Movie Nerd Rick Moranis Puts Rocketing Movie Career On Hold To Nurse Cancer- Stricken Wife

Star September 18, 1990

Rick Moranis-- who has become Hollywood's unlikeliest superstar in nerdy roles such as the dad in Honey, I Shrunk The Kids-- has put his hot movie career on hold to take care for his wife Ann, who, according to friends, is battling cancer.
"Rick is clearing his busy schedule and devoting the coming days, weeks, months-- or years, if that be the case-- to his wife Ann who appears to be stricken with liver cancer," says a friend. "Rick says he'll never shoot another scene again if somehow his wife can be cured. He loves her dearly, and is devastated by what doctors have told him about her condition.
"He is Ann's emotional support and her pillar of strength. He holds her hand and whispers gently to her to take her mind off the pain.
The 5-ft., 5-in. actor, who played goofy characters in Ghostbusters 2 and Parenthood, is co-starring with Steve Martin as a nerdy FBI agent in the comedy My Blue Heaven.
STAR has learned that 37-year-old Moranis recently pulled out of the new movie, City Slickers, which co-stars Billy Crystal. It's a comedy about two yuppies who are forced to lead a cattle drive in the West. Billy has told Rick that he understands his situation. "Billy knows that although on the outside Rick appears strong, he's crazy with worry," says a set insider.
Andrew Rafael, a representative for Moranis' agent John Gaines, confirmed to STAR: "Rick did not drop put-- he just didn't want to do it. I can't verify that he dropped out because of his wife's condition. We have no further comment."
Moranis and Ann, a former scenery designer, live in Manhattan with their two children, 3 1/2 and 2. The friend says Ann has been fighting her illness for the past year and her condition has suddenly taken a turn for the worse.
"Rick is destroyed by this. Just when his career was kicking into high gear, Ann, the most important thing in his life, has been struck down.
Toronto-born Moranis got his start as a radio personality at age 19. Now the slightly-built actor says he's "the Fred MacMurray of the Nineties". MacMurray played the lovable, put-upon father in the Sixties TV series My Three Sons