The actor Rick Moranis turns 72 today
Moranis’s film career took off in 1984 with a supporting turn as the endearingly awkward Louis Tully in “Ghostbusters,” followed by his scene‑stealing appearances in “Spaceballs” as the teenage loner Dark Helmet and “Little Shop of Horrors” in 1986
The actor Rick Moranis turns 72 today
Rick Moranis was born Richard Edgar Moranis on April 18, 1953, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The son of a portrait photographer father and an office manager mother, he grew up in a creative, music‑loving household and discovered a knack for comedy while attending Toronto’s Forest Hill Collegiate Institute. After studying radio and television arts at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, he began performing stand‑up in local clubs and quickly attracted attention for his warm, self‑deprecating humor.
In 1978 Moranis joined the groundbreaking Canadian sketch troupe Second City Television (SCTV), where he created memorable characters like the nervous accountant Bob McKenzie and the inept horror host Sammy Maudlin. His versatility and gift for transforming into wildly different personas made him a standout, and when SCTV was picked up by American television in the early 1980s, Moranis found himself on the radar of Hollywood producers.
Moranis’s film career took off in 1984 with a supporting turn as the endearingly awkward Louis Tully in “Ghostbusters,” followed by his scene‑stealing appearances in “Spaceballs” (1987) as the teenage loner Dark Helmet and “Little Shop of Horrors” (1986) as the hapless dental assistant Seymour Krelborn. In 1989 he headlined “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” portraying the well‑intentioned inventor Wayne Szalinski in a family adventure that sparked two sequels and cemented his status as one of the decade’s most beloved comic actors. He also impressed critics with a more dramatic performance in “Parenthood” (1989), playing the fraught but loving dad Nathan.
After a remarkable run of hits through the early ’90s, Moranis chose to step back from on‑screen work following the tragic death of his wife in 1991, focusing instead on raising their two children. He continued to lend his voice to animated films like “Brother Bear” and contributed to soundtrack projects but largely avoided live‑action roles until a handful of cameo appearances in the 2000s and a celebrated voice turn in “Bob’s Burgers.” Today, Rick Moranis is remembered for his unique blend of geeky earnestness and sly wit—qualities that made him the defining everyman of ‘80s and ‘90s family cinema.
Look back at a clip from the 1987 movie “Spaceballs” starring Rick Moranis
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