John Belushi

John Adam Belushi (/bəˈluːʃi/ bə-LOO-shee; January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, singer and musician. He was one of seven Saturday Night Live cast members of the first season. He was arguably the most popular member of the Saturday Night Live ensemble. Belushi had a partnership with Dan Aykroyd. They had first met while at Chicago's the Second City comedy club, remaining together as cast members on the inaugural season of the television show Saturday Night Live.
Born in Chicago to Albanian-American parents, Belushi started his own comedy troupe with Tino Insana and Steve Beshekas, called "The West Compass Trio". Bernard Sahlins recruited him for The Second City comedy club. Once there he met Aykroyd, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Harold Ramis. In 1975, Chevy Chase and Michael O'Donoghue recommended Belushi to Saturday Night Live creator and showrunner Lorne Michaels, who accepted him as a new cast member of the show after an audition. Belushi developed a series of characters on the show that reached great success, with an imitation of Henry Kissinger and a portrayal of Ludwig van Beethoven. Belushi appeared in several films such as National Lampoon's Animal House, 1941, The Blues Brothers, and Neighbors. He also pursued interests in music: with Aykroyd, Lou Marini, Tom Malone, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Paul Shaffer, he founded The Blues Brothers, which led to the film of the same name.
Belushi was dismissed from Saturday Night Live several times and rehired more than once. He died on March 5, 1982 at the age of 33. Cathy Smith confessed to dosing him with a lethal mixture of heroin and cocaine at the Chateau Marmont. Smith was charged with involuntary manslaughter, was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison. Belushi was honored with a posthumous award of the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.
John Adam Belushi was born to Agnes Demetri (née Samaras) Belushi and Adam Anastos Belushi in Humboldt Park, Chicago. Agnes was a pharmacy worker, who was born in Ohio to Albanian immigrants from Korçë, Albania. Adam Anastos Belushi was an Albanian immigrant from Qytezë, Albania, and was the owner of the Fair Oaks restaurant on North Avenue in Chicago.
Belushi was raised in Wheaton along with his three siblings—younger brothers Billy and Jim and sister Marian. He was Eastern Orthodox Christian, attending the Albanian Orthodox Church. He was educated at Wheaton Central High School, where he met his future wife, Judith Jacklin.
In 1965, Belushi formed a band, the Ravens, together with four fellow high-school students (Dick Blasucci, Michael Blasucci, Tony Pavilonis, and Phil Special). They recorded one single, "Listen to Me Now/Jolly Green Giant". Belushi played drums and sang vocals. The record was not successful, and the band broke up when he enrolled at the College of DuPage. He also attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater for a year, that time being the inspiration for the Animal House scene of a motorcycle driving up stairs. Belushi acquired the iconic "College" crewneck, worn by his character in Animal House, at a print shop when visiting his brother Jim, who attended Southern Illinois University.
Belushi started his own comedy troupe in Chicago, the West Compass Trio (named after the improvisational cabaret revue Compass Players active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago), with Tino Insana and Steve Beshekas. Their success piqued the interest of Bernard Sahlins, the founder of The Second City, who asked Belushi to join the cast. At Second City, Belushi met and began working with Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, and Brian Doyle-Murray.
In 1972, Belushi was offered a role, together with Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest, in National Lampoon Lemmings, a parody of Woodstock, which played off-Broadway in 1972. Belushi and Jacklin moved to New York City. There, Belushi started working as a writer, director, and actor for The National Lampoon Radio Hour, a comedy radio show that was created, produced, and written by staff from National Lampoon magazine. Cast members on the shows produced by Belushi included Ramis, Flaherty, Guest, Brian Doyle Murray, his brother Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Richard Belzer. In 1974, Belushi and Chevy Chase voice-acted on a Lampoon LP record, the Official National Lampoon Stereo Test and Demonstration Record. During a trip to Toronto in 1974, Belushi met Dan Aykroyd. Jacklin became an associate producer for the show, and she and Belushi were married on December 31, 1976. The National Lampoon Show toured the country in 1974; it was produced by Ivan Reitman. Lampoon owner Matty Simmons was offered a TV show on NBC at this time, but he declined the offer.
In 1975, Chase and writer Michael O'Donoghue recommended Belushi to Lorne Michaels as a potential member for a television show Michaels was about to produce for NBC called NBC's Saturday Night, later Saturday Night Live. Michaels was initially reluctant, as he was not sure if Belushi's physical humor would fit with what he was envisioning, but he changed his mind after giving Belushi an audition. He appeared alongside O'Donoghue in Saturday Night Live's first sketch (subsequently titled "the Wolverines") which aired on October 11, 1975.
Over his four-year tenure at Saturday Night Live Belushi developed a series of successful characters, including the belligerent Saturday Night Live Samurai; Henry Kissinger; Ludwig van Beethoven; the Greek owner (Pete Dionisopoulos) of the Olympia Café; Captain James T. Kirk; and a contributor of furious opinion pieces on Weekend Update, during which he coined a catchphrase, "But N-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O!" With Aykroyd, Belushi created Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers. Originally intended to warm up the studio audience before broadcasts of Saturday Night Live, the Blues Brothers were eventually featured as musical guests. Belushi also reprised his Lemmings imitation of Joe Cocker. Cocker himself joined Belushi in 1976 to sing "Feelin' Alright?" together.
Like many other Saturday Night Live cast members and writers, Belushi was a recreational drug user. He attended concerts including Fleetwood Mac, Meat Loaf, Kiss, The Dead Boys, Warren Zevon, The Grateful Dead, and The Allman Brothers. In 1990, Michaels remembered him as a loyal trouper, to writers, a team player, yet he was fired and rehired at Saturday Night Live.
In Rolling Stone's February 2015 appraisal of all 141 Saturday Night Live cast members, Belushi received their top ranking. "Belushi was the 'live' in Saturday Night Live", they wrote, "the one who made the show happen on the edge … Nobody embodied the highs and lows of Saturday Night Live like Belushi."
In 1978, Belushi performed in the films Old Boyfriends (directed by Joan Tewkesbury), Goin' South (directed by Jack Nicholson), and National Lampoon's Animal House (directed by John Landis). Upon its initial release, Animal House received generally mixed reviews from critics, but Time magazine and Roger Ebert proclaimed it one of the year's best movies. Filmed at a cost of $2.8 million, it is one of the most profitable movies of all time, garnering an estimated gross of more than $141 million in the form of theatrical rentals and home video, not including merchandising. Animal House was written by Doug Kenney, Harold Ramis, and Chris Miller, and followed in the tradition of the Marx Brothers films that featured subversive and satirical plots that took on traditional institutions. Hollywood studios tried to copy the film's success without the satire, resulting in a string of "nerds vs. jocks" films in the 1980s with cheap sight gags involving nudity and gross-out humor.
Following the success of the Blues Brothers on Saturday Night Live, Belushi and Aykroyd, with the help of pianist-arranger Paul Shaffer, assembled studio talent forming a proper band. Saturday Night Live saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini and trombonist-saxophonist Tom Malone, who had previously played in Blood, Sweat & Tears were there. At Shaffer's suggestion, guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, the powerhouse combo from Booker T and the M.G.'s, who played on dozens of hits from Memphis's Stax Records during the 1960s, were signed as well. In 1978 the Blues Brothers released their debut album, Briefcase Full of Blues, with Atlantic Records. The album reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum. Two singles were released: "Rubber Biscuit", which reached number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Soul Man", which reached number 14.
In 1979, Belushi along with Aykroyd left Saturday Night Live. They filmed The Blues Brothers movie, which conflicted with the schedule of Saturday Night Live. Michaels also decided to leave at the end of his contract. NBC's pressure to use recurring characters was also a factor in their decision. Belushi and Aykroyd made two movies together after leaving: Neighbors (directed by John Avildsen), and most notably The Blues Brothers (directed by John Landis). Released in the U.S. on June 20, 1980, The Blues Brothers received generally negative reviews. It earned just under $5 million in its opening weekend, and went on to gross $115.2 million in theaters worldwide before its release on home video. The Blues Brothers band toured to promote the film, which led to a third album (and second live album), Made in America, recorded at the Universal Amphitheatre in 1980. The track "Who's Making Love" peaked at number 39.
The only film Belushi made without Aykroyd following their departure from Saturday Night Live was the romantic comedy Continental Divide (directed by Michael Apted). Released in September 1981, it starred Belushi as Chicago hometown hero writer Ernie Souchack (loosely based on newspaper columnist and long-time family friend Mike Royko), who gets an assignment researching a scientist (played by Blair Brown) who studies birds of prey in the remote Rocky Mountains.
By 1981, Belushi had become a fan and advocate of the punk rock band Fear after seeing them perform in several after-hours New York City bars and brought them to Cherokee Studios to record songs for the soundtrack of Neighbors. Blues Brothers band member Tom Scott, along with producing partner and Cherokee owner Bruce Robb, initially helped with the session, but later pulled out due to conflicts with Belushi. The session was eventually produced by Cropper. The producers of Neighbors refused to use the song in the movie. Belushi, along with O'Donoghue and Saturday Night Live writer Nelson Lyon, booked Fear to play Saturday Night Live's Halloween broadcast on October 31, 1981; the telecast of the performance featured then-novel moshing and stage diving, and was cut short by NBC due to the band's profanity. The New York Post published an account of these and other sensationalistic details of the event the following day.
Up to his death, Belushi was pursuing movie projects, including an ABSCAM-related caper called Moon Over Miami, to be directed by Louis Malle; and a diamond-smuggling caper called Noble Rot with Jay Sandrich, based on a script he adapted and rewrote with former Saturday Night Live writer Don Novello. However, Paramount Studios offered to produce Noble Rot only if Belushi starred in The Joy of Sex, which would have featured him in a diaper. Aykroyd advised him to turn down The Joy of Sex and return to the East Coast, where Aykroyd was writing Ghostbusters. Belushi also talked about producing a film in a High Times tribute article from 1982: "Belushi wanted to give these daring captains courageous of consciousness the credit they deserved, he told me. He wanted to star in a major marijuana movie to be called Kingpin. He wanted to play the title role."
Belushi made a "guest-star appearance" on an episode of the television series Police Squad! (1982). Each opening of the show featured a running gag that featured the guest star dying right away. Belushi died shortly before the episode was to air. The scene was cut and replaced by a segment with William Conrad.
Belushi had health issues in the early to mid 1970s due to his drug use. Cocaine was frequently used by the cast and writers of Saturday Night Live, but Belushi's use quickly got out of control and he was temporarily banned from the Saturday Night Live set. Belushi was aware of warnings that he was headed for an early death, warnings that eventually were mentioned in the 1978 short film "Don't Look Back in Anger," in which Belushi ironically is the last surviving member of the cast and remarks "They all thought I’d be the first one to go. I was one of those ‘live fast, die young, leave a good-looking corpse’ types, you know?" During the production of The Blues Brothers, director John Landis confronted Belushi in his trailer after finding a stash of cocaine. Belushi tearfully admitted his addiction during the argument. Belushi was also frequently late for his call times and would delay shooting by wandering off set. The production hired Smokey Wendell to prevent Belushi from accessing more drugs. He managed to quit his habit during the production of Continental Divide, but severely relapsed during the production of Neighbors.
A few months after the filming on Neighbors ended, on the evening of February 28, 1982, he checked in to a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. For several days, he frequented various nightclubs on the Sunset Strip and Santa Monica Boulevard.
On March 4, 1982, Belushi visited the Los Angeles office of his long-time manager Bernie Brillstein and asked him for money. Brillstein declined, suspecting that Belushi wanted more drugs. Later that day, Belushi returned and again asked for money while Brillstein was in a meeting. Brillstein was reluctant to rebuke Belushi in front of the other person and gave him the money. In the early morning hours of March 5, 1982, Belushi, while in his Chateau Marmont bungalow, was visited separately by friends Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, as well as Cathy Smith.
Around noon on March 5, 1982, Belushi's fitness trainer and occasional bodyguard Bill Wallace arrived at Belushi's bungalow at the Chateau Marmont to deliver a typewriter and audio recorder Belushi had requested the previous day and found Belushi dead. He was 33 years old. No one else was present in the bungalow at the time of the discovery. Neither law enforcement nor a representative of the coroner's office revealed the details for six days.
During a preliminary hearing held in September 1985, two pathologists testified that Belushi's cause of death was due to an overdose from cocaine and heroin. Ronald Kornblum was acting Los Angeles County Coroner, and Michael Baden was a former coroner from New York City testifying as an expert witness.
Cathy Smith was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department on March 5, 1982 for possession of narcotics. This arrest was not in relation to Belushi's death. Later in 1982, Rolling Stone magazine described the circumstances of her arrest: "On the afternoon of March 5th, Cathy Evelyn Smith had appeared driving the wrong way into the one-way exit of the Chateau Marmont Hotel on Sunset Strip behind the wheel of John Belushi's rented red Mercedes … At that moment, a hundred feet away, Belushi lay naked and dead on the floor of his $200-a-day bungalow. The police who had cordoned off the area were reflexively insisting it had been 'death from natural causes'." The LAPD released Smith after questioning.
In an interview with the National Enquirer in May 1982, Smith admitted that she had been with Belushi at the Chateau Marmont on the night of his death. After the appearance of the Enquirer article, Smith was extradited from Canada, and charged with second-degree murder. The case delayed for four years while her lawyers negotiated. Smith pled no contest June 11, 1986, to involuntary manslaughter and three counts of furnishing and administering controlled substances to Belushi in the hours before he was found dead. She served fifteen months in prison at Chino, California Institution for Women.
Belushi's widow Judith arranged for a traditional Orthodox Christian funeral that was conducted by an Albanian Orthodox priest.
Belushi was interred at Abel's Hill Cemetery in Chilmark, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard. Belushi's tombstone has a skull and crossbones with the inscription, "I may be gone but Rock and Roll lives on."
After the success of The Blues Brothers, his fame further escalated after his death. Members of his family, along with Chilmark officials, gradually became more concerned over his gravesite becoming a tourist attraction like that of Jim Morrison. Reports increased of excess noise, damaging grass and disturbing the peace of others buried there, along with fans paying bizarre tributes by littering his gravesite with liquor bottles, beer cans, and other paraphernalia. His widow arranged to have him reinterred in an unmarked grave near the original site. The tombstone of Belushi's mother at Elmwood Cemetery (River Grove, Illinois), has Belushi's name inscribed on it and thus serves as a cenotaph.
Belushi was scheduled to present the Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 1982 Academy Awards with Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd presented the award alone, and stated from the lectern: "My partner, he would have loved to have been here tonight to present this award, since he was somewhat of a visual effect himself."
When Elizabeth Taylor learned of Belushi's death, she referenced his comedic impersonation of her on Saturday Night Live in 1978, when she had been overweight, by sardonically remarking that he had gone "to such great lengths to satirize my excesses and then died of his own".
During the first live Saturday Night Live episode following Belushi's death with host Robert Urich and musical guest Mink DeVille, airing live on March 20, 1982, cast member Brian Doyle-Murray gave a tribute to him. During the preproduction of Ghostbusters, Reitman remarked that Slimer bore a resemblance to Belushi's character Bluto from Animal House. Since then, Slimer has been described as "the ghost of John Belushi" by Aykroyd in many interviews.
Belushi's life was detailed in two books: the 1984 biography Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi by Bob Woodward, the accuracy of which has been questioned by journalists and by people close to Belushi, and the 1990 memoir Samurai Widow by his widow Judith. Woodward's book was adapted into a film of the same name in 1989, which was denounced by Aykroyd and Judith, and was given poor reviews by critics. Belushi's career and death were prominently featured in the 1999 memoir of his manager Bernie Brillstein, who wrote that he was haunted by the comedian's death. He wrote that he learned how to better deal with clients.
Eddie Money wrote "Passing by the Graveyard (Song for John B.)", from his 1982 album No Control, in tribute to Belushi. The two became friends after Money was a musical guest on Saturday Night Live during the show's third season. The thrash metal group Anthrax penned a song about Belushi on their 1987 album Among the Living, titled "Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)". Polish rock band Lady Pank recorded a song "John Belushi" for their 1988 album Tacy sami, with references to his Albanian ancestry.
Belushi was portrayed in biographical films by actors Tyler Labine, Michael Chiklis and John Gemberling. Chris Farley, who was heavily influenced by Belushi, died in 1997 at age 33 due to a drug overdose, which has fueled many comparisons between Belushi and Farley.
In 2004, Belushi was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a motion pictures star located at 6355 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2006, Biography Channel aired an episode of Final 24, a documentary following Belushi during the last 24 hours leading to his death. Four years later, Biography aired a full documentary of Belushi's life. In 2015, Belushi was ranked by Rolling Stone as the greatest Saturday Night Live cast member of all time.
Belushi's widow later remarried and became Judith Jacklin Belushi Pisano. However, she and her second husband, Victor Pisano, divorced in 2010. Biographer Tanner Colby produced Belushi: A Biography, a collection of first-person interviews and photographs of Belushi's life, in 2005.
Saturday Night Live castmate Jane Curtin, who appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2011, stated that Belushi was a misogynist who would deliberately sabotage the work of female writers and comics while working on the show: "So you'd go to a table read, and if a woman writer had written a piece for John, he would not read it in his full voice. He felt as though it was his duty to sabotage pieces written by women." Saturday Night Live writer Anne Beatts suggested that because she was writing a book with his wife at the time, Belushi was frustrated with them spending more time on the book than with him. He complained to Michaels about Beatts and Rosie Shuster. Judith said that Belushi was a "Women's Libber" and did not hate women.
Judith, who worked to keep Belushi’s legacy alive and who was credited for her role in assisting Belushi and Dan Aykroyd with The Blues Brothers, died in July 2024.