love him he is a great comedian!

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  6. strange brew was funny movie back in the day

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  7. He definately added some great memories to my childhood. :)

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  8. He was great in MY BLUE HEAVEN with Steve Martin.

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  9. Im sorry for your loss rick. Your were and always will be one of the greatest actors that ever lived. Spaceballs and Little shop of horrors are and will always be 2 of my favorite movies.

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  10. Thank you for being the man you should be. Taking care of your kids and their loss of a Mother is very commendable. You chose the right path but it has been our loss. They should be grown by now and your creative juices could flow again, might be fun for you now.

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  11. all great canadians are grown in the swamp muskeg in north ontario (like the body snatchers or pet cemetary)
    just accept it; and give em the order of canada.

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