Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Ghostbusters star Rick Moranis walked away from Hollywood as one of comedy’s biggest stars following his wife Ann Belsky’s death.
Moranis got his start on the influential Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV in 1980, before landing his breakout movie performance as the demonically possessed Louis Tully in 1984’s Ghostbusters. Notable appearances in Spaceballs and Little Shop of Horrors followed throughout the 1980s before Moranis landed his most iconic role as loveable scientist Wayne Szalinski in Disney’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids movies.
At the height of Moranis’ fame, his wife, Belsky, a make-up designer, died from breast cancer in 1991 and left behind two young children, Rachel and Mitchell. Moranis kept working in Hollywood throughout the early 1990s but ultimately put his career on hold to focus on raising his kids.
“It wasn’t a formal decision,” he explained to The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. “It began in an already busy year where I declined a film that was being shot out of town as the school year was beginning. … Stuff happens to people all the time, and people make adjustments, change careers, move to another city. Really, that’s all I did.”
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Devon Sawa worked with Moranis on one of his last major projects – 1994’s Little Giants – and observed that his costar was having personal trouble.
“He would come in and he would do his scenes, and he was a very kind man,” Sawa told People in February 2024. “I think that he was dealing with some stuff during the shooting of that movie, so we didn’t see a lot of him.”
He added, “[The child cast] were told that he was going through some family stuff. And so we were respectful of that.”
In the end, Moranis walked away from on-camera acting entirely by the late 1990s. He later admitted to THR that he never actually intended to retire, though he felt the most important thing was for him to support Rachel and Mitchell after the loss of their mother.
“I took a break, which turned into a longer break,” he said. “But I’m interested in anything that I would find interesting. I still get the occasional query about a film or television role, and as soon as one comes along that piques my interest, I’ll probably do it.”
He added, “I was working with really interesting people, wonderful people. I went from that to being at home with a couple of little kids, which is a very different lifestyle. But it was important to me. … I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever. My life is wonderful.”
Rick Moranis in ‘Honey I Shrunk the Kids’ Courtesy Buena Vista Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection
Once his children grew up, Moranis moved to an apartment in New York City’s Upper East Side. The Flintstones actor unexpectedly made headlines in October 2020 when he was attacked by a man wearing an “I Love New York” T-shirt while walking near Central Park. The NYPD released video footage of the incident showing the suspect punching Moranis in the head and knocking him to the ground before escaping.
“Rick Moranis was assaulted on the Upper West Side yesterday. He is fine but grateful for everyone’s thoughts and well wishes,” his publicist told Us Weekly at the time.
The attacker, who was later apprehended and identified as Marquis Ventura, was sentenced to two years in prison in August 2022, according to the New York Post. Prior to this troubling incident from 2020, Moranis told THR that fans were usually very respectful when they approached him.
“People are very nice when they see me,” he noted. “They ask me, ‘How come they don’t make movies like they used to?’ We were governed by a certain kind of taste at that time, and there were places we wouldn’t go with language and bodily fluids and functions. I think that’s what they’re nostalgic for.”
Moranis didn’t entirely disappear from the spotlight, as he occasionally took on projects that would allow him flexibility with his parenting schedule. He lent his voice to Disney’s two Brother Bear animated movies and guest starred on a 2018 episode of TV sitcom The Goldbergs that paid tribute to Spaceballs. He even took part in a retrospective interview about Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in 2025.
“The only thing I did save from the movies I was in, because I was using prescription glasses, I would usually take a pair of glasses,” Moranis slyly confirmed in March 2025. “I pretty much have a pair of glasses from every film that I did!”
Many may not know that Moranis released two well-received albums – 2005’s Grammy-nominated alternative country record The Agoraphobic Cowboy and a semi-autobiographical musical, My Mother’s Brisket & Other Love Songs, in 2013 – during his acting break, too.
Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy in July 2017. George Pimentel/Getty Images
Moranis was originally supposed to come out of retirement to once again play Wayne Szalinski in a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids sequel called Shrunk – this time, opposite Josh Gad – for Disney+. Unfortunately, Shrunk never got off the ground because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Disney’s decision to move away from producing live-action streaming movies.
Fans finally got the news they’ve waited decades for in June 2025 when Deadline confirmed Moranis will make his big-screen comeback in a 2027 Spaceballs sequel. The long-awaited project – which marks Moranis’s first live action film role since 1997’s Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves – has been comically referred to by its creative team as a “Non-Prequel Non-Reboot Sequel Part Two but with Reboot Elements Franchise Expansion Film.”
Moranis reprises his role as the bumbling Darth Vader-esque villain Dark Helmet, alongside original co-stars Mel Brooks and Bill Pullman. (Thunderbolts star Lewis Pullman is also set to join dad Bill in Spaceballs 2, along with Keke Palmer.)
