Dan Aykroyd, Autism, Acting, UFOs……
September 19, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Drama, Movies, Science
As most of yesterday’s news reports about autism were about Jenny McCarthy and Holly Robinson Peete on Oprah, other stories were somewhat overlooked, including this one about another actor and celebrity who is himself on the autism spectrum. The September 19th Guardian profiles actor Dan Aykroyd, who notes that he has been diagnosed with “mild Asperger syndrome” and has an interest in the paranormal (and much else). Indeed, the article somewhat suggests that Aykroyd’s diagnosis (and difficulties at school) played some part in starting him on an acting career:
It was his parents (his father was a civil engineer, his mother a secretary) who started Aykroyd on the acting path by enrolling him at an improvisational class. They didn’t particularly want him to be an actor, they just thought it would help calm their hyperactive son - he had been expelled from two schools for acting up and a psychiatrist had diagnosed mild Asperger’s syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum, because Aykroyd had a few tics and had shown signs of obsessive compulsive disorder.
And this is Aykroyd on UFOs, and on seeing and believing:
“To those who don’t believe and don’t want to believe and think I’m crazy: good. Let the sceptics come and tear down the sighting. If I say I saw a black wedge go over my car, let them tell me that it was a cloud. I accept sceptics, you’ve got to have challenges. Please provide your explanations because that will help me to realise, along with my fellow researchers and ufologists, what is real and what isn’t.”
“What is real and what isn’t” and what needs further examination: Words to consider when thinking about autism and science…..
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield
Fellow aspie Dan needs to realize that it’s not up to sceptics to provide explanations. It’s up to him to provide convincing evidence.
I’m still trying to figure out if he was acting throughout that interview.
“It was his parents (his father was a civil engineer, his mother a secretary) who started Aykroyd on the acting path by enrolling him at an improvisational class. They didn’t particularly want him to be an actor, they just thought it would help calm their hyperactive son - he had been expelled from two schools for acting up and a psychiatrist had diagnosed mild Asperger’s syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum, because Aykroyd had a few tics and had shown signs of obsessive compulsive disorder.”
In this is a quote from the Guardian, it sounds like they’re saying that he was diagnosed before enrolling in the improvisational class. Which would have been before he started on SNL in 1975.
So Dan Aykroyd was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome at least 19 years before the diagnosis was added to the DSM-IV.
As such, Aykroyd must have successfully discovered how to travel back and forth through time, probably with the help of the extraterrestrials. So Joseph, how much more proof do you need?
Ah, somebody beat me to it. While I can believe that Dan is an aspie, I can’t believe he was dx’d THAT long ago. Not possible.
Which would have been before he started on SNL in 1975.
As I recall, when he was interviewed by NPR, the interviewer noted she’d heard he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia as a child. He corrected it and said it as Tourette Syndrome + Asperger’s.
He couldn’t have been diagnosed with Asperger’s around 1970, but Schizotypal PD does fit his paranormal beliefs.
Dan is the man! Dan, love you work! You help alot of people! God bless you! Hope you continue, “The Hollow Earth” project! No one but you has the unalterable strength to continue the project!
Thank You
Jim
I notice on a lot of the comments people are assuming that Asperger’s wasn’t part of the nomenclature til it appeared in the DSM, but it was around before the war, took a little dip, then came back into parlance. People were aware of it as a separate syndrome for many years before it appeared in the “official” diagnostic toolbox. Dan did, and does, indeed have mild Asperger’s - it’s not just another joke!