VideoDetective.com

Rick Moranis

Rick Moranis
Rick Moranis
Born: Apr 18, 1954 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Occupation: Actor, Writer, Director,
Active: '80s-'90s
Major Genres: Comedy, Children's/Family
Career Highlights: Little Shop of Horrors, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Spaceballs
First Major Screen Credit: SCTV: Season 03 (1980)
21 Videos for Rick Moranis
Brother Bear 2: The Moose Are on the Loose (2006) Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories [Animated TV Series] (1992) Head Office (1986)
Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids (2003) L.A. Story (1991) Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Big Bully (1996) My Blue Heaven (1990) Brewster's Millions (1985)
Little Giants (1994) Ghostbusters 2 (1989) Ghostbusters (1984)
The Flintstones (1994) Parenthood (1989) Streets of Fire (1984)
Splitting Heirs (1993) Spaceballs (1987) The Wild Life (1984)
Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories [Animated TV Series] (1992) Club Paradise (1986) Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys ()
Photos


There are currently no photos.

Biography:

While still attending high school in Toronto, Rick Moranis held down a part-time job as a radio engineer. After working as a solo nightclub comic and radio deejay, Moranis joined the Second City comedy troupe, which lead to his television bow in 1980 on the syndicated weekly Second City TV. Like his SCTV colleagues, Moranis' strong suit was his versatility, though his early fame rested on a single characterization.

Grudgingly honoring a Canadian regulatory requirement that Second City TV include a sequence of identifiable Canadian content in each episode, Moranis and Dave Thomas created the characters of Bob and Doug McKenzie, a pair of beer-guzzling, back-bacon-chewing hosers who allegedly represented certain Canadians.

The largely improvised McKenzie brothers segments scored an immediate hit, spawning a 1983 feature film Strange Brew, which Moranis and Thomas starred in, co-wrote and co-directed. Since leaving Second City TV, Moranis has pursued a successful film career, usually playing clueless or self-involved nerds.

He played reluctant ghost host Louis Tully in the two Ghostbusters films, was cast as Seymour Krelboin in the 1986 musical version of Little Shop of Horrors, and was seen as eccentric inventor Wayne Szalinski in Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989) and its sequel Honey I Blew Up the Kid (1992).

Even in his 40s, Moranis convincingly portrayed geekish losers-turned-winners in such films as Little Giants (1994) and Big Bully (1995). He played a convincing live-action version of Barney Rubble in The Flintstones (1994). In 1997, he reprised Wayne Szlalinski in Disney's third installment of their now direct-to-video series Honey We Shrunk Ourselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.