Who is Rick Moranis? Everything You Need to Know

Quick Facts

Canadian Celebrities Born In April

Also Known As: Frederick Allan Moranis

Age: 71 Years, 71 Year Old Males

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Anne Moranis (m. 1986–1991)

Born Country: Canada

Jewish Actors Actors

Height: 5'6" (168 cm), 5'6" Males

Ancestry: Hungarian Canadian, Canadian American

Notable Alumni: Elementary School

City: Toronto, Canada

More Facts

education: Elementary School

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Childhood & Early Life

Rick Moranis was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in a middle-class Jewish family. He attended the Sir Sandford Fleming Secondary School. He attended his primary school with ‘Rush’s’ frontman, Geddy Lee.

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Career

Moranis’ entertainment career began as a radio disk jockey with three different Toronto radio stations in the 1970s. His air-name used to be ‘Rick Allan’ at that time.

His made his television debut in 1976; he was a regular CBC-TV’s comedy series called ’90 Minutes Live’ but it was only four years later that he became famous with ‘Second City Television (SCTV)’.

He was convinced into joining the third season of the series by the writer and performer of the series itself, and his friend, Dave Thomas. He started getting fame for his impressions of Woody Allen, David Brinkley, etc.

In 1983, after gaining success as ‘McKenzie’ brothers, with their endearing catchphrases and portrayal of stereotypical Canadian men, Moranis and Thomas came out with a movie named, ‘Strange Brew’.

In the following year, opportunities to act in motion movies overwhelmed Moranis and he acted in ‘The Streets of Fire’ along with Diane Lane and Michael Pare, in which he played a slightly serious role than ‘SCTV’.

He did not enjoy working in a serious movie and therefore returned back to comedy with ‘Ghostbusters’ in the same year, which turned out to be a massive box office hit and earned over $200 million dollars in the U. S. alone.

Over the years, Moranis gave many box office hit comedies like, ‘Little Shop of Horrors (1986)’, ‘Spaceballs (1987)’, ‘Ghostbusters II (1987)’, ‘Honey I shrunk the Kids (1989)’, ‘Parenthood (1989)’, ‘Honey, I Blew Up the Kid (1992)’, etc.

After the establishment of his perfect comic timings and realistic portrayal of the characters, Moranis came out with his last known big role—‘The Flintstones’ in 1994. His enactment of ‘Barney Rubble’ was very well appreciated by the audiences.

In 1996, another of Moranis’ big banner movie ‘Big Bully’ was released. It starred Tom Arnold along with him and was directed by Steve Miner. In spite of its promising story line, the movie failed to gain success at box office.

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In the following year, Moranis decided to end his film career, as after the sad death of his wife he found it really difficult to cope up with the responsibilities of a single dad while working in the movies.

After his big break, he came back in 2001 with ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys’. It was an animation movie by Disney for which he gave his voice.

In 2005, he harnessed his singing ability and released an album titled, ‘The Agoraphobic Cowboy’. It was an album featuring country music styled songs and the lyrics of the songs were written by Moranis himself.

Towards the late 2000s, he did more entertainment work like, ‘Brother Beer 2 (2006)’, 24th anniversary special of Bob and Doug McKenzie—‘Bob and Doug McKenzie's 2-4 Anniversary (2007)’, a comedy album titled ‘My Mother's Brisket & Other Love Songs (2007)’.

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Major Works

Moranis gained success with his ‘Second City Television (SCTV)’ in 1980. His portrayal of one of the ‘McKenzie’ brother’s along with Dave Thomas helped him in getting recognized not only in Canada but the States as well.

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Awards & Achievements

Moranis won a Primetime Emmy Award (1981) for his role in the series, ‘Second City Television’, American Comedy Award (1990) for ‘Parenthood’ and Earle Grey Award (1995) for Best Cast for ‘Flintstones’.

Personal Life & Legacy

In 1986, Moranis got married to Ann Belsky Moranis but lost her to breast cancer, which had spread to her liver, in 1991. He has two children with his late wife.

Trivia

He was on the Advisory Committee for the comedy program at Humber College in 2004.

He declined to come out of retirement to join the other cast members of Ghostbusters in the production of a new video game based on the films in 2008.

His first album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 2005.

Rick Moranis Biography