May The Schwartz Be With You! 10 Things You Didnt Know About Rick Moranis

May The Schwartz Be With You! 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Rick Moranis

After a decades-long break, Rick Moranis is finally back in the spotlight. Here’s what he’s been up to ever since he left the public life.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

The Canadian actor Rick Moranis took the comedic world by storm, first on the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV then in irreplaceable films like Ghostbusters, Spaceballs, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and Parenthood. He was an immensely talented actor who seemed set to dominate the genre in the ’80s and ’90s. But then, he abruptly disappeared from Hollywood. By now, it’s known that he took this long break due to the untimely death of his wife. He wanted to spend time at home caring for his children as a single father and widow. And, well, the years just went by and he realized he wasn’t really in a rush to get back into the spotlight.

Now 67 and with his children grown, Moranis has resurfaced not just to promote Mint Mobile in commercials with Ryan Reynolds, but also with plans to star in a new sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, called Shrunk. Beyond the details that fans already know about his life, there are some interesting things about the funny man they might not.

10 He Went To School With Geddy Lee

Growing up in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Moranis attended elementary school with another young boy who went on to become famous: Geddy Lee, frontman of the rock band Rush.

Lee’s guitar skills and technique have gone on to inspire many famous rock musicians, like Cliff Murton from Metallica, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, and Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. Meanwhile, Moranis’ comedic chops have been praised by generations of both fellow and up-and-coming comedy actors.

9 He Was A Disc Jockey

Before he became a famous actor, Moranis began his career as a radio disc jockey back when radio was a huge medium. In the mid ’70s, he appeared on three radio stations in his hometown of Toronto.

What was his on-air name? Rick Allen, a stage name derivsed from his real name, Frederick Alan. He wrote and performed his own show, which was quite successful, before moving on to appear on the sketch comedy show SCTV.

8 Some Credit Him For Creating The Video Jockey

The next big medium after radio was, of course, television. One of Moranis’ most popular SCTV skits was about a disc jockey named Gerry Todd, who showed music clips on TV and threw in some fun commentary in between breaks. This is something that is pretty common nowadays, but back at the time when this sketch first appeared, MTV didn’t exist yet.

Thus, many people, including Martin Short and even Sound & Vision magazine, have claimed that Moranis inadvertently created the concept of the video jockey. Even though he was portraying a video jockey as part of a gag since the job actually didn’t exist at the time, it eventually became real.

7 He Was Fired From The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club had the perfect concept: a misfit group of students, each from a different high school clique, were stuck in weekend detention for various reasons. Left with no one to talk to but one another, the geek, the jock, the popular girl, the weird and dark goth-type girl, and the too cool for school guy, managed to form a bond, despite their differences. Now imagine Rick Moranis in the cult classic ’80s film The Breakfast Club. Weird but not impossible, right? Well, it almost became fact.

Moranis was initially in the role of Carl the Janitor but while creator John Hughes couldn’t imagine the idea of firing him, producer Ned Tanen said otherwise. This was because, apparently, Moranis insisted on using an over-the-top Russian accent, and Tanen thought the gimmick clashed with everything else in the film. John Kapelos was eventually cast to play the part.

6 He Was In A Christmas Animated Classic

While Moranis was absent from doing any on-camera work, he did come back to do some voice work. One of those projects he voiced is played on repeat during the holiday season. In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys, Moranis provides the voice for Toy Taker, an evil man who keeps stealing all of the toys, including those made in Santa’s workshop.

His alter ego is, spoiler alert, Mr. Cuddles, a teddy bear who is losing his stuffing and became bitter when his former owner threw him away. He wasn’t a bad guy after all, but just wanted to save other toys from dealing with the same pain of rejection.

5 He Has A Grammy-Nominated Album

Moranis started to write a bunch of comedic country songs in 2003, and in 2005, he turned them into an album called The Agoraphobic Cowboy. He distributed it through ArtistShare and his website.

In 2006, the album actually received a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album, though he lost out to Chris Rock’s Never Scared. Moranis performed one of his songs, “Press Pound,” on a rare public appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

4 He Was In An Episode Of The Goldbergs

Fans of the hilarious ’80s-set sitcom The Goldbergs — which features a cast of characters who make constant ’80s pop culture references —might recall seeing the episode dedicated to the movie Spaceballs, a parody of Star Wars. In one scene, the character Dark Helmet appears in a vision to talk to the youngest Goldberg son and protagonist Adam.

The voice of that helmet was indeed that of Moranis, who came out of pseudo-retirement to record the cameo. While Moranis voiced his famous Darth Vader parody, he didn’t appear in person, and so Dark Helmet never took off his mask. The episode aired in May 2018.

3 He Will Appear In An Upcoming SCTV Reunion

Famed movie director Martin Scorsese directed a reunion documentary called An Afternoon with SCTV, which was about the Second City troupe and the sketch comedy show. If that doesn’t great enough, Moranis will appear in it.

The film is set to premiere on Canadian network CTV and will also stream on Netflix at some point in 2020. Filming took place in Toronto back in 2018 and also included other famous former cast members including Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, and Joe Flaherty.

2 His Daughter Is An Architect

Moranis’ now grown daughter Rachel, 32, is a businesswoman and entrepreneur. She went to Brown University where she graduated with degrees in Architecture History and Criticism and History of Art and Architecture. She also attended Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

She went on to co-found her own companies, the latest of which is called Octopus Holding.

1 His Son Works In Entertainment

Moranis’ 32-year-old son Mitchell, meanwhile, followed in his dad’s footsteps and has worked as an actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, musician, and songwriter, essentially touching on every aspect of the entertainment business.

He doesn’t appear to have any social media presence and clearly prefers to stay out of the limelight, despite his reported career path aspirations.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/rick-moranis-scwartz-spaceballs-facts-trivia/

• Prime Video Best New TV Shows & Movies This Week (November 1)

• Pretty Womans Original Dark Ending Left Julia Roberts Character in an Alley

• Pacific Rim 3 Would Have Connected To The Godzilla vs Kong Universe

• Selling Sunset Why Davina Potratz Left The Oppenheim Group

• Loki’s Powers Explained In Full How Each Ability Is Different

• PS5 Rumored To Have Backwards Compatibility For PS1 PS2 PS3 and PS4 Related Sony is Attempting to Make PlayStation 5 Backward Compatible Next PlayStation 5 Lifecycle Expected to be 67 Years and Include a PS5 Pro Source YouTube

• Mad Max 5 7 Things That Have Been Confirmed (& 8 Reasons We Need To See It)