After tumbling from a 50-foot height, Dan Aykroyd walked away convinced that a higher power had caught him.
The actor-comedian hosts the History Channel’s “The UnBelievable,” a series that unearths some of the strangest — yet true — stories in human history. For the 73-year-old, it’s more than just a fun gig; it’s a full-circle moment for someone who’s had his own encounter with the unbelievable.
“I survived a 50-foot fall,” Aykroyd recalled to Fox News Digital. “There’s a video — there must be of it. But I was chasing [fellow ‘SNL’ alum] Gilda Radner. We were doing a kids’ show at CBC — the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I was chasing Gilda on the roof of this building. We were all dressed in black raincoats. We were supposed to be spies with hats. And I remember I had a 104-degree temperature, but I still went to work that day.”
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“And so, she went into the other side of the skylight,” he said. “I thought, instead of chasing her around this skylight — this industrial skylight with glass and mesh — I’ll just go over it. It looked strong enough to hold me. So, I stepped on the bar that held the glass together. It completely gave way.”
“I fell 50 feet from the roof to the floor, basically bouncing off a light standard. There was a light rack there for some of the shows that we were doing. That broke my fall. Then I hit the floor, landed on my butt and walked into the ambulance.”
“That is an unbelievable survival story to me,” he said proudly. “It’s one of my cat lives — it’s gone.”
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When told that someone was looking out for him that day, Aykroyd immediately remarked, “No doubt.”
“I totally believe in divine intervention in cases like that,” he said. “And angel stories.”
Unsurprisingly, the “Ghostbusters” star is also a believer in things that go bump in the night. Aykroyd said his former California home may be haunted by Mama Cass Elliot of the folk group The Mamas and the Papas.
He previously told The Guardian that he purchased the home — once owned by the late singer — in the 1980s and lived there for many years. It’s also where he and his wife Donna Dixon raised three daughters. The property was said to be a refuge for Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and Harry Nilsson, among others.
Elliot died on July 29, 1974, in London. She was 32 years old.
“That was a beautiful home,” said Aykroyd.
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“Beverly D’Angelo bought it from us. We had a few experiences in that house. The StairMaster was going when no one was around. Some of the people working in the house would feel a hand on the shoulder. My daughter, Danielle, saw a red-haired man with a little girl at the end of the hall near her bedroom. Another friend of ours saw a big black shadow moving across — I mean, Mama Cass-sized shadow — going across the stairs. The piano used to play quite a bit.”
“I remember lying in bed and hearing my watch and ring doing a little dust-devil dance there,” he claimed. “That was kind of strange. And when we sold it, there’s a question there that’s standard with real estate companies — basically in North America — that asks if you experienced any unusual activity in the house. So, we had to disclose that we had. There were quite active little things going on. Residual energies. Whether it was Mama Cass’s ghost, I don’t know.”
“It could have been a guy who died in the house,” Aykroyd claimed. “I heard about that at a party. They disposed of him without telling anybody. That’s an old Hollywood story. But I certainly believe that apparitions and ghosts are real.”
But even Aykroyd — long fascinated by the supernatural — was unconvinced when it came to psychics, at least at first.
“I was never sure about mediumship,” he said. “My family was into mediumship, seances and reaching the other side. That’s kind of the family religion — knowing that the body releases the soul and the spirit energy, and beyond that, the spirit energy survives. Not only that, but consciousness survives. But I was a bit skeptical about that until I went to a medium and got a channeler to find someone for me and had it verified. This (medium) only knew things that the person and I shared.”
“If you can get with a medium in Lily Dale, New York, it’s a beautiful part of the world up there,” he said. “You can go mainly in the summer, and they have registered psychics and mediums that are vetted and very genuine. You can try to reach someone from the other side. My results there — and my dad’s — have been spectacular. So that cured my skepticism.”
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But Aykroyd’s mind isn’t consumed by the supernatural. He also treasures vivid memories of his friends, especially his “Blues Brothers” partner, the late John Belushi. The “Animal House” star died in 1982 from a drug overdose at age 33.
“For his brief career, he was certainly well recognized as a master comedian, actor and writer,” Aykroyd explained. “He has a great legacy. In the ignominious manner of his death, many great artists have succumbed to drugs. It’s tragic. And John — he was like an Elvis figure. I think today, if people look back at ‘Animal House’ and ‘Blues Brothers,’ his performances certainly hold up as masterful.”
“I watched ‘Blues Brothers’ about half a year ago,” he reflected. “I had to do some work on the comic about the ‘Blues Brothers.’ He’s just outstanding in it. He just left us too early.”
“Today, of course, we’re seeing the scourge of fentanyl, and it’s very serious. That’s why I don’t mind seeing a drug boat being blown out of the water from time to time, as long as that’s what’s on board and not innocent people. But everybody is against fentanyl, heroin and cocaine. One hopes that one’s children and loved ones can stay clear of that. As far as John’s legacy goes, it holds up beautifully. It’s just too bad he left us too early in that manner.”
These days, Aykroyd is captivated by something far more ordinary — the only thing about him that can truly be explained.
“I’m excellent at cleaning out drawers,” he boasted. “I like to be organized. I may have a little chaos as a hysteric and a comedian, but I like to have things organized, and I like to live simply. Really, if I could — if I were alone and single — I would have a miserable life. But I would have an old black Bluesmobile, a motorcycle and a color TV in a single cell, living monk-like. Something about that is appealing.”
