John Belushi

John Belushi (January 24, 1949 - March 5, 1982) was an American actor in movies and television shows.

Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois. His mother was the daughter of Albanian immigrants; his father was an immigrant from Albania. His brother is James Belushi, who is also an actor.

John was co-captain of the football team in high school as well as homecoming king in his senior year. In school he was already active in acting, but he thought he might try to play professional football. His drama-teacher persuaded him to pursue becoming a professional actor.

He appeared mainly in TV shows, and was one of the founders of Saturday Night Live. His Blues Brothers act with Dan Aykroyd was famous, long before The Blues Brothers movie (1980).

Belushi became a drug addict. He used both heroin and cocaine, and a lot of both. In the time before he died, he spent about $2,500 a week on drugs.

John Belushi died in 1982 from a drug overdose injected by a woman named Cathy Smith. She was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Credits
 National Lampoon's Lemmings (1973) (Stage)
 The National Lampoon Radio Hour (1973–1974) (Radio) (also Creative Director)
 The National Lampoon Show (1975) (Stage)
 The Beach Boys: It's OK (1976) (TV)
 Saturday Night Live (1975–1979) (TV)
 Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle (1975) (voice)
 Goin' South (1978)
 National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
 The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978) (TV)
 Old Boyfriends (1979)
 1941 (1979)
 The Blues Brothers (1980)
 Continental Divide (1981)
 Neighbors (1981)

SNL characters and impersonations
Recurring characters
 Samurai Futaba
 Captain Ned, one of Miles Cowperthwaite's cronies
 Jacob Papageorge alias 'Joliet' Jake Blues, from the Blues Brothers
 Jeff Widette, from the Widettes
 Kevin (from The Mall sketches)
 Kuldorth (from The Coneheads)
 Larry Farber (one half of the Farber couple [the wife, Bobbi, was played by Gilda Radner])
 Lowell Brock, from the H&L Brock commercials
 Matt Cooper, from the Land Shark sketches
 Pete, from the Olympia Cafe
 Steve Beshekas (who was in real life a good friend of Belushi's since community college)
 Frank Leary, one of St. Mickey's Knights of Columbus

Celebrity impersonations

 Al Hirt
 Babe Ruth
 Bert Lance
 Cesar Romero
 Dino De Laurentiis
 Ed Ames
 Edward Asner
 Elizabeth Taylor
 Elvis Presley
 Franklin D. Roosevelt
 Fred Silverman
 George Wallace
 Grigori Rasputin
 Henry Kissinger
 Hermann Göring
 Jack Kerouac
 Jawaharlal Nehru
 Jerry Mathers (as The Beaver from Leave It To Beaver)
 Jimmy Hoffa
 Joe Cocker
 John Lennon
 Julia Child
 Leonid Brezhnev
 Ludwig van Beethoven
 Marlon Brando
 Menachim Begin
 Richard Daley
 Robert Blake
 Roy Orbison
 Sam Peckinpah
 Sanjay Gandhi
 Steve Rubell
 Sun Myung Moon
 Tip O'Neill
 Truman Capote
 Vasiliy Alekseyev
 William Shatner
 Woody Hayes
 Yasser Arafat

References

 Other websites 

Category:1949 births
Category:1982 deaths
Category:Actors from Chicago
Category:American Eastern Orthodox Christians
Category:American movie actors
Category:American television actors
Category:Comedians from Chicago
Category:People from Wheaton, Illinois
Category:Drug-related accidental deaths in the United States
Category:Television personalities from Chicago