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Ernie Hudson is an actor known for portraying Winston Zeddemore.

Film Roles[]

Ernie Hudson is best known for his role as Winston Zeddemore in the Ghostbusters films. Much like Winston, Earnest L. Hudson, Sr. is a U.S. Marine veteran. He has also appeared in Airheads, Congo, The Crow, and Miss Congeniality.

In Ghostbusters (2016 Movie), Ernie Hudson plays Mr. Tolan, uncle of the new Ghostbuster Patty Tolan.

Recent TV Roles[]

Ernie Hudson has recently done the voice of Agent Fowler in Transformers Prime and portrayed Dr. Fields in The Secret Life of the American Teenager. He has appeared in other TV shows, TV movies, and movies such as Modern Family, Franklin & Bash, and Mob City.

Contributions to IDW Comics[]

Trivia[]

Miscellaneous Trivia[]

  • Hudson is allergic to shellfish. A few weeks after signing up for the U.S. Marines, Hudson's drill instructor made him eat shellfish. He suffered an asthma attack and was discharged shortly after.[1]

Ghostbusters (1984) Trivia[]

  • Ernie Hudson first heard about Ghostbusters when he happened to bump into Ivan Reitman in an elevator at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. At the time, Reitman assured him there wasn't a role for him but later auditioned for the Winston character.[2]
  • During production on the first movie, Ernie Hudson, the "barbecue master," would try to hold cook outs at his home every other weekend and invited the crew.[3]
  • During a premiere for Ghostbusters at Westwood, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts were not recognized as part of the cast and were removed from the red carpet by security.[4]
  • Ernie Hudson dressed up in full costume as Winston and greeted moviegoers outside Westwood's AVCO theater on the premiere day.[5]

The Real Ghostbusters Trivia[]

Ghostbusters II Trivia[]

  • Ernie Hudson just happened to have no mustache during filming for Ghostbusters II. There was no decision made to have him shave it. Hudson also considered shaving his head before filming.[7]
  • For the scene where Egon, Ray, and Winston emerge from the River of Slime outside the Manhattan Museum of Art, it was shot in New York out on the street at 2 am in freezing weather, around 10 degrees. The actors were dumped with buckets and buckets of slime then filed for hours on end with no heaters. The actors had to emerge from a manhole where smoke was pushed up. It was a tight squeeze due to the proximity of phone conduit. None of the actors complained out loud. Ernie Hudson did at one point ask Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis what they were thinking when they wrote the scene.[8]

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Trivia[]

  • On the day Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson filmed together, the first shot was done in the morning and was the part where Gozer throws them into the side of Ecto-1.[9]
  • Bill Murray made fun of Ernie Hudson for having a pad hidden under his spot on the dirt ground for the insult scene. Hudson quipped it was for the stunt man.[10]
  • Olivia Wilde sat with Ernie Hudson for lunch while still in her Gozer costume. Wilde, in her spiky exoskeleton bodysuit and Pazuzu makeup, approached the introverted Hudson in the food line.[11]
  • Ernie Hudson accidentally hit Bill Murray's head with his Particle Thrower prop after Jason Reitman called cut on the scene. It left a mark but Murray returned a few minutes later.[12]

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Trivia[]

  • For the Realistic Versions of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, the development crew used Ernie Hudson's appearance in the movie "Airheads" for model reference.[13]

IDW Comics Trivia[]

  • On page 10, panel 3, of Ghostbusters Annual 2015, on Winston's blue coffee mug is "Reggie Sandman Martin" which was the name of the boxer Ernie Hudson portrayed on the Full House episode "Knock Yourself Out" (season 1, episode 7), which aired on October 30, 1987.
  • On page 2 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters Volume 2 Issue #3, the Ghostbusturtles references a co-worker out sick who has the first name of Ernie Hudson.
  • On Cover B of Ghostbusters Year One Issue #1, the employee file lists Winston's birthday as June 17, 1945. It is derived from Ernie Hudson's birthday, December 17, 1945.
  • On page 2 of Ghostbusters Year One Issue #4, Winston's outfit is visually based on one worn by Ernie Hudson's character Sergeant Tremaine "Night Train" Lane in the 1986 NBC series, "The Last Precinct".

External Links[]

References[]

  1. Cross The Streams Episode 37 (ts. 34:06-34:43)
  2. Ernie Hudson (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 57:59-58:28). Bueno Productions. Ernie Hudson says: "I first heard about Ghostbusters on an elevator at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and I had went to visit a friend. And I got on the elevator and Ivan Reitman was on the elevator. And we had like 12 floors to sort of travel together in silence and after 'hello.' So he says, "I'm doing this movie Ghostbusters." I say, "Oh, great." Y'know. And he said, "But there's nothing in it for you"."
  3. The Containment Unit YouTube "Terri Hardin (Zuul, Ghostbusters) Interview" 40:23-40:45 1/2/2021 Terri Hardin says: "Ernie always had us over every other weekend, he would try to, and he would have a big barbecue because he was like a barbecue master so he was like 'let me show you my barbecue. Come on, let me...' and you would just get so excited to go over and have a Sunday or Saturday where you were just sitting and eating barbecue you know. Wow."
  4. Annie Potts (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters, Deleted Scenes (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 20:02-20:46). Bueno Productions. Annie Potts says: "When it premiered in Westwood, I got out on the red carpet and some people in official looking jackets came up and got me under both elbows and said, "Please step very quickly to the left so the celebrities can arrive." And I--they shuttled me into a little tiny room and there was Ernie standing there and he went, "Did they just do the same thing to you they did to me?" And I went, "Did they tell you to get out of the way so the stars could arrive?" And he said, "Yeah." Well, here we are."
  5. HoneyIShrunkJG2 Tweet 11/22/2022
  6. Greene, James, Jr., (2022). A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever, p. 87. Lyons Press, Essex, CT USA, ISBN 9781493048243. Marsha Goodman says: "It wasn't a matter of liking Ernie's reading. I felt terrible. He's a wonderful actor. The producers said, 'Use Arsenio. He's funnier, he's sillier'."
  7. Hasbro Pulse YouTube "Hasbro PulseCon 2020 Day 2" 3:59:17-3:59:41 9/28/2020 Ernie Hudson says: "And at that time I didn't have, um, I just didn't have a mustache. In fact, I was thinking about shaving my head so Winston almost had a bald head. But, um, uh, we already shoot the movie, I had no mustache. It wasn't anything planned. But, um, fans have come up with all kinds of theories as to why I didn't have a mustache. But there was nothing to it other than I just didn't have one when we started the movie."
  8. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 28. Cinefex, USA. Ernie Hudson says: "We shot that scene in New York out on the street at two in the morning. I don't know how cold it was, but it couldn't have been more than ten degrees--and with the wind whipping around, we were all freezing. And we were drenched. They poured buckets and buckets of sticky, watery slime over us--over our heads, over everywhere because Ivan wanted it even in our eyes. He wanted us to look like we had been swimming in slime. Then we had to pull off our jumpsuits--which weren't really warm enough for a New York winter to begin with--and stand there in our underwear. I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life. We shot for hours and we couldn't go into the trailers because they were too far away. So we had to sit outside between takes without the luxury of heaters. Danny was there and Harold was there and they weren't complaining, so I figured I shouldn't either. But things did get a little nuts, and at one point I had to ask them: "Wait a minute. You guys wrote this scene? What the hell were you doing? Didn't you think you were going to have to do this stuff?""
  9. Vanity Fair "The Day Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson Became Ghostbusters Again" 11/22/2021 Line reads: "The first thing Hudson, Murray, and Aykroyd shoot that morning is getting cast aside. Gozer hurls the Original Ghostbusters (a.k.a. The OGBs, as they were nicknamed on set) back against the steel hull of the Ecto-1. This plot point literally makes the absence of Egon hurt."
  10. Vanity Fair "The Day Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson Became Ghostbusters Again" 11/22/2021 Line reads: "As they work through their takes, Murray couldn't help but torment his costars a little too. He brushed away some of the dirt and straw on the ground to reveal a rectangular shape beneath Hudson. "Have you got a pad here!?" asked Murray, who did not have one himself. He narrowed his eyes at Hudson and shook his head. "You're soft," he declared. Hudson played it off with a grin. "Nah," he said. "That was for the stunt man!" Then he leaned back and luxuriated in his camouflaged comfort spot."
  11. Vanity Fair "The Day Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson Became Ghostbusters Again" 11/22/2021 Ernie Hudson: "She says, 'Ernie, you going to have lunch here?' And I said, 'If we could find a table.' So we sat down together and then Ivan came, and the table filled up with people, and I go, 'Wow, this is kind of cool.' I've always been a little bit like that; just a little awkward. But Gozer invited me. All I need is one other person."
  12. Vanity Fair "The Day Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson Became Ghostbusters Again" 11/22/2021 Line reads: "After Jason Reitman called cut, the guys shambled to their feet while the crew prepared a new setup. Hudson rose first and swung around just as Murray began to stand beside him. That's when his proton blaster connected with Murray's frontal lobe. Hudson winced as if he were the one who'd been struck. "I hit him on the head with my gun as he was getting up," he explained to onlooking crew members, as Murray left to get checked by the set medic. The accident slowed things down for a beat. Murray got knocked hard, enough to leave a mark. But he was okay. He returned a few minutes later, playing it up like he was gravely wounded but had valiantly rallied. His young costars went along with the joke. "Yeah, I mean, what's a concussion anyway?" Wolfhard said."
  13. Cross The Streams Episode 38 (ts. 37:36-38:54)

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