Dan Aykroyd argues with his brother’s ghost.
Dan Aykroyd argues with his brother’s ghost
The afterlife-obsessed ‘Ghostbusters’ actor, 71, was devastated when his younger sibling Peter Aykroyd died aged 65 in 2021 two weeks before his 66th birthday from sepsis caused by an untreated abdominal hernia, and Dan says he tells off his spirit for not allowing him to take him to hospital for treatment that would probably have saved his life.
He told the Daily Mail: “I say (to Peter’s ghost), ‘Will you just get into the ambulance?’ He had an impacted bowel, but he was very anti-medicine and refused help and it ended up killing him.”
Dan added the other spirits he regularly sees are grinning to remind him of better days, saying: “They’re smiling, as they were in life. They’re reminding me of the good times.”
The comic still regularly performs as a Blues Brother with the late John Belushi’s brother Jim Belushi, 69, and says he still feels his friend’s presence when they play, 41 years after John’s drug overdose death in 1982 aged 33.
Dan said: “We dedicate the show to John and I feel his spirit. I feel it when I go into House of Blues (Dan’s music club franchise.)
“Every time I go in I think about him and how much fun he’s missed.”
Dan also said about how ghost sightings are in his blood: “It has always been in my family. My great-grandfather was an Edwardian spiritualist.
“My dad wrote a book about the history of ghosts. I grew up with it.”
Dan has been filming the follow-up movie to ‘Ghostbusters’ sequel ‘Afterlife’ sequel in the UK, where he has indulged in his love of visiting haunted spots.
He said: “I love working with the British crew, they’re superb. The studios are state of the art and vie with anything we have in Hollywood.
“And I have an idea for a sequel I would set here in the UK. There are lots of ghosts and mythical creatures in Scotland.
“I put a thousand miles on the car driving up there and it was wonderful. I went to Skye, to the Glencoe valley, Edinburgh, Glasgow… I loved it.”
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