Aykroyd originally wrote the role of Dr. Peter Venkman with Belushi in mind, but rewrote it for Bill Murray after Belushi's death. In a 2003 interview, he recalled feeling someone climbing into bed with him who wasn't his wife Donna Dixon. var part3 = "David at Mansonblog dot com"; I second what Heidi S just said. At present, the Canadian actor is 70 years old. According to Aykroyd, their first meeting helped spark the Blues Brothers act. Back in the '70s, when Dan and John Belushi were both writers at Saturday Night Live, they smoked an Afghan strain grown by a man known only as Captain Jack. By Neal Leitereg. Aykroyd has been celebrating his birthday with his friends and family on the 1st of July every year. The original plan for Animal House was to cast Chevy Chase and Bill Murray as Otter and Boon, with John Belushi still in his iconic role as Bluto and Dan Aykroyd playing motorcycling rebel D-Day . I was going to Le Hibou and hearing James Cotton, Otis Spann, Pinetop Perkins, and Muddy Waters. Animal House is one of the most acclaimed and celebrated comedy movies ever made. From left: Jim Belushi, Kevin Nealon, Dan Aykroyd, George Wendt and Jon Lovitz Fox Nation. In 2001, he starred in the Woody Allen film The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Most of his film roles since then 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. // -->,