Dave Thomas Biography

Date of Birth: May 20, 1949

A graduate of McMaster University, Dave Thomas began his professional life as a writer for ad agency McCann-Erickson. Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, he started off in their Toronto offices, but was later transferred to New York. After several years, he left to form Toronto's Second City Company with Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, John Candy, Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty and Eugene Levy. That led to the Canadian sketch comedy television series SCTV, which was also shown on the NBC network in the United States. After Rick Moranis joined the show, he and Thomas created characters called Bob and Doug McKenzie as a joke, in a response to a request for more Canadian content. The McKenzie brothers were meant to represent stereotypical Canadian men. Dressed in toques and lumberjack shirts, tongue firmly planted in cheek, they swilled beer, devoured Canadian back bacon and opened each segment by singing the catch phrase "Coo-loo-coo-coo, Coo-loo-coo-coo." Other (spoken) catch phrases included peppering their speech with "eh," calling each other "hosers" and repeatedly saying "Take off!" They cut a record called The Great White North Album that was not only nominated for a Grammy, but included a Billboard Top 40 hit song called "Take Off!" featuring vocals by Rush lead singer Geddy Lee in duet with a running commentary by Bob and Doug. The McKenzie brothers were such a hit with SCTV viewers that they even wound up starring in their own movie, Strange Brew (1983), written and directed by Moranis and Thomas.

Since then, Thomas has appeared in several feature films, including Moving (1998) starring Richard Pryor, Boris and Natasha (1992) with fellow SCTV alumnus Andrea Martin and Rat Race (2001) with Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese. He has also voiced characters for the TV series Raw Toonage (1992), the video release Big Paw: Beethoven 5 (2003) and the feature film Brother Bear (2003), in which he and Rick Moranis play moose brothers that closely resemble their McKenzie brother characters from SCTV. They also provide the voices of Bob and Doug in the TV series The Animated Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie (2003). Thomas has been a regular on several TV series including CBC's The New Red Green Show, five seasons of the ABC-TV sitcom Grace Under Fire and has appeared in the CBC-TV movie The New Beachcombers (2002).

Thomas lives in Malibu, California with his wife Kim and their three children. His brother is singer/composer Ian Thomas.

Filmography (actor):

Santa's Slay (2004)
Deluxe Combo Platter (2004)
Intern Academy (2004)
Who's Your Daddy (2003)
Brother Bear (2003) (voice)
Fancy Dancing (2002)
Rat Race (2001)
MVP: Most Valuable Primate (2000)
Cold Sweat (1993)
Public Enemy #2 (1993)
Coneheads (1993)
Boris and Natasha (1992)
Love at Stake (1988)
Moving (1988)
My Man Adam (1985)
Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird (1985)
Strange Brew (1983)
Stripes (1981)
Double Negative (1980)

Filmography (director):

Intern Academy (2004)
The Experts (1989)
Strange Brew (1983)