birth name	Daniel Edward Aykroyd
birth date	July 01, 1952
birth place	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
occupation	Actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, winemaker, ufologist
years active	1974–present
spouse	Donna Dixon (1983–present) }}

Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM (born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'', an originator of ''The Blues Brothers'' (with John Belushi) and ''Ghostbusters'' and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.

Early life

Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952, at the Ottawa General Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He grew up in the Canadian capital, where his father, Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer, worked as a policy adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. His mother, Lorraine Helene (née Gougeon), is a secretary of French Canadian origin. His brother, Peter, also became a comedy actor. Aykroyd was born with syndactyly (webbed toes), which was revealed in the movie ''Mr. Mike's Mondo Video'' and in a short film on ''Saturday Night Live'' (''Don't Look Back In Anger''). He was also born with heterochromia (a condition of having two differently coloured eyes). His right eye is green and his left eye is brown.

Aykroyd's great-grandfather, Samuel Augustus Aykroyd (1855–1933), a dentist, had been a mystic and had been involved in Spiritualism, which Aykroyd would have a great interest in, stating that "all that stuff was hanging around the old farmhouse I grew up in, so I was kind of steeped in it".

Aykroyd was raised in the Roman Catholic Church, and had intended to become a priest until the age of seventeen. He attended St Pius X and St Patrick's, and was briefly expelled from the latter because he had dressed up a pig to look like the pope and took it to school for show and tell. He went on to study criminology and sociology at Carleton University but dropped out before completing. He worked as a comedian in various Canadian nightclubs and ran an after-hours speakeasy (Club 505) in Toronto for several years.

Aykroyd's musical career was initially developed in Ottawa, particularly through his regular attendances at Le Hibou, a club that featured many blues artists. He describes these influences as follows:

...there was a little club there called Le Hibou, which in French means 'the owl'. And it was run by a gentleman named Harvey Glatt, and he brought every, and I mean every blues star that you or I would ever have wanted to have seen through Ottawa in the late 50s, well I guess more late 60s sort of, in around the Newport jazz rediscovery. I was going to Le Hibou and hearing James Cotton, Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins, and Muddy Waters. I actually jammed behind Muddy Waters. S. P. Leary left the drum kit one night, and Muddy said 'anybody out there play drums? I don't have a drummer.' And I walked on stage and we started, I don't know, Little Red Rooster, something. He said 'keep that beat going, you make Muddy feel good.' And I heard Howlin' Wolf (Chester Burnett). Many, many times I saw Howlin' Wolf. As well as The Doors. And of course Buddy Guy, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. So I was exposed to all of these players, playing there as part of this scene to service the academic community in Ottawa, a very well-educated community. Had I lived in a different town I don't think that this would have happened, because it was just the confluence of educated government workers, and then also all the colleges in the area, Ottawa University, Carleton, and all the schools—these people were interested in blues culture.

''Saturday Night Live''

Aykroyd gained fame on the American late-night comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', where he was a writer and the youngest cast member for its first four seasons, from 1975 to 1979. Aykroyd brought a unique sensibility to the show, combining youth, unusual interests, talent as an impersonator and an almost lunatic intensity. Eric Idle, of Monty Python, once said that Aykroyd's ability to write and act out characters flawlessly made him the only member of the ''SNL'' cast capable of being a Python.

He was known for his impersonations of celebrities like Jimmy Carter, Vincent Price, Richard Nixon, Rod Serling, Tom Snyder, and others. He was also known for his recurring roles, such as Beldar, father in the Coneheads family; with Steve Martin, Georg Festrunk, one of the "Two Wild and Crazy Guys" Czech brothers; sleazy late-night cable TV host E. Buzz Miller and his cousin, corrupt maker of children's toys and costumes Irwin Mainway (who extolled the virtues and defended the safety of the "Bag-o-Glass" toy, perhaps the retail leader of the "Bag-o" series of toys); Fred Garvin – male prostitute; and high-bred but low-brow critic Leonard Pinth-Garnell. He also co-hosted the Weekend Update segment for a season with Jane Curtin, coining the famous catchphrase "Jane, you ignorant slut" during point-counterpoint segments.

Aykroyd's eccentric talent was recognized by others in the highly competitive ''SNL'' environment: when he first presented his famous "Super Bass-O-Matic '76" sketch, a fake T.V. commercial in which a garish, hyper pitchman (modelled after Ron Popeil) touts a food blender that turns an entire bass into liquid pulp, "to [other writers and cast members] the 'Bass-O-Matic' was so exhilaratingly strange that many remember sitting and listening, open-mouthed ... Nobody felt jealous of it because they couldn't imagine writing anything remotely like it."

While Aykroyd was a close friend and partner with fellow cast member John Belushi and shared some of the same sensibilities, Aykroyd was more reserved and less self-destructive. In 1977, he received an Emmy Award for writing on ''Saturday Night Live''; he later received two more nominations for writing, and one each for acting and Outstanding Comedy-Variety series.

In later decades, Aykroyd made occasional guest appearances and unannounced cameos on ''Saturday Night Live'', often impersonating the American politician Bob Dole. He would also bring back past characters including Irwin Mainway and Leonard Pinth-Garnell. During a couple of his guest appearances he resurrected the Blues Brothers musical act with frequent host John Goodman in place of John Belushi. Finally in May 2003, he hosted the season finale of ''Saturday Night Live''. During his monologue, he did a musical bit with James Belushi that was similar to the Blues Brothers, but neither Aykroyd nor Belushi donned the famous black suit and sunglasses. It was a unique hosting choice as he was not promoting a project at the time and he did not bring back any characters for this appearance. He became the second member of the original cast to host the show. On March 24, 2007, he made an appearance as a crying fan of American Idol finalist Sanjaya Malakar (played by Andy Samberg) during Weekend Update. On February 14, 2009, he made an appearance portraying U.S. House Minority leader John Boehner.

The Blues Brothers

Aykroyd was good friends with John Belushi. According to Aykroyd, it was his first meeting with Belushi that helped spark their popular Blues Brothers act. When they met in a club Aykroyd frequented, Aykroyd put on a blues record to play in the background, and it stimulated a fascination with blues in Belushi, who was primarily a fan of heavy rock bands at the time. Aykroyd educated John on the finer points of blues music and, with a little encouragement from then-''SNL'' music director Paul Shaffer, it led to the creation of their Blues Brothers characters.

Backed by such experienced professional R&B; sidemen as lead guitarist Steve Cropper, sax man Lou Marini, trumpeter Alan Rubin and bass guitarist Donald "Duck" Dunn, the Blues Brothers proved more than an SNL novelty. Taking off with the public as a legitimate musical act, they performed live gigs and released the hit album Briefcase Full of Blues in 1978. The Blues Brothers Band continues to tour today, featuring original members Cropper, Marini, Rubin, and Dunn, along with vocalist Eddie Floyd.

Early in the incarnation of the Blues Brothers, John Belushi joined the Grateful Dead on Stage on April 2, 1980, for a rendition of "Good Morning Little School Girl" at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, N.J (coinciding with the Dead performing on SNL that weekend). John sang the part usually carried by the late Dead band member "Pigpen." This is a moment cherished by all fans of John Belushi and the Dead alike. There were other SNL connections between the Dead and SNL over the years.

Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles was a regular haunt for the original Blues Brothers back in the early days of the band. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd became fixtures at the recording studio, while fellow Blues Brother and legendary guitar player Steve Cropper called Cherokee his producing home. Whenever they needed a bass player, they were joined by another Blues Brother, Donald "Duck" Dunn. During this time, Cropper along with producing partner and Cherokee owner Bruce Robb worked on a number of music projects with the two comedian/musicians, including Belushi's favourite band Fear and later Aykroyd's movie ''Dragnet''.

Aykroyd and Belushi were scheduled to present the Academy Award for Visual Effects in 1982, but Belushi died only a few weeks prior to the ceremony. Though devastated by his friend's death, Aykroyd presented the award alone, remarking from the stage "My partner would have loved to have been here to present this, given that he was something of a visual effect himself." Not a few years before, when he and John Belushi were making an appearance on the ''Today'' show, he referred to them as "kindred spirits." In the biography "Belushi", Aykroyd claims that John Belushi was the only man he could ever dance with.

In 1992, Aykroyd, along with many other notable music and Hollywood personalities, founded the House of Blues. Its mission is to promote African-American cultural contributions of blues music and folk art. From 2004 until its sale to Live Nation in 2007, it was the second-largest live music promoter in the world, with seven venues and 22 amphitheaters in the United States and Canada. Aykroyd also contributes his voice to the weekly House of Blues Radio Hour, which he hosts in the character of Elwood Delaney aka Elwood Blues.

Today, the Blues Brothers still tour. Dan Aykroyd still performs as Elwood back with John's younger brother James Belushi who plays "Brother Zee" on stage. They are almost always backed by The Sacred Hearts Band.

Other work

Concurrent with his work in Saturday Night Live, Aykroyd played the role of Purvis Bickle, lift operator at the fictitious office block ''99 Sumach Street'' in the CBC Television series Coming Up Rosie.

After leaving ''Saturday Night Live'', Aykroyd starred in a number of mainly comedy films, with uneven results both commercially and artistically. When starting out in the film industry Aykroyd would star with his old friend Belushi in three films, ''The Blues Brothers'', ''Neighbors'' and ''1941''. One of his best-received performances was as a blueblood-turned-wretch in the 1983 comic drama ''Trading Places''; a notable flop was in the earlier ''1941'' (director Steven Spielberg received the brunt of the criticism, but Aykroyd's performance as an Army Sergeant was either played straight or completely manic).

Aykroyd originally wrote the role of Dr. Peter Venkman in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984) with John Belushi in mind, but rewrote the part for another famous SNL player, Bill Murray, after Belushi died. Aykroyd used to joke that the green ghost (who would later come to be known as "Slimer" in the animated series and was credited as such in the second film) was "the ghost of John Belushi", based on the similar party animal personality. ''Ghostbusters'' became a huge success for Aykroyd as a co-creator, co-writer, and one of the lead actors; the film's inspiration came from Aykroyd's fascination with parapsychology.

Aykroyd participated in the recording of "We are the World" in 1985.

Aykroyd was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1989's ''Driving Miss Daisy''. He was the first SNL cast member to be nominated for an Oscar.

His directorial debut was 1991's ''Nothing but Trouble''. It starred Demi Moore, Chevy Chase, John Candy and Aykroyd himself, sporting an oddly phallic prosthetic nose. The film was a critical and box office flop. Other films starring Aykroyd in the 1990s, included ''Exit to Eden'', ''Blues Brothers 2000'', ''Getting Away with Murder''; these were also poorly received. He also made an uncredited appearance in the Michael Moore film, ''Canadian Bacon'' as a motorcycle cop.

In 1997, Aykroyd starred in a short-lived sitcom on ABC called ''Soul Man''. The show lasted one season. In the 2000s, Aykroyd's film appearances have tended to be small character parts in big-budget productions, such as a signals analyst in ''Pearl Harbor'' and a neurologist in ''50 First Dates''. In 2001, Aykroyd starred in the Woody Allen film, ''The Curse of the Jade Scorpion''.

In February 2007, Aykroyd revealed that he would be providing voice-acting for a ''Ghostbusters III'' CGI project, though these rumours were clarified later on, that the CGI project was a next-gen video game that was currently in production. In 2009, Aykroyd along with Harold Ramis, wrote and appeared in ''Ghostbusters: The Video Game'', which also featured Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton, and Brian Doyle-Murray. On June 14, 2009, GameStop called people who pre-ordered Ghostbusters: the video game using Aykroyd's voice told them to come to the launch event at 10 p.m.

On the 2008 release of fellow Ottawa born blues musician JW-Jones' album ''Bluelisted'', Aykroyd wrote the liner notes.

In 2009, Aykroyd contributed a series of reminiscences on his upbringing in Canada for a charity album titled "Dan Aykroyd's Canada".

Most recently, Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase guest starred in the ''Family Guy'' episode "Spies Reminiscent of Us". He also hosts the nationally-syndicated radio show "House of Blues Radio Hour" under his Blues Brothers moniker Elwood Blues.

Aykroyd appeared in two February 2011 episodes of CBS' ''The Defenders'', which starred Jim Belushi, the brother of Aykroyd's Blues Brothers partner. This information was announced November 29, 2010.

Honours

He has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 1994, Aykroyd received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Carleton University. In 1998, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.

Aykroyd also received a dubious honour in 1997, when the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal "awarded" him the Snuffed Candle award, for "contributing to the public's lack of understanding of the methods of scientific inquiry." CSICOP did this in response to Aykroyd's program ''Psi Factor''. This award came in conjunction with the public having the general perception that Akroyd is a real guy for repping Ottawa.

The popular Scottish band Dananananaykroyd named themselves after Dan Aykroyd.

Eric Idle once said of Aykroyd that he was "the only person I ever met who could have been part of Python – he had all the skills, the capability of being a Python."

Personal life

Aykroyd is a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1983, he married actress Donna Dixon, with whom he starred in the movies ''Doctor Detroit'', ''Spies Like Us'', and ''The Couch Trip''. They have three daughters: Danielle Alexandra (born November 18, 1989), Belle Kingston (born June 9, 1993), and Stella Irene August (born April 5, 1998). He maintains his Canadian roots as a longtime resident of Sydenham, Ontario, with his estate on Loughborough Lake.

Aykroyd described himself (in a radio interview with Terry Gross) as having mild Tourette syndrome that was successfully treated with therapy when he was a preteen, as well as mild Asperger syndrome.

As of 2006, Aykroyd has entered a partnership with Niagara Cellars, which owns four wineries in the Niagara region. They will be marketing a series of red and white wines under his name. He spent a good amount of time in 2009 promoting his own Crystal Head Vodka, with his interest in the paranormal coming through with the drink's unique skull-shaped bottle. He is also considering a beer and vodka label with the Coneheads name.

He is a former reserve commander for the police department in Harahan, Louisiana, working for Chief of Police Peter Dale. Aykroyd would carry his badge with him at all times.

Aykroyd helped Dale start the Blue Line Foundation. They are redeveloping flood damaged lots in New Orleans and helping first responders buy them at reduced prices. Coastal Blue Line LLC, hopes to eventually to rebuild 400 properties in New Orleans.

In a recent radio interview with the Hill-Man Morning show, Aykroyd said if he could forget one film he did it would be ''Exit To Eden''.

Beliefs

Aykroyd considers himself a Spiritualist, stating that: :I am a Spiritualist, a proud wearer of the Spiritualist badge. Mediums and psychic research have gone on for many, many years... Loads of people have seen [spirits], heard a voice or felt the cold temperature. I believe that they are between here and there, that they exist between the fourth and fifth dimension, and that they visit us frequently.

His great-grandfather, a dentist, had been a mystic who had corresponded with author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the subject of Spiritualism, and who was a member of the Lily Dale Society.

Other than Spiritualism, Aykroyd is also interested in various other aspects of the paranormal, particularly ufology. He is a lifetime member of and official Hollywood consultant for the Mutual UFO Network. In 2005, Aykroyd produced a DVD titled, ''Dan Aykroyd: Unplugged on UFOs''. In it, he is interviewed for 80 minutes by UFOlogist David Sereda where he discusses in depth every aspect of the UFO phenomenon, and reveals specifically that they are blue, not green, but appear that way because of a filter.

On September 29, 2009, Peter Aykroyd, father of Dan Aykroyd, published a book entitled, ''A History of Ghosts''. This book chronicled the family's historical involvement in the Spiritualist Movement, to which Aykroyd readily refers. Aykroyd wrote the introduction and accompanied his father on a series of promotional activities, including launches in New York City and Toronto, an appearance on ''Larry King Live'' and various other public relations initiatives. Aykroyd also read the introduction for the audio version of the book.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1974	''''	Goodly/Rotten/Maple	Television film, voice role
1977	''Love at First Sight''	Roy
1979	''Mr. Mike's Mondo Video''	Jack Lord Priest
1979		Sgt. Frank Tree
1980	''''	Elwood Blues	Also Writer
1981		Vic
1982	''It Came from Hollywood''	Himself
1983	''Doctor Detroit''	Clifford Skridlow/ Doctor Detroit
1983	''Trading Places''	Louis Winthorpe III
1983	''Twilight Zone: The Movie''	Passenger/ Ambulance Driver
1984	''Ghostbusters''	Dr. Raymond Stantz	Also Writer
1984	''Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom''	Art Weber	Cameo
1984		Buck Heller
1985		Herb
1985	''Spies Like Us''	Austin Millbarge
1987
1988	''Caddyshack II''	Capt. Tom Everett	Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
1988	''''	John W. Burns, Jr.
1988	''''	Roman Craig
1988	''She's Having a Baby''	Roman Craig
1988	''My Stepmother Is an Alien''	Steven Mills
1989	"Liberian Girl"	Cameo	Music Video by Michael Jackson
1989	''Driving Miss Daisy''	Boolie Werthan	Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1989	''Ghostbusters II''	Dr. Raymond Stantz	Also Writer
1990	''Loose Cannons''	Ellis Fielding
1990	''Masters of Menace''	Johnny Lewis
1991		Harry Sultenfuss
1991		Judge Alvin Valkenheiser/ Bobo	Also Director/WriterGolden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting ActorNominated — Golden Raspberry Award for Worst DirectorNominated — Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay
1992		Mack Sennett
1992		Mother
1992		Arnold Moss
1993		Beldar Conehead	Also Writer
1994	''''	Himself	Documentary
1994		Fred Lavery	Nominated — Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting ActorNominated — Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple
1994	''My Girl 2''	Harry Sultenfuss
1994		Pa Tex	Nominated — Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
1995		OPP Officer	Cameo
1995		Dr. Raymond Stantz	Cameo
1995	''''	Dexter	Voice role
1995	''Tommy Boy''	Zalinsky
1996		Sheriff Wyatt Hampton
1996	''Celtic Pride''	Jimmy Flaherty
1996	''Feeling Minnesota''	Det. Ben Costikyan
1996	''My Fellow Americans''	President William Haney
1996		Jack Lambert
1996	''Sgt. Bilko''	Colonel John T. Hall
1997	''Grosse Pointe Blank''	Grocer
1998	''Antz''	Chip	Voice role
1998	''Blues Brothers 2000''	Elwood Blues	Also Writer/Producer
1998	''Susan's Plan''	Bob
1999		Lance Agensky
2000	''''	Gus
2000		Dad
2000	''Stardom''	Barry Levine
2001	''''	Chris Magruder
2001		Governor Lewis
2001	''''	Himself	Documentary
2001		Dr. Barry Davis
2001		Capt. Thurman
2002		Pete Wagner
2002		Max Beasly
2003	''Bright Young Things''	Lord Monomark
2004	''Christmas with the Kranks''	Vic Frohmeyer
2004	''Shortcut to Happiness''	Julius Jenson
2004	''50 First Dates''	Dr. Keats
2004	''Intern Academy''	Dr. Cyrill Kipp
2007	''I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry''	Captain Tucker
2010		Yogi Bear	Voice and motion-capture

Television

Year	Title	Role	First episode	Notes
1975	''Coming Up Rosie''	Purvis Bickle	unknown
1975–79	''Saturday Night Live''	Various	"Episode 1.1"	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program
1976	''''	Cop		Television film, also writer
1978	''[[All You Need Is Cash''	Brian Thigh		Television film
1986–91	''''			Creator
1990	''''	Various	"Episode 1.2"	1 episode
1990	''It's Garry Shandling's Show''	Boolie Shandling	"Driving Miss Garry"	1 episode
1991		Captain Mulligan	"Yellow"	1 episode
1994	''''	Repair Man	"Sunday in the Park with Fran"	1 episode
1995	''Kesley Grammar Salutes Jack Benny''	Himself		Television special
1996–2000	''PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal''	Host	"John Doe"	88 episodes
1997	''''	Crawford Gordon		Television film, also creative consultant
1997		Rev. Mike Walker	"Losing My Religion"	1 episode
1997		Rev. Mike Weber	"Grabbed By An Angel"	12 episodes
2001		Det. Insp. Jack Grillo		Television film
2001	''History's Mysteries''	Narrator	"The Children's Crusade"	1 episode
2002	''According to Jim''	Danny Michalsky	"Old Friends"	5 episodes
2009	''Family Guy''	Himself	"Spies Reminiscent of Us"	1 episode
2009	''X-Play''	Himself	"Quit Givin' Me the Bug Eye, Valkyrie"	1 episode
2011	''''	Judge Max Hunter	"Nevada v. Doug the Mule"	2 episodes

Guest appearances on SNL

! Date	! Episode number	! Host/ Musical guest	! Role
	13.11	Justine Bateman/ Terrance Trent D'Arby	Bob Dole
	18.20	Kevin Kline/ Willie Nelson and Paul Simon	Bob Dole
	20.16	John Goodman/ The Tragically Hip	Bob Dole, Elwood Blues, Irwin Mainway, Tom Snyder, Rush Limbaugh, Robert Stack, miner
	23.12	John Goodman/ Paula Cole	Bob Dole, Elwood Blues, Irwin Mainway, Ernesto
	24.1	Cameron Diaz/ The Smashing Pumpkins	Yortuk Festrunk
	27.4	John Goodman/ Ja Rule
	27.12	Britney Spears	Mormon, Judge Lindenwell
	28.14	Queen Latifah/ Ms. Dynamite	Bob Dole
	28.20		Andrew Card, Patrick Fitzpatrick, Donnie "The Finger" Dabinski, biker, Esteban, chief science officer, Butch, Sam Elliot
	32.16	Peyton Manning/ Carrie Underwood	Himself
	34.16	Alec Baldwin/ The Jonas Brothers	John Boehner

Highest grossing films

Rank	Film	Year	Gross	Budget
1.		2001	$449,220,945	$135,000,000
2.	''Ghostbusters''	1984	$291,600,000	$30,000,000
3.	''Ghostbusters II''	1989	$215,394,738	$25,000,000
4.	''Antz''	1998	$171,757,863	$60,000,000
5.		1989	$145,793,296	$7,500,000
6.	''Yogi Bear''	2010	$127,209,281	$80,000,000
7.		1992	$105,232,691	Unknown
8.	''Trading Places''	1983	$97,333,523	$28,000,000
9.		1979	$92,755,742	$35,000,000
10.	''Spies Like Us''	1985	$70,648,171	$20,000,000
11.		1980	$115,229,890	$27,000,000
12.		1991	$59,847,242	$17,000,000
13.		1987	$57,387,516	$20,000,000
14.		1988	$41,455,230	$24,000,000
15.	''Twilight Zone: The Movie''	1983	$29,500,000	$10,000,000
16.		1981	$28,732,057	$8,500,000
17.	''She's Having a Baby''	1988	$16,031,707	Unknown
18.	''Caddyshack II''	1988	$11,798,302	$20,000,000
19.	''The Couch Trip''	1988	$11,005,304	Unknown
20.	''Doctor Detroit''	1983	$10,800,000	$8,000,000

See also

List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards

Saturday Night Live cast

References

Further reading

Hill, Doug, and Weingrad, Jeff, ''Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live''. Vintage Books, 1986. ISBN 0-394-75053-5.

External links

Dan Aykroyd at Psiberific Dan Aykroyd, host of Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal.

Dan Aykroyd and MUFON

Dan Aykroyd, Still Full of the 'Blues' – interview on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross – originally aired Nov. 22, 2004

Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs (2005) – video.google.com

Category:1952 births Category:Actors from Ontario Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American impressionists (entertainers) Category:American screenwriters Category:American television actors Category:American television writers Category:American voice actors Category:Canadian film actors Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States Category:Canadian impressionists (entertainers) Category:Canadian television actors Category:Canadian television comedians Category:Carleton University alumni Category:Comedians from Ontario Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Living people Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Musicians from Ottawa Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:Second City alumni Category:Spiritualists Category:Ufologists Category:The Blues Brothers members Category:People with Asperger syndrome

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Name	Ernie Manouse
Birth date	September 01, 1969
Residence	Houston, TX
Nationality	American
Known for	InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse
Employer	HoustonPBS
Occupation	Television Host
Website	ernieontv.com }}

Ernie Manouse (born September 1, 1969 in Binghamton, New York) is an American television host, radio personality, writer and producer. He currently hosts the interview show InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse, produced by HoustonPBS. His work with HoustonPBS has met critical acclaim in the southern United States, earning him numerous KATIE awards and regional Emmy Awards

Early life

Manouse was born Ernest David Manouse in Binghamton, New York. He is of Greek descent. He attended Loyola University Chicago and studied to be a music video director. While in college, he guest-hosted Outlook, a Chicago-based radio show, with a classmate. Their radio presentation received such a positive reaction that Outlook hired them permanently.

Career

Manouse began his career in television with NBC Network News, then moved into radio withWLS and WLUW in Chicago, and then back to TV at HoustonPBS. Ernie has since worked his way through many aspects of talk shows – from producing sex therapy call-in radio shows ''Sex Talk'' and ''The Phyllis Levy Show'' to hosting his own brand of chat and magazine programs. He can also be seen on PBS Stations across the country hosting numerous pledge and entertainment specials, including three of public television’s most successful pledge events with financial guru Suze Orman.

In 1996, Ernie moved to Houston, Texas and spent six years hosting and producing the daily magazine program ''WeekNight Edition'' which evolved into ''WeekDAY'' and became Houston’s most celebrated local television program, earning multiple Emmy and Houston Press Club awards. Manouse shared with Matthew Brawley the 2006 Katie Award for "Outstanding Interview/Talk Show" for the Southern region. In October 2002, Manouse helped to create and produce the local prime time magazine show The Connection, which he hosted for two years. In 2004, Manouse launched the syndicated series InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse. This award winning series is distributed nationally to PBS stations across the country, and airs in more than 100 cities in the U.S. and the Virgin Islands. The show features Manouse in unedited, one-on-one interviews with noted personalities such as Patti LuPone and Jamie Foxx. Manouse thoroughly researches his guests before interviewing them, and arranges an informal setting to encourage spontaneous discussion. Another area of broadcasting that Manouse has explored is late night talk, and on February 9, 2005, Manouse launched The After Party, combining arts coverage and light-hearted interviews reminiscent of Johnny Carson and Jack Parr. The show received positive reviews from both critics and audiences alike, garnering the coveted Emmy nomination for "Best Entertainment/Variety program" in its first season. The program ended its run on November 15, 2006 after over 50 episodes.

In 2006, Manouse produced and anchored A Conversation on RACE for HoustonPBS. He also produced the political Red, White & Blue and moderated the 2002 Houston Mayoral Debates, the 2008 Texas Supreme Court Judicial Debate, and the 2008 Texas US Senate Debate. In 2009, Manouse became the anchor and producer of Houston 8, a weekly current events discussion series. He also hosted the 2009 HoustonPBS Spelling Bee, the largest regional qualifying spelling bee for the national Scripps Spelling Bee.

After seven nominations for the Lone Star (Texas) regional chapter of the Emmy Awards, Manouse won three Emmys in 2009. He won for Best Information Series and Best On-Air Talent. He also won an Emmy for his work on the Houston Spelling Bee in the category of Best Event Coverage. Manouse is also a voice actor. He has done the English voiceovers for over a dozen Japanese anime videos produced by ADV Films including ''Gilgamesh'', ''Le Chevalier D'Eon'' and Cromartie High School.

Community involvement

Manouse is an active member of the Houston LGBT community. Manouse has hosted community events such as the U.S. Military Ball, and The Cattle Baron’s Ball. He serves on the advisory board of both Stages Repertory Theatre and Dominic Walsh Dance Theater. He served as Vice President of Public Affiars for the Greater Houston United Services Organization (USO). He was also vice president of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

References

External links

USO Houston

InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse

Houston Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

Ernie Manouse's website

Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:LGBT television personalities Category:Loyola University Chicago alumni Category:LGBT people from the United States Category:American people of Greek descent Category:American television talk show hosts Category:People from Binghamton, New York

:''This article is about the performer. For other people named Steve Martin, see Steve Martin (disambiguation).''

name	Steve Martin
birth name	Stephen Glenn Martin
birth date	August 14, 1945
birth place	Waco, Texas, United States
medium	Stand-up, television, film, music, publishing
nationality	American
active	1967–present
genre	Improvisational, sketch, slapstick, bluegrass
influences	British television, Red Skelton, Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny, Laurel and Hardy, Wally Boag
influenced	Eddie Izzard, Chris Rock, Judd Apatow, Patton Oswalt, Kevin Bridges, Dane Cook, Brian Posehn, Bo Burnham, Will Forte, David Walliams, Sarah Silverman, Will Arnett, Jon Stewart, Harry Hill, Vic Reeves, Stephen Colbert, Louis C.K., Tina Fey, Russell Peters, Howie Mandel, Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Artie Lange
spouse	Victoria Tennant (November 20, 1986–1994)Anne Stringfield (2007–present)
signature	SteveMartin.png
website	www.stevemartin.com

}}

Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer.

Martin was born in Waco, Texas, and raised in Southern California, where his early influences were working at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm and working magic and comedy acts at these and other smaller venues in the area. His ascent to fame picked up when he became a writer for the ''Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'', and later became a frequent guest on ''The Tonight Show''. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, he has become a successful actor, playwright, pianist, banjo player, and juggler, eventually earning Emmy, Grammy, and American Comedy awards.

Early life

Martin was born in Waco, Texas, the son of Mary Lee Martin and Glenn Vernon Martin, a real estate salesman and an aspiring actor. Martin was raised in Inglewood, California, and then later in Garden Grove, California, in a Baptist family. One of his earliest memories is of seeing his father, as an extra, serving drinks onstage at the Call Board Theatre on Melrose Place. During World War II, in England, Martin's father had appeared in a production of ''Our Town'' with Raymond Massey. Years later, he would write to Massey for help in Steve's fledgling career, but would receive no reply. Expressing his affection through gifts of cars, bikes, etc., Martin's father was stern, not emotionally open to his son. He was proud but critical, with Martin later recalling that in his teens his feelings for his father were mostly ones of hatred. Martin's first job was at Disneyland, selling guidebooks on weekends and full-time during the summer school break. That lasted for three years (1955–1958). During his free time he frequented the Main Street Magic shop, where tricks were demonstrated to potential customers. By 1960, he had mastered several of the tricks and illusions, and took a paying job there in August. There he perfected his talents for magic, juggling, and creating balloon animals, frequently performing for tips. In his authorized biography, close friend Morris Walker suggests that Martin could "be described most accurately as an agnostic [...] he rarely went to church and was never involved in organized religion of his own volition".

Comedy

After high school graduation, Martin attended Santa Ana Junior College, taking classes in drama and English poetry. In his free time, he teamed up with friend and Garden Grove High School classmate Kathy Westmoreland to participate in comedies and other productions at the Bird Cage Theatre. He joined a comedy troupe at Knott's Berry Farm. Later, he met budding actress Stormie Sherk, and they developed comedy routines while becoming romantically involved. Sherk's influence caused Martin to apply to the California State University, Long Beach, for enrollment with a major in Philosophy. Stormie enrolled at UCLA, about an hour's drive north, and the distance eventually caused them to lead separate lives.

Being inspired by his philosophy classes, for a short while he considered becoming a professor instead of an actor-comedian. His time at college changed his life. "It changed what I believe and what I think about everything. I majored in philosophy. Something about non-sequiturs appealed to me. In philosophy, I started studying logic, and they were talking about cause and effect, and you start to realize, 'Hey, there is no cause and effect! There is no logic! There is no anything!' Then it gets real easy to write this stuff, because all you have to do is twist everything hard—you twist the punch line, you twist the non sequitur so hard away from the things that set it up". In an article in ''Smithsonian'' magazine he recalled, "In a college psychology class, I had read a treatise on comedy explaining that a laugh was formed when the storyteller created tension, then, with the punch line, released it. I didn't quite get this concept, nor do I still [...]. What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. [...] My first reviews came in. One said, 'This so-called "comedian" should be told that jokes are supposed to have punch lines.' Another said I represented 'the most serious booking error in the history of Los Angeles music.' " Martin periodically spoofed his philosophy studies in his 1970s stand-up act, comparing philosophy with studying geology. "If you're studying geology, which is all facts, as soon as you get out of school you forget it all, but philosophy you remember just enough to screw you up for the rest of your life."

In 1967, Martin transferred to UCLA and switched his major to theater. While attending college, he appeared in an episode of ''The Dating Game''. Martin began working local clubs at night, to mixed notices, and at twenty-one he dropped out of college.

Career

Early career – stand-up

In 1967, his former girlfriend Nina Goldblatt, a dancer on ''The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour'', helped Martin land a writing job with the show by submitting his work to head writer Mason Williams. Williams initially paid Martin out of his own pocket. Along with the other writers for the show, Martin won an Emmy Award in 1969, aged 23. He also wrote for John Denver (a neighbor of his in Aspen, Colorado, at one point), ''The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour'', and ''The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.'' Martin's first TV appearance was on ''The Steve Allen Show'' in 1969. He says: "[I] appeared on ''The Virginia Graham Show,'' circa 1970. I looked grotesque. I had a hairdo like a helmet, which I blow-dried to a puffy bouffant, for reasons I no longer understand. I wore a frock coat and a silk shirt, and my delivery was mannered, slow and self-aware. I had absolutely no authority. After reviewing the show, I was depressed for a week." During these years his roommates included comedian Gary Mule Deer and singer/guitarist Michael Johnson. Martin opened for groups such as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Carpenters, and Toto. He appeared at San Francisco's ''The Boarding House'', among other venues. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on ''Van Dyke and Company'' in 1976.

In the mid-1970s, Martin made frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''., and on ''The Gong Show'', HBO's ''On Location'' and NBC's ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). ''SNL'''s audience jumped by a million viewers when he made guest appearances, though despite a common misconception, he was never a cast member. Martin has guest-hosted ''Saturday Night Live'' 15 times, as of January 2009, tied in numbers of presentations with host Alec Baldwin. On the show, Martin popularized the air quotes gesture, which uses four fingers to make double quote marks in the air. While on the show Martin became close with several of the cast members, including Gilda Radner. On the day Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989, Martin was hosting ''SNL'' and featured footage of himself and Radner together in a 1978 sketch.

His TV appearances in the 1970s led to the release of comedy albums that went platinum. The track "Excuse Me" on his first album, ''Let's Get Small'', helped establish a national catch phrase. His next album, ''A Wild and Crazy Guy'' (1978), was an even bigger success, reaching the No.2 spot on the US sales chart, selling over a million copies. "Just a wild and crazy guy" became another of Martin's known catch phrases. The album featured a character based on a series of ''Saturday Night Live'' sketches where Martin and Dan Aykroyd played "Georgi" and "Yortuk" the Festrunk Brothers, a couple of bumbling Czechoslovak would-be playboys. The album ends with the song "King Tut", sung and written by Martin and backed by the "Toot Uncommons", members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It was later released as a single, reaching No.17 on the US charts in 1978 and selling over a million copies. The song came out during the King Tut craze that accompanied the popular traveling exhibit of the Egyptian king's tomb artifacts. Both albums won Grammys for ''Best Comedy Recording'' in 1977 and 1978, respectively. Martin performed "King Tut" on the April 22, 1978 edition of ''SNL''.

On his comedy albums, Martin's stand-up is self-referential and sometimes self-mocking. It mixes philosophical riffs with sudden spurts of "happy feet", banjo playing with balloon depictions of concepts like venereal disease, and the controversial kitten juggling (he is a master juggler). His style is off-kilter and ironic, and sometimes pokes fun at stand-up comedy traditions, such as Martin opening his act (from ''A Wild and Crazy Guy'') by saying, "I think there's nothing better for a person to come up and do the same thing over and over for two weeks. This is what I enjoy, so I'm going to do the same thing over and over and over [...] I'm going to do the same joke over and over in the same show, it'll be like a new thing." Or: "Hello, I'm Steve Martin, and I'll be out here in a minute." In one comedy routine, used on the ''Comedy Is Not Pretty!'' album, Martin claimed that his real name was "Gern Blanston". The riff took on a life of its own. There is a Gern Blanston website, and for a time a rock band took the moniker as their name. He stopped stand-up in 1981 to concentrate on movies and never went back.

Acting career – film

By the end of the 1970s, Martin had acquired the kind of following normally reserved for rock stars, with his tour appearances typically occurring at sold-out arenas filled with tens of thousands of screaming fans. But unknown to his audience, stand-up comedy was "just an accident" for him; his real goal was to get into film.

Martin's first film was a short, ''The Absent-Minded Waiter'' (1977). The seven-minute-long film, also featuring Buck Henry and Teri Garr, was written by and starred Martin. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as ''Best Short Film, Live Action''. He made his first feature film appearance in the musical ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', where he sang The Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". In 1979, Martin co-wrote and starred in his first full-length movie, ''The Jerk'', directed by Carl Reiner. The movie was a huge success, grossing over $100 million on a budget of approximately $4 million.

Stanley Kubrick met with him to discuss the possibility of Martin starring in a screwball comedy version of ''Traumnovelle'' (Kubrick later changed his approach to the material, the result of which was 1999's ''Eyes Wide Shut''). Martin was executive producer for ''Domestic Life'', a prime-time television series starring friend Martin Mull, and a late-night series called ''Twilight Theater''. It emboldened Martin to try his hand at his first serious film, ''Pennies from Heaven'', a movie he was anxious to perform in because of his desire to avoid being typecast. To prepare for that film, Martin took acting lessons from director Herbert Ross, and spent months learning how to tap dance. The film was a financial failure; Martin's comment at the time was "I don't know what to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy."

Martin was in three more Reiner-directed comedies after ''The Jerk'': ''Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid'' in 1982, ''The Man with Two Brains'' in 1983 and ''All of Me'' in 1984, possibly his most critically acclaimed comic performance to date. In 1986, Martin joined fellow ''Saturday Night Live'' veterans Martin Short and Chevy Chase in ''¡Three Amigos!'', directed by John Landis, and written by Martin, Lorne Michaels, and singer-songwriter Randy Newman. It was originally entitled ''The Three Caballeros'' and Martin was to be teamed with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. In 1986, Martin was in the movie musical film version of the hit Off-Broadway play ''Little Shop of Horrors'' (based on a famous B-movie), playing the sadistic dentist, Orin Scrivello. The film was the first of three films teaming Martin with Rick Moranis. In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes movie ''Planes, Trains & Automobiles.'' That same year, ''Roxanne'', the film adaptation of ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' which Martin co-wrote, won him a Writers Guild of America, East award. It also garnered recognition from Hollywood and the public that he was more than a comedian. In 1988, he performed in the Frank Oz remake of ''Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'' alongside Michael Caine.

Martin starred in the Ron Howard film ''Parenthood'', with Moranis in 1989. He later met with Moranis to make the Mafia comedy ''My Blue Heaven'' in 1990. In 1991, Martin starred in and wrote ''L.A. Story'', a romantic comedy, in which the female lead was played by his then-wife Victoria Tennant. Martin also appeared in Lawrence Kasdan's ''Grand Canyon'', in which he played the tightly-wound Hollywood film producer, Davis, who was recovering from a traumatic robbery that left him injured, which was a more serious role for him. Martin also appeared in a remake of the comedy ''Father of the Bride'' in 1991 (followed by a sequel in 1995). He starred in the 1992 comedy ''HouseSitter'', with Goldie Hawn and Dana Delany.

In David Mamet's 1997 thriller, ''The Spanish Prisoner'', Martin played a darker role as a wealthy stranger who takes a suspicious interest in the work of a young businessman (Campbell Scott). He went on to star with Eddie Murphy in the 1999 comedy ''Bowfinger,'' which Martin also wrote. He appeared in a version of ''Waiting for Godot'' as Vladimir, with Robin Williams as Estragon and Bill Irwin as Lucky. In 1998, Martin guest starred with U2 in the 200th episode of ''The Simpsons'' titled "Trash of the Titans", providing the voice for sanitation commissioner Ray Patterson. In 1999, Martin and Hawn starred in a remake of the 1970 Neil Simon comedy, ''The Out-of-Towners''. By 2003, Martin ranked 4th on the box office stars list, after starring in ''Bringing Down The House'' and ''Cheaper By The Dozen'', each of which earned over $130 million at U.S. theaters. That same year, he also played the villainous Mr. Chairman in the animation/live action blend, ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action''.

Martin wrote and starred in ''Shopgirl'' (2005), based on his own novella (2000), and starred in ''Cheaper by the Dozen 2''. He also starred in the box office hit ''The Pink Panther'' in 2006, standing in Peter Sellers's shoes as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, a role which he reprised in 2009's ''The Pink Panther 2''. In ''Baby Mama'' (2008), he played the founder of a health food company, and in ''It's Complicated'' (2009), he played opposite Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin. In 2009, an article in ''The Guardian'' listed Martin as one of the best actors never to receive an Oscar nomination.

He is set to appear with Jack Black, Owen Wilson, and JoBeth Williams in the birdwatching comedy ''The Big Year'' in 2011.

Writing

In 1993, Martin wrote his first full length play ''Picasso at the Lapin Agile''. The first reading of the play took place in Beverly Hills, California at Steve Martin's home, with Tom Hanks reading the role of Pablo Picasso and Chris Sarandon reading the role of Albert Einstein. Following this, the play opened at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, and played from October 1993 to May 1994, then went on to run successfully in Los Angeles, New York City and several other US cities. In 2009, the La Grande, Oregon school board refused to allow the play to be performed after several parents complained about the content. In an open letter in the local ''Observer'' newspaper, Martin wrote "I have heard that some in your community have characterized the play as 'people drinking in bars, and treating women as sex objects.' With apologies to William Shakespeare, this is like calling ''Hamlet'' a play about a castle [...] I will finance a non-profit, off-high school campus production [...] so that individuals, outside the jurisdiction of the school board but within the guarantees of freedom of expression provided by the Constitution of the United States can determine whether they will or will not see the play".

Throughout the 1990s, Martin wrote various pieces for ''The New Yorker''. In 2002, he adapted the Carl Sternheim play ''The Underpants'', which ran Off Broadway at Classic Stage Company and in 2008, co-wrote and produced ''Traitor'', starring Don Cheadle. He has also written the novellas, ''Shopgirl'' (2000), and ''The Pleasure of My Company'' (2003), both more wry in tone than raucous. A story of a 28-year-old woman behind the glove counter at the Neiman Marcus department store in Beverly Hills, ''Shopgirl'' was made into a film starring Martin and Claire Danes. The film premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2005 and was featured at the Chicago International Film Festival and the Austin Film Festival before going into limited release in the US. In 2007, he published a memoir, ''Born Standing Up'', which ''TIME'' magazine named as one of the Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #6, and praising it as "a funny, moving, surprisingly frank memoir." In 2010, he published the novel ''An Object of Beauty.'' Writing in ''Modern Painters'', critic Scott Indrisek described the book as a "a limp, hackneyed saga of New York's culture scene from 1997 through the present day" notable for its "gleeful abuse of the simile." In a ''Houston Chronicle'' review of the book, critic Thomas J. Walsh calls it a "tasty light meal ...(many of the chapters are but a page or two)" which "is strongest when Martin frees himself from the little black skirt of his story to editorialize about art." The writer says the work is "a continuation of Martin's medium- to high-brow efforts to tease out the content and meaning of a particular aesthetic that is by turns sublime and commercial but never, ever pedestrian."

Hosting

Martin hosted Academy Awards solo in 2001 and 2003 and with Alec Baldwin in 2010. In 2005, Martin co-hosted ''Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years'', marking the park's anniversary. Disney continued to run the show until March 2009, which now plays in the lobby of ''Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln''.

Music

Martin first picked up the banjo when he was around the age of seventeen. Martin has claimed in several interviews and in his autobiography, "Born Standing Up" that he used to take 33 rpm bluegrass records and slow them down to 16 rpm and tune his banjo down, so the notes would sound the same. Martin was able to pick out each note, and perfect his playing.

Martin learned how to play the banjo with help from John McEun who later joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. McEun's brother later managed Martin as well as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Martin did his standup routine opening for the band in the early seventies. He had the band play on his hit, "King Tut". The "backup group" Martin used for this song was credited as The Toot Uncommons (Tutankhamen), but they were really The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

The banjo was a staple of Martin's 1970s stand-up career and he periodically poked fun at his love for the instrument. On the ''Comedy Is Not Pretty!'' album he included an all-instrumental jam, titled "Drop Thumb Medley", and played the track on his 1979 concert tour. His final comedy album, 1981's ''The Steve Martin Brothers'', featured one side of Martin's typical stand-up material, with the other side featuring live performances of Steve playing banjo with a bluegrass band.

In 2001, he played banjo on Earl Scruggs's remake of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown". The recording was the winner of the Best Country Instrumental Performance category at the following year's Grammys. In 2008, Martin appeared with the band, In the Minds of the Living, during a show in Myrtle Beach.

In 2009, Martin released his first all-music album, ''The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo'' with appearances from stars such as Dolly Parton. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 2010. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band member John McEuen produced the Album.

Martin made his first appearance on The Grand Ole Opry on May 30, 2009. In the ''American Idol'' Season 8 Finals, he performed alongside Michael Sarver and Megan Joy in the song "Pretty Flowers". In June, Martin played banjo along with the Steep Canyon Rangers on ''A Prairie Home Companion'', and began a two-month U.S. tour with the Rangers in September, including an appearances at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, Carnegie Hall and Benaroya Hall in Seattle. In November, they went on to play at the Royal Festival Hall in London with support from Mary Black. In 2010, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers appeared at the New Orleans Jazzfest, Merlefest Bluegrass Festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, at Bonnaroo Music Festival, at the ROMP Bluegrass festival in Owensboro, at the Red Butte Garden Concert series and on the BBC's ''Later... with Jools Holland''. Steve Martin performed "Jubilation Day" with the Steep Canyon Rangers on ''The Colbert Report'' on March 21, 2011, on Conan on May 3, 2011 and on BBC's ''The One Show'' on July 6, 2011. Steve Martin performed a song he wrote called "Me and Paul Revere" in addition to two other songs on the lawn of The Capitol Building in Washington, DC at the "Capitol Fourth Celebration" on the 4th of July, 2011.

Personal life

Martin was romantically involved with actress and singer Bernadette Peters, his costar in the films ''The Jerk'' and ''Pennies from Heaven'', during the 1970s and early 1980s. He married actress Victoria Tennant on November 20, 1986, and the union lasted until 1994. On July 28, 2007, after three years together, Martin married Anne Stringfield, a writer and former staffer for ''The New Yorker'' magazine. Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey presided over the ceremony at Martin's Los Angeles home. Lorne Michaels, creator of ''Saturday Night Live'', was best man. Several of the guests, including close friends Tom Hanks, Eugene Levy, comedian Carl Reiner, and magician/actor Ricky Jay were not informed that a wedding ceremony would take place. Instead, they were told they were invited to a party, and were surprised by the nuptials.

Investigators at Berlin's state criminal police office (LKA) think that Martin was one victim of a German art forgery scandal. In July 2004 Martin purchased what he believed to be a 1915 work by the German-Dutch painter Heinrich Campendonk, "Landschaft mit Pferden", or "Landscape With Horses", from a Paris gallery for what should have been a bargain price in the neighborhood of €700,000 (around $850,000 at the time). Before the purchase an expert authenticated the work and identified the painter's signature on a label attached to the back. Fifteen months later Martin put the painting up for sale, and auction house Christie's disposed of it in February 2006 to a Swiss businesswoman for €500,000 – a loss of €200,000. Police believe the fake Campendonk originated from an invented art collection devised by a group of German swindlers caught in 2010. Skillfully forged paintings from this group were sold to French galleries like the one where Martin bought the forgery.

Awards and honors

1969 Emmy Award – The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (with other writers)

1978 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album – ''Let's Get Small''

1979 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album – ''A Wild and Crazy Guy''.

1989 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from California State University Long Beach 2002 Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance with Earl Scruggs (and others) – banjo performance of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown".

2005 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

2005 Disney Legend award

2007 30th Annual Kennedy Center Honors

2009 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album for his album ''The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo''.

Written works by Martin

''The Jerk'' (1979) (Written with Carl Gottlieb)

''Cruel Shoes'' (1979) (Essays)

''Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays: Picasso at the Lapin Agile, the Zig-Zag Woman, Patter for the Floating Lady, WASP'' (1996) (Play)

''L.A. Story and Roxanne: Two Screenplays'' (published together in 1997) (Screenplays)

''Pure Drivel'' (1998) (Stories)

''Bowfinger'' (1999) (screenplay)

''Eric Fischl : 1970–2000'' (2000) (Afterword)

''Modern Library Humor and Wit Series'' (2000) (Introduction and Series Editor)

''Shopgirl'' (2000) (Novella)

''Kindly Lent Their Owner: The Private Collection of Steve Martin'' (2001) (Art)

''The Underpants: A Play'' (2002) (Play)

''The Pleasure of My Company'' (2003) (Novel)

''The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z'' (2007) (Children's Books illustrated by Roz Chast)

''Born Standing Up'' (2007) (Memoir)

''An Object of Beauty'' (2010) (Novel)

''Late For School'' (2010) (Children's book)

Released stand-up shows

''Steve Martin-Live!'' (1986, VHS)

''Saturday Night Live: The Best Of Steve Martin'' (1998, DVD)

Filmography

style="background:#B0C4DE;"	Year	Film	Role	Notes
1956	''Disneyland Dream''		Documentary
1977	''The Absent-Minded Waiter''		Short Subject
1978		Dr. Maxwell Edison
	''The Muppet Movie''	Insolent Waiter
		Documentary
''The Jerk''	Navin R. Johnson	Also Writer
1981		Arthur	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1982	''Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid''	Rigby Reardon
1983	''The Man with Two Brains''	Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr
	''The Lonely Guy''	Larry Hubbard
	Roger Cobb	National Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActorNew York Film Critics Circle Award for Best ActorNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1985	''Movers & Shakers''	Fabio Longio
	''Three Amigos''	Lucky Day	Also Writer and Executive Producer
	Orin Scrivello, DDS	Billed as "Special Appearance"
		C.D. Bales	Also Writer and Executive ProducerLos Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best ActorNational Society of Film Critics Award for Best ActorWriters Guild of America Award for Best Adapted ScreenplayNominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
''Planes, Trains and Automobiles''	Neal Page
1988		Freddy Benson
1989		Gil Buckman	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1990		Vinnie Antonelli
	''L.A. Story''	Harris K. Telemacher	Also Writer and Executive Producer
	George Banks
	Davis
	''HouseSitter''	Newton Davis
	Jonas Nightengale
1993		The Brother	Cameo
	''A Simple Twist of Fate''	Michael McCann	Also Writer and Executive Producer
''Mixed Nuts''	Philip
1995	''Father of the Bride Part II''	George Banks
1996		Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko
1997	''The Spanish Prisoner''	Jimmy Dell
1998	''The Prince of Egypt''	Hotep	Voice
		Henry Clark
''Bowfinger''	Bobby Bowfinger	Also writer
''The Venice Project''		Cameo
''Fantasia 2000''	Introductory Host	Disney Re-Release
2000		Charlie Duell
2001		Frank Sangster
	2002	''Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ''		As himself
		Peter Sanderson
''Looney Tunes: Back in Action''	Mr. Chairman
	Tom Baker
	''Jiminy Glick in Lalawood''
	''Shopgirl''	Ray Porter	Also Writer and Producer
''Cheaper by the Dozen 2''	Tom Baker
''Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years''		As himself
2006		Inspector Clouseau	A remake of the earlier series
		Barry
		Writer and Producer
	''The Pink Panther 2''	Inspector Clouseau	Also Screenplay
	Adam Schaffer
2011	''The Big Year''	Stu

Discography

Albums

Album	Year	Peak chart positions		! scope="col" rowspan="2"
		! scope="col" style="width:5.5em;font-size:90%;"	! scope="col" style="width:5.5em;font-size:90%;"
''Let's Get Small''	1977	10	—		*US: Platinum
''A Wild and Crazy Guy''	1978	2	—		*US: 2× Platinum
''Comedy Is Not Pretty!''	1979	25	—		*US: Gold
''The Steve Martin Brothers''	1981	135	—
! scope="row"	1986	—	—
''The Crow: New Songs for the 5-String Banjo''	2009	93	1
''Rare Bird Alert''	2011	43	1

Singles

Single	Year	Peak chart positions
		! scope="col" style="width:5em;font-size:90%;"
"Grandmother's Song"	1977	72
! scope="row"	1978	17
"Cruel Shoes"	1979	91

Music videos

Video	Year	Director
"Jubilation Day"	2011	Ryan Reichenfeld

TV specials

! Title	! Year	! Network
''Steve Martin: A Wild and Crazy Guy''	1978
''All Commercials... A Steve Martin Special''	1980
''Steve Martin: Comedy is Not Pretty''	1980
''Steve Martin's Best Show Ever''	1981
''The Winds of Whoopie''	1983

References

Further reading

Martin, Steve. (2007) ''Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life''. Scribner. ISBN 1416553649.

Walker, Morris (1999) ''Steve Martin: The Magic Years''. SPI Books. ISBN 1561719803.

External links

Steve Martin on Twitter

in 2008. Article and radio file in 2003. Radio file. Video of interview

Men's Vogue Article

Disney Legends profile

Category:1945 births Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Actors from California Category:Actors from Texas Category:American banjoists Category:American buskers Category:American comedy musicians Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:American film actors Category:American memoirists Category:American screenwriters Category:American stand-up comedians Category:California State University, Long Beach alumni Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:Mark Twain Prize recipients Category:People from Garden Grove, California Category:People from Inglewood, California Category:People from Waco, Texas Category:Writers Guild of America Award winners

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birth name	John Adam Belushi
birth date	January 24, 1949
birth place	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
ethnicity	Albanian
religion	Eastern Orthodox
nationality	American
death date	March 05, 1982
death place	West Hollywood, California, U.S.
notable work	''Saturday Night Live''
occupation	Actor/Comedian/Singer
years active	1973–1982
spouse	Judy Belushi (1976–1982) }}

John Adam Belushi (; January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an Albanian American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live''. He was the older brother of James "Jim" Belushi.

Early life

Belushi was born in Wheaton, Illinois, the son of Agnes Belushi (née Samaras), a first generation Albanian-American, and Adam Belushi (1918–1996), an Albanian immigrant and restaurant operator who left his native village, Qytezë, in 1934 at the age of sixteen. The family's name at the time of immigration was Bellios, or Belliors. Belushi was raised in the Albanian Orthodox church and grew up outside Chicago in Wheaton with his sister Marian, and two brothers, Jim, five-and-a-half years his junior, and Billy. He attended Wheaton Central High School, where he met his future wife, Judy Jacklin.

Career

Belushi's first big break as a comedian occurred in 1971, when he joined The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago. He was cast in ''National Lampoon's Lemmings'', a parody of Woodstock, which played Off-Broadway in 1972 and showcased future ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') performers Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest.

In 1973, Belushi and Jacklin moved together to New York. From 1973 to 1975, National Lampoon Inc. aired ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'', a half-hour comedy program syndicated across the country on approximately 600 stations. Belushi was a regular player on the show. Other players included future ''SNL'' regulars Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray and Chevy Chase. Jacklin became an associate producer for the show, and she and Belushi were married on December 31, 1976. A number of comic segments first performed on ''The Radio Hour'' would be translated into ''SNL'' sketches in the show's early seasons.

1975–1979

Belushi achieved national fame for his work on ''Saturday Night Live'', which he joined as an original cast member in 1975. Between seasons of the show, he made one of his best-known movies, ''Animal House''. As several Belushi biographies have noted, on John's 30th birthday (in 1979), he had the number one film in the U.S. (''Animal House''), the number one album in the U.S. (''The Blues Brothers: Briefcase Full of Blues'') and ''Saturday Night Live'' was the highest-rated late night television program.

When interviewed for retrospectives on John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd told stories of John often finishing ''SNL'' rehearsals, shows or film shoots and John being exhausted, simply walking unannounced into nearby homes of friends or strangers, scrounging around for food and often falling asleep, unable to be located for the following day's work. This was the impetus for the ''SNL'' horror-spoof sketch "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave", in which Belushi torments a couple (played by Jane Curtin and Bill Murray) in their home looking for snacks, newspapers and magazines to read, and taking control of their television. In an unfortunate foreshadowing, during the opening of the ''SNL'' episode that aired on December 17, 1977, Belushi, while in character as himself, quipped, "I plan to be dead by the time I'm 30." ''SNL'' also featured a short film by writer Tom Schiller called "Don't Look Back In Anger", where Belushi, playing himself as an old man and the last-surviving ''SNL'' cast member, visits the graves of his now-former cast members. The irony of the sketch is not only that Belushi was the first ''SNL'' cast member to die in real life, but also at the time was regarded as having the least viable lifestyle of all the cast members.

Belushi left ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1979 to pursue a film career. Belushi would make four more movies; three of them, ''1941'', ''Neighbors'', and most notably ''The Blues Brothers'' were made with fellow SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd.

Other movie projects

Dan Aykroyd wrote the roles of Dr. Peter Venkman in ''Ghostbusters'' and Emmett Fitz-Hume in ''Spies Like Us'' with Belushi in mind, and the roles were actually played by Belushi's former ''SNL'' castmates Bill Murray and Chevy Chase.

Released in September 1981, the romantic comedy ''Continental Divide'' starred Belushi as Chicago home town hero writer Ernie Souchack, who gets put on assignment researching a scientist studying birds of prey in the remote Rocky Mountains.

At the time of his death, Belushi was pursuing several movie projects, including ''Noble Rot'', an adaptation of a script by former ''Mary Tyler Moore Show'' writer and producer Jay Sandrich entitled ''Sweet Deception''.

Belushi recruited the band Fear and brought them to Cherokee Studios to record songs for the soundtrack of ''Neighbors'', a film he and Aykroyd were starring in. Cherokee Studios was a regular haunt for the original Blues Brothers back in the early days of the band. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd became fixtures at the recording studio, while fellow Blues Brother and guitar player Steve Cropper called Cherokee his producing home. "John was a crazy guy, but a heavy drinker. At times, he would drink an entire fifth of Jack Daniel's in less than five minutes," Aykroyd commented. Whenever they needed a bass player, they were joined by another Blues Brother, Donald "Duck" Dunn. During this time, Cropper along with producing partner and Cherokee owner Bruce Robb, worked on a number of music projects with the two comedian/musicians, the band Fear and later Aykroyd's movie ''Dragnet.'' "What can I say? John was excessively talented, and I guess you could say he sort of lived life 'excessively.' I think what happened to John had a sobering effect on a lot of people, me included," said music producer Bruce Robb.

Death

On March 5, 1982, Belushi was found dead in his room at Bungalow number 3 of the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. The cause of death was a speedball; the combined injection of cocaine and heroin. On the night of his death, he was visited separately by friends Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, each of whom left the premises, leaving Belushi in the company of assorted others, including Catherine Evelyn Smith. His death was investigated by forensic pathologist Dr. Ryan Norris among others, and while the findings were disputed, it was officially ruled a drug-related accident.

Two months later, Smith admitted in an interview with the ''National Enquirer'' that she had been with Belushi the night of his death and had given him the fatal speedball shot. After the appearance of the article "I Killed Belushi" in the Enquirer edition of June 29, 1982, the case was reopened. Smith was extradited from Toronto, arrested and charged with first-degree murder. A plea bargain reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter, and she served 15 months in prison.

Shortly before his death, he filmed a cameo for the comedy series ''Police Squad!'' At the suggestion of the show's producer, Robert K. Weiss, Belushi was filmed, face down in a swimming pool, dead. The footage was part of a running gag where the episode's "special guest star" would not survive past the opening credits without meeting some gruesome end. The scene was cut after his death and the footage is believed to have been lost.

Belushi and his friend Dan Aykroyd were slated to present the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 54th Academy Awards, an event held less than four weeks after his death.

Belushi was slated to appear on the well-known Canadian comedy show ''SCTV,'' which was by then being syndicated to the United States, but according to Dave Thomas, one of whose best-known characters on ''SCTV'' was Doug Mackenzie in the "Great White North" sketches, they were "planning him into their set, when suddenly, they received a phone call that Belushi had died in his hotel room. We stopped our work and just stared at each other, not being able to believe what had happened. John Candy began to cry, for Belushi as a friend, but also because it, to him, signaled the end of that era of comedy TV, now that one of their greats was dead." The segments he was to be in were scrapped, and the show continued without him. An earlier ''SCTV'' sketch had starred Tony Rosato as Belushi.

Belushi's wife arranged for a traditional Orthodox Christian funeral which was conducted by an Albanian Orthodox priest and he is interred in Abel's Hill Cemetery on Martha's Vineyard Chilmark, Massachusetts. His tombstone, a New England classic slate design, complete with skull and crossbones, reads, "I may be gone but Rock and Roll lives on." Rumor has it that his gravestone is not above his body because it was moved after operators of the cemetery had found many signs of vandalism and rowdiness where his body lies. He also is remembered on the Belushi family stone marking his mother's grave at Elmwood Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois. This stone says, "He Gave Us Laughter."

Tributes

John Belushi's life is detailed in the 1985 biography ''Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi'' by Bob Woodward. Many friends and relatives of Belushi, including his wife Judy, Dan Aykroyd and James Belushi, agreed to be interviewed at length for the book, but later felt the final product was exploitative and not representative of the John Belushi they knew. The book was later adapted into a feature film in which Belushi was played by Michael Chiklis. Belushi's friends and family boycotted the film, the publicity from which helped cause the movie to be a box-office flop.

The Grateful Dead performed the song "West L.A. Fadeaway" beginning in late 1982. The song, penned by long time lyricist Robert Hunter and sung by Jerry Garcia, contains fairly explicit references to Belushi's death, especially the line "Looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do.

Belushi was portrayed by actors Eric Siegel in ''Gilda Radner: It's Always Something'', Tyler Labine in ''Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Mork & Mindy'' (which also features his friendship with Robin Williams), and Michael Chiklis in ''Wired''.

His widow later remarried and is now Judith Belushi Pisano. Her biography (with co-biographer Tanner Colby) of John, ''Belushi: A Biography'' is a collection of first-person interviews and photographs, and was published in 2005.

On April 1, 2004, 22 years after his death, Belushi was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, after a ten-year lobbying effort by James Belushi and Judith Belushi Pisano. Among those present at the ceremony were Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Tom Arnold.

In 2006, Biography Channel aired the "John Belushi" episode of ''Final 24'', a documentary following Belushi in the last 24 hours leading to his death. In 2010, Biography aired a full biography documentation of the life of "John Belushi".

The 1987 song "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L)", by the American thrash metal band Anthrax was dedicated to John Belushi.

Several characters in Neil Gaiman's short story "The Goldfish Pool and Other Stories" reference Belushi's death with varying (and incorrect) details.

Belushi's alma mater, the College of DuPage, has established an annual performing arts scholarship in his honor.

Credits

''National Lampoon's Lemmings'' (1973) (Stage)

''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' (1973–1974) (Radio) (also Creative Director)

''The National Lampoon Show'' (1975) (Stage)

''The Beach Boys: It's OK'' (1976) (TV)

''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1979) (TV)

''Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle'' (1975) (voice) (1979 American dubbed version)

''National Lampoon's Animal House'' (1978)

''The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash'' (1978) (TV)

''Goin' South'' (1978)

''Old Boyfriends'' (1979)

''1941'' (1979)

''The Blues Brothers'' (1980)

''Continental Divide'' (1981)

''Neighbors'' (1981)

''SNL'' characters and impersonations

;Recurring characters

Samurai Futaba

Captain Ned, one of Miles Cowperthwaite's cronies

Jacob Papageorge alias 'Joliet' Jake Blues, from the Blues Brothers

Jeff Widette, from the Widettes

Kevin (from ''The Mall'' sketches)

Kuldorth (from ''The Coneheads'')

Larry Farber (one half of the Farber couple [the wife, Bobbi, was played by Gilda Radner])

Lowell Brock, from the H&L; Brock commercials

Matt Cooper, from the Land Shark sketches

Pete, from the Olympia Cafe

Steve Beshekas (who was in real life a good friend of Belushi's since community college)

Frank Leary, one of St. Mickey's Knights of Columbus

;Celebrity impersonations

Al Hirt

Babe Ruth

Bert Lance

Cesar Romero

Dino De Laurentiis

Ed Ames

Ed Asner

Elizabeth Taylor

Elvis Presley

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fred Silverman

George Wallace

Grigori Rasputin

Henry Kissinger

Hermann Göring

Jack Kerouac

Jawaharlal Nehru

Jimmy Hoffa

Joe Cocker

John Lennon

Julia Child

Leonid Brezhnev

Ludwig van Beethoven

Marlon Brando

Menachim Begin

Richard Daley

Robert Blake

Roy Orbison

Sam Peckinpah

Sanjay Gandhi

Steve Rubell

Sun Myung Moon

Tip O'Neill

Truman Capote

Vasiliy Alekseyev

William Shatner

Woody Hayes

Yasser Arafat

References

External links

Grave Family marker

Interview (MP3) with biographer Tanner Colby and Judith Belushi Pisano on the public radio program ''The Sound of Young America'' regarding their book, ''Belushi''. Includes clips from Belushi's work on ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour''.

Belushi: A Biography, official website for the book

John Belushi Cult Turns 25 from The Conservative Voice

Top SNL performer from ''Maxim''

Belushi.com, John Belushi Tribute Page

Bartcop Entertainment: The Life and Death of Captain Preemo from suprmchaos.com, featuring an alternative theory of Belushi's death

Noble Rot the "lost" screenplay of Novello and Belushi, from subcin.com

Category:1949 births Category:1982 deaths Category:Accidental deaths in California Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois Category:Albanian Orthodox Christians Category:American Christians Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American people of Albanian descent Category:American television actors Category:American television writers Category:American voice actors Category:Cocaine-related deaths in California Category:Deaths by heroin overdose in California Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from the United States Category:Emmy Award winners Category:People from Chicago, Illinois Category:People from Wheaton, Illinois Category:Second City alumni Category:The Blues Brothers members Category:University of Wisconsin–Whitewater alumni

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Name	Alexander Haig
Title	59th United States Secretary of State
Term start
Term end
President	Ronald Reagan
Deputy	William P. ClarkWalter John Stoessel, Jr.
Predecessor	Edmund Muskie
Successor	George Shultz
Title2	Supreme Allied Commander Europe
Term start2
Term end2
Predecessor2	Gen. Andrew Goodpaster
Successor2	Gen. Bernard W. Rogers
Title3	5th White House Chief of Staff
Term start3	1973
Term end3	1974
President3	Richard NixonGerald Ford
Predecessor3	H. R. Haldeman
Successor3	Donald Rumsfeld
Title4	Deputy National Security Advisor
Term start4	1970
Term end4	1973
President4	Richard Nixon
Predecessor4	Robert Komer
Successor4	Brent Scowcroft
Birth date	December 2, 1924
Birth place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Death date	February 20, 2010
Death place	Baltimore, Maryland
Spouse	Patricia(nee Fox, 1950–2010)
Party	Republican
Alma mater	U.S. Military Academy (B.S.)Columbia Business School (M.B.A.)Georgetown University (M.A.)
Profession	Soldier, Civil servant
Signature	Alexander Haig Signature 2.svg
Branch	United States Army
Rank
Serviceyears	1947–1979
Battles	Korean WarVietnam War
Awards	Distinguished Service CrossDefense Distinguished Service MedalSilver StarBronze StarCombat Infantryman BadgePurple HeartPresidential Service Badge }}

Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. (December 2, 1924 – February 20, 2010) was a United States Army general who served as the United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He also served as Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, the second-highest ranking officer in the Army, and as Supreme Allied Commander Europe commanding all U.S. and NATO forces in Europe.

A veteran of the Korean War and Vietnam War, Haig was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star with oak leaf cluster, and the Purple Heart.

Early life and education

Haig was born in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia. He was the middle of three children of Alexander Meigs Haig, Sr., a Republican lawyer, and his wife Regina Anne Murphy. When Haig was 10, his father, aged 38, died of cancer, and his Irish American mother raised her children in the Catholic church. He attended Saint Joseph's Preparatory School in North Philadelphia. He then studied at the University of Notre Dame for two years, before transferring to the United States Military Academy, where he graduated in 1947. Haig later earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia Business School in 1955 and a Master of Arts degree in international relations from Georgetown University in 1961. His thesis examined the role of military officers in making national policy.

Early military career

Korea

As a young officer, Haig served on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur in Japan. In the early days of the Korean War, Haig was responsible for maintaining General MacArthur's situation map and briefing MacArthur each evening on the day's battlefield events. Haig later served (1950–51) with the X Corps, as aide to MacArthur's Chief of Staff, the controversial General Edward Almond, who awarded Haig two Silver Stars and a Bronze Star with Valor device. Haig participated in four Korean War campaigns, including the Battle of Inchon, the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, and the evacuation of Hŭngnam as Almond's aide.

Pentagon assignments

Haig served as a staff officer in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations (DCSOPS) at the Pentagon (1962–64), and then was appointed Military Assistant to Secretary of the Army Stephen Ailes in 1964. He then was appointed Military Assistant to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, continuing in that service until the end of 1965.

Vietnam

In 1966 Haig took command of a battalion of the 1st Infantry Division in Vietnam. On May 22, 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Haig was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the US Army's second highest medal for valor, by General William Westmoreland as a result of his actions during the Battle of Ap Gu in March 1967. During the battle, Haig's troops (of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division (United States) became pinned down by a Viet Cong force that outnumbered U.S. forces by three to one. In an attempt to survey the battlefield, Haig boarded a helicopter and flew to the point of contact. His helicopter was subsequently shot down. Two days of bloody hand-to-hand combat ensued. An excerpt from Haig's official Army citation follows:

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Haig was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart during his tour in Vietnam, and was eventually promoted to Colonel, becoming a brigade commander of the 1st Infantry Division (United States) in Vietnam.

West Point

At the end of his one-year tour, Alexander Haig returned to the continental United States to become Regimental Commander of the Third Regiment of the Corps of Cadets at West Point, under the also newly arrived Commandant, Brigadier General Bernard W. Rogers. (Both had served together in the 1st Infantry Division, Rogers as Assistant Division Commander and Haig as Brigade Commander.)

Security adviser (1969–1972)

In 1969, he was appointed Military Assistant to the Presidential Assistant for National Security Affairs, Henry Kissinger, a position he retained until 1970 when President Richard Nixon promoted Haig to Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In this position, Haig helped South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu negotiate the final cease-fire talks in 1972. Haig continued in this position until 1973, when he was appointed to be Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, a post he held until the last few months of President Nixon's tenure, during which he served as White House Chief of Staff.

White House Chief of Staff (1973–74)

Haig served as White House Chief of Staff during the height of the Watergate affair from May 1973 until September 1974, taking over the position from H.R. Haldeman, who resigned on April 30, 1973, while under pressure from Watergate prosecutors.

Haig has been largely credited with keeping the government running while President Nixon was preoccupied with Watergate, and was seen as the "acting president" in Nixon's last months. Haig also played an instrumental role in finally persuading Nixon to resign. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Nixon had been assured of a pardon by then-Vice President Gerald Ford if he would resign. In this regard, in his 2001 book "Shadow," author Bob Woodward describes Haig's role as the point man between Nixon and Ford during the final days of Watergate. According to Woodward, Haig played a major behind-the-scenes role in the delicate negotiations of the transfer of power from President Nixon to President Ford.

Haig remained White House Chief of Staff during the early days of the Ford Administration until Donald Rumsfeld replaced him in September 1974. By that time, Ford, in a highly controversial move, had pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed as president. Author Roger Morris, a former colleague of Haig's on the National Security Council early in Nixon's first term, wrote that when Ford pardoned Nixon, he in effect pardoned Haig as well.

NATO Supreme Commander (1974–79)

From 1974 to 1979, Haig served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), the Commander of NATO forces in Europe, and Commander-in-Chief of United States European Command (CinCUSEUR). A creature of habit, Haig took the same route to SHAPE every day – a pattern of behavior that did not go unnoticed by terrorist groups. On June 25, 1979, Haig was the apparent target of an assassination attempt in Mons, Belgium. A land mine blew up under the bridge on which Haig's car was traveling, narrowly missing Haig's car, but wounding three of his bodyguards in a following car. Authorities later attributed responsibility for the attack to the Red Army Faction (RAF). In 1993 a German Court sentenced Rolf Clemens Wagner, a former RAF member, to life imprisonment for the assassination attempt.

Civilian positions

Alexander Haig retired as a four-star general from the Army in 1979, and moved on to civilian employment. In 1979, he worked at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute briefly, and would later serve on that organization's board. Later that year, he was named President and Director of United Technologies Corporation (UTC) under Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Harry J. Gray, a job he retained until 1981.

Secretary of State (1981–1982)

He was the second of three career military officers to become Secretary of State (George C. Marshall and Colin Powell were the others). His speeches in this role in particular led to the coining of the neologism "Haigspeak", described in ''a dictionary of neologisms'' as "Language characterized by pompous obscurity resulting from redundancy, the semantically strained use of words, and verbosity", leading ambassador Nicko Henderson to offer a prize for the best rendering of the Gettysburg address in Haigspeak.

Reagan assassination attempt

In 1981, following the March 30 assassination attempt on Reagan, Haig asserted before reporters "I am in control here" as a result of Reagan's hospitalization. }}

The U.S. Constitution, including both the presidential line of succession and the 25th Amendment, dictates what happens when a president is incapacitated. However, the holders of the two offices between the Vice President and the Secretary of State, the Speaker of the House (at the time, Tip O'Neill) and the President pro tempore of the Senate (at the time, Strom Thurmond), would be required under U.S. law () to resign their positions in order for either of them to become acting President - an unlikely event, considering that Vice President Bush was merely not immediately available - so Haig's statement reflected political reality, if not necessarily legal reality. Haig later said,

Falklands War

In April 1982 Haig conducted shuttle diplomacy between the governments of Argentina in Buenos Aires and the United Kingdom in London after Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. Negotiations broke down and Haig returned to Washington on April 19. The British fleet then entered the war zone.

1982 Lebanon War

Haig's report to Reagan on January 30, 1982, shows that Haig feared that the Israelis might start a war against Lebanon. Critics have accused Haig of "greenlighting" the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. Haig denies this and says he urged restraint.

A military hawk, Haig caused some alarm with his suggestion that a "nuclear warning shot" in Europe might be effective in deterring the Soviet Union. His tenure as Secretary of State was often characterized by his clashes with the Defense Secretary, Caspar Weinberger.

Secretary of state Haig, who repeatedly had difficulty with various members of the Reagan administration during his year-and-a-half into office, decided to resign his post on June 25.

President Reagan accepted Haig's resignation from State on July 5, 1982. Haig was succeeded by George P. Shultz, who was confirmed on July 16, 1982.

1988 Republican presidential nomination

Haig ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party nomination for President in 1988. Although he enjoyed relatively high name recognition, Haig never broke out of single digits in national public opinion polls. He was a fierce critic of then Vice President George H. W. Bush, often doubting Bush's leadership abilities, questioning his role in the Iran Contra Scandal, and using the word wimp in relation to Bush in an October 1987 debate in Texas. Despite extensive personal campaigning and paid advertising in New Hampshire, Haig remained stuck in last place in the polls. Four days before the February 1988 NH primary election, Haig withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Senator Bob Dole, who made an appearance at the press conference, heavily covered by political reporters partly because a snow storm had limited travel by candidates and reporters. Dole, steadily gaining on Bush after beating him handily a week earlier in the Iowa caucus, ended up losing to Bush in NH by ten percentage points. With his momentum regained, Bush easily won the nomination.

In popular culture

In Part 2 of the episode Who Shot Mr. Burns? of the TV show The Simpsons, a mug shot of Homer Simpson is shown, in which he is wearing a t-shirt with the campaign slogan "Haig in '88" on it.

Later life, health, and death

In 1980, Haig had a double heart bypass operation.

Haig was the host for several years of the television program ''World Business Review''. At the time of his death, he was the host of ''21st Century Business'', with each program a weekly business education forum that included business solutions, expert interview, commentary and field reports. Haig served as a founding member of the advisory board of Newsmax Media, which publishes the conservative web site, Newsmax.com. Haig was co-chairman of the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus, along with Zbigniew Brzezinski and Stephen J. Solarz. A member of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) Board of Advisors, Haig was also a founding Board Member of America Online.

On January 5, 2006, Haig participated in a meeting at the White House of former Secretaries of Defense and State to discuss United States foreign policy with Bush administration officials. On May 12, 2006, Haig participated in a second White House meeting with 10 former Secretaries of State and Defense. The meeting including briefings by Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, and was followed by a discussion with President George W. Bush. Haig's memoirs – ''Inner Circles: How America Changed The World'' – were published in 1992.

On February 19, 2010, a hospital spokesman revealed that the 85-year-old Haig had been hospitalized at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore since January 28 and remained in critical condition. On February 20, Haig died at the age of 85 from complications from a staphylococcal infection that he had prior to admission.

According to ''The New York Times'', his brother, Father Haig said the Army was coordinating a Mass at Fort Myer in Washington and an interment at Arlington National Cemetery, but both would be delayed by about two weeks due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on March 2, 2010. Eulogies were given by Dr. Henry Kissinger and Sherwood "Woody" D. Goldberg.

Family

Alexander Haig was married to Patricia (née Fox) from 1950 until his death. She is the mother of his three children, all of whom survive him: Alexander Patrick Haig Sr., Managing Director of Worldwide Associates, Inc., and Barbara Haig, "Deputy to President for Policy & Strategy" at the National Endowment for Democracy both of Washington, DC, and Brian Haig, author and military analyst of Hopewell, N.J. Haig's younger brother, Rev. Frank Haig, is a Jesuit priest and professor emeritus of physics at Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland. Rev. Haig also served as the seventh president of Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. Alexander Haig's older sister Regina Haig Meredith was a practicing attorney licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and was a co-founding partner of the firm Meredith, Meredith, Chase and Taggart, located in Princeton and Trenton, New Jersey; she died in 2008.

Military awards

Qualification Badges

Decorations

60px  Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters

60px  Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters

60px  Bronze Star with "Valor device" and two Oak Leaf Clusters

60px  Air Medal with Bronze Numeral 24

Service Medals

60px  National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star

60px  Korean Service Medal with four Bronze Stars

60px  Vietnam Service Medal with two Bronze Stars

Foreign Awards

60px  Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm

References

Further reading

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Further reading

''Haig: The General's Progress'', by Roger Morris, ''Playboy'' Press, 1982, ISBN 0-87223-753-2. Morris, a respected author, was a colleague of Haig's on the National Security Council, early in President Richard Nixon's first term. Morris presents important material on Haig's early life and Army career, as well as deeper and darker material than the official line, on the often seamy dealings of the Nixon White House, including Watergate.

''The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House'', by Seymour Hersh, Summit Books, New York, 1983, ISBN 0-671-50688-9. The book focuses on U.S. foreign policy, directed mainly from the White House by Nixon and Henry Kissinger during Nixon's first term; since Haig eventually became Kissinger's deputy during that era, there is also plenty of material on Haig here, often at variance with the official, sanitized versions.

''Caveat: Realism, Reagan and Foreign Affairs'', by Alexander Haig, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1984. The book is Haig's account of what happened while he was Secretary of State.

External links

The Day Reagan was Shot article on Haig

The Falklands: Failure of a Mission critique of Haig's mediation efforts

Portrait of Alexander Haig by Margaret Holland Sargent

Obituary at The Economist.

Burial site of Alexander Haig at Find A Grave.

{{U.S. Cabinet Official box | before= H. R. Haldeman | after= Donald Rumsfeld | years= 1973–1974 | president= Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford | office= White House Chief of Staff}} {{U.S. Secretary box |before=Edmund S. Muskie |after=George P. Shultz |years=1981–1982 |president= Ronald Reagan |department= Secretary of State}}

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