He was a Hollywood superstar of the 1980s with the world at his feet – so it was a massive shock when Rick Moranis suddenly quit acting and vanished for 25 years.
The actor shot to fame in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids films and also appeared in blockbusters including Ghostbusters, The Flintstones and Spaceballs.
But with plenty of work lined up and still famous the world over, Moranis stunned Hollywood when he jacked it all in and went away to live his life in relative obscurity.
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He has not been seen on screen since 1996 and the only work he’s done since then has been voice-over work.
However, all that is set to change later this year when he appears in the latest film in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise.
It will mark a stunning return for a man whose name remains famous despite the obscurity of his recent career.
Moranis, now aged 69, will appear in Shrunk, reprising his role as Wayne Szalinski, the inventor who inadvertently miniaturises his children using an experimental ray gun.
(Image: Walter McBride/WireImage)
When Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was released in 1989 it catapulted Moranis to worldwide fame. The movie was a huge success, making $222 million (£182 million) and spawning several sequels: Honey, I Blew Up the Kid and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves in 1997, as well as the Disney theme park spin-off Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!
More big roles came in for Moranis, including cameos in Little Shop of Horrors, Brewster’s Millions, Parenthood and Club Paradise, as well as Ghostbusters, The Flintstones and Spaceballs.
His last film was Big Bully in 1996; that was the last time Moranis would be seen on the big screen after he seemingly left Hollywood behind for good.
(Image: Columbia Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
And the reason for his disappearance is heartbreaking. His beloved wife, Ann Belsky, died from breast cancer in 1991, aged just 34, leaving him to care for their two young children.
In an interview in 2005, Moranis, who has a net worth of $10 million, explained how he had tried to continue making movies for a while, but it all got too much for him.
“I’m a single parent and I just found that it was too difficult to manage to raise my kids and to do the travelling involved in making movies,” he said.
(Image: Murray Close/Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images)
“So I took a little bit of a break. And the little bit of a break turned into a longer break, and then I found that I really didn’t miss it.”
Since his wife died, Moranis has not remarried and has not been publicly romantically linked to anybody else. Their two children, Mitchell and Rachel, are now grown up.
Over the years he’s been offered various roles, but turned them down, including a cameo in the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters.
He said: “I wish them well, I hope it’s terrific. But it just makes no sense to me. Why would I do just one day of shooting on something I did 30 years ago?”
The only movie able to tempt Moranis back is playing the hapless inventor in Shrunk with Josh Gad playing his son, Nick Szalinski, who like his father before him, accidentally manages to shrink his own children.
Shrunk was originally due for release in 2021, but was heavily delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and is now expected to be released late 2022.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
