‘Saturday Night Live’ star Peter Aykroyd dies at 66, tributes pour in

Former ‘Saturday Night Live‘ cast member Peter Aykroyd has died at the age of 66. On Saturday night, the show aired a title card announcing the news of his death, which read, ‘Peter Aykroyd 1955–2021’. A similar message was also tweeted on the show’s official Twitter handle. 

Peter Aykroyd was a Canadian actor and writer who was a cast member and writer in the fifth season of the show from 1979 to 1980. He was the younger brother of Dan Aykroyd. The cause of his death was not known. 

Born in Ottawa, Canada on November 19, 1955, Peter began his acting career with small roles in The New Avengers and SCTV. He joined the SNL for the show’s fifth season and served as a writer and featured cast member for the season. He went on to appear in the film Coneheads and also co-wrote the 1991 movie Nothing But Trouble with his brother. 

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Peter co-created the Canadian sci-fi series Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, which ran for 88 episodes between 1996 to 2000.

Following his death, several of his fans paid tributes on Twitter. 

“Completely missed tonight’s show but very bummed to hear the surprising news that Peter Aykroyd has passed. Dude contributed some fine material in S5 and Java Junkie is one of the most underrated pre-tapes in the show’s history. Farewell, good sir,” one person wrote.

“Thank you for sharing this very difficult to find classic Schiller film as a tribute to Peter Aykroyd. This was fantastic then, is fantastic now, and always will be. And Peter is a large part of the reason why. He will be missed,” another person commented.