Actor Rick Moranis was punched in the head by a stranger wearing an “I ❤NY” sweatshirt in a caught-on-video attack on the Upper West Side, police said Friday.
Moranis, 67, was walking on Central Park West around West 70th Street on his way to his nearby apartment building when a stranger suddenly slugged him, knocking him to the ground, about 7:30 a.m., according to police and a surveillance clip.
A rep for Moranis confirmed to The Post that the largely reclusive “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” star was the victim of the assault.
“Rick Moranis was assaulted on the Upper West Side yesterday. He is fine but grateful for everyone’s thoughts and well wishes,” Troy Bailey of Bailey Brand Management said in an emailed statement.
Surveillance footage released by cops shows the thug wearing the black sweatshirt when he attacked Moranis.
Moranis, who suffered pain in his head, back and right hip, went to a local hospital by private means for an evaluation before he went to the 20th Precinct to report the attack, cops and law enforcement sources said.
The suspect, who bolted on foot, is still at large.
“This is crazy — getting mugged 7:30 in the morning on Central Park West,” a Manhattan cop source told The Post.
“Welcome to [Mayor Bill] de Blasio’s New York,” said the officer, referring to what mayoral critics say is Hizzoner’s soft-on-crime stance.
“And [the suspect] will be out in minutes after he is arrested. Welcome to Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo’s no-bail New York,” the cop added, noting the state’s controversial bail reform laws.
Moranis’ neighbor Jonathan Kurtin, 75, who lives in the same ritzy building as the actor at 101 Central Park West, said of the actor, “I feel bad for him. He is a nice fellow.”
Six NYPD officers were spotted entering Moranis’ building Friday afternoon.
Moranis, who has been on a decades-long acting hiatus, appeared alongside fellow Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds in a humorous Mint Mobile commercial that debuted in September.
Reynolds tweeted Friday, “Should have known not to subject Rick to the year 2020. Glad to hear he’s okay.”
“Captain America” actor Chris Evans also commented on the incident in a tweet, saying, “My blood is boiling. Find this man. You don’t touch Rick Moranis.”
The NYPD’s Police Benevolent Association vowed that the department will find the suspect.
“We wish Mr. Moranis a quick recovery. We will find his attacker. These attacks get attention when the victim is a celebrity but all NYers deserve to walk the street in safety,” the PBA said in a tweet.
The 5-foot-6, Toronto-born Moranis appeared in the 1983 film “Strange Brew,” as well as “Ghostbusters” in 1984 and “Ghostbusters II” in 1989.
He also starred in the 1986 film “Little Shop of Horrors,” as well as “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” — the 1989 original and its 1992 and 1997 sequels.
Moranis has largely avoided the limelight since shooting to fame as the beloved bespectacled brainiac of the ‘80s.
He took a step back from Hollywood life after his wife, costume designer Ann Belsky, died in 1991 of breast cancer. Moranis wanted to focus on raising their children.
“I took a break, which turned into a longer break,” Moranis told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015. “But I’m interested in anything that I would find interesting. I still get the occasional query about a film or television role.”
The actor-turned-country crooner, whose real name is Frederick Moranis, earned a Grammy nomination in 2005 for best comedy album for “The Agoraphobic Cowboy.”
“The music is pretty simple: It’s, you know, it’s country music,” Moranis told ABC News at the time. “There’s a couple of melodies that are OK, I guess.”
In 2013, he also released another comedy album “My Mother’s Brisket & Other Love Songs,” and opened up that year about loving living life — alone.
“I don’t particularly like travel, and I do like home. I like to consume music alone and films alone. I read books alone. Why wouldn’t I consume other art alone?” he told Heeb magazine.
“I always eat earlier than everyone, and I don’t like restaurants. By the time I take everything out of the food they serve, primarily the butter and the salt, it’s not very tasty. But I wasn’t always like this. I don’t recommend this as a lifestyle to a young person.”
Moranis will reportedly reprise his role as Wayne Szalinski in Disney’s “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” sequel, simply called “Shrunk.”
The film will chronicle Szalinski’s son, played by Josh Gad of “Frozen,” who follows in his goofy scientist father’s footsteps and makes a similar mistake with his own children.
In the recent phone commercial, Reynolds, who has ownership stake in the cellphone carrier, says before Moranis makes his appearance in the ad, “It’s hard to believe Mint Mobile has gone so long without an unlimited plan, so to introduce it, we brought in an actor we’ve all gone too long without … Rick Moranis.”
Moranis walks into the picture and says, “So what do you want me to do? You want me to say something about Mint?” before adding he’s “really gotta get a phone.”
Over the summer, Kelsey Grammer’s actress daughter Spencer was also the victim of an attack in the Big Apple.
She was slashed in the arm at an East Village restaurant when she and a friend confronted a blade-wielding drunk who then turned his weapon on them, sources previously told The Post.
Additional reporting by Natalie Musumeci