Peter Aykroyd Dies: ‘Saturday Night Live’ Pays Tribute To Former Cast Member & Writer

Peter Aykroyd, the Emmy-nominated former Saturday Night Live cast member and writer, has died. The NBC sketch show paid tribute to SNL alum following Simu Liu’s eventful hosting debut.

Saturday Night Live revealed the actor-writer’s death with a card that displayed a picture of the previous featured player the years of his birth and death. The Ottawa native was born November 19, 1955, and is younger brother of SNL original Dan Aykroyd.

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He began his foray into entertainment with minor roles in The New Avengers and SCTV. In 1979 he joined Saturday Night Live as both a writer and featured player. That same year he starred as Joe in Tom Schiller’s short film Java Junkie.

During his yearlong tenure at Saturday Night Live, Aykroyd received an Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program Emmy nom for SNL, shared with several other writers.

He created the Canadian series PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal and co-wrote the 1991 film Nothing but Trouble with his brother. His additional acting roles throughout the ’90s included Nothing but Trouble, Coneheads, The Blues Brothers Animated Series and Justice.

In addition to the tribute card, Saturday Night Live posted the Java Junkie short featuring Aykroyd on its Twitter account. See the post below.

No additional information about his death has been released, and this post will be updated when more details are available.

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