A weekend health scare for the 63-year-old Ghostbusters star seemed to be only a scare by Monday as Aykroyd was reported to be home without complications after he was rushed to a hospital emergency room with stomach pains.
Paramedics took Aykroyd to a Santa Monica hospital at about 10 a.m. Saturday, according to the celebrity news website TMZ.com. After inconclusive tests, Aykroyd was later released from the hospital and all seemed well.
In fact, by Monday Aykroyd was on social media defending the new Ghostbusters film in which the original’s four male stars are replaced with women, including Melissa McCarthy. The new Ghostbusters is not being well received by critics even before its opening next month. Aykroyd is a producer of the new version. The UK’s Daily Mail quoted him as saying performances in the new film are “brilliant, genuine” and it has “more laughs and more scares than the first 2 films …”
The original Ghostbusters came out in 1981 and a sequel was released in 1989.
Aykroyd first came to the nation’s attention as a member of the original cast of TV’s Saturday Night Live in the 1970s. He’s been in numerous other films, including a memorable turn in The Blues Brothers with the late John Belushi, also one of the first Saturday Night Live comedians.
–Staff and wire reports