John Belushi(1949-1982)
- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
John Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on January 24, 1949,
to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant
owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his
mother was also of Albanian descent. He grew up in Wheaton, where the
family moved when he was six. Though a young hellion in grade school,
John became the perfect all-American boy during his high school years
where he was co-captain of the Wheaton Central High School football
team and was elected homecoming king his senior year. He also developed
an interest in acting and appeared in the high school variety show.
Encouraged by his drama teacher, John decided to put aside his plans to
become a football coach to pursue a career in acting.
After graduation in 1967, John performed in summer stock in rural
Indiana in a variety of roles from "Cardinal Wolsey" in "Anne of a
Thousand Days" to a comic detective in "Ten Little Indians". In the
fall of his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater,
John changed his image into a bad-boy appearance by growing his hair
long and began to have problems with discipline and structure of
attending classes.
Dropping out of Wisconsin, John spent the next two years at the College
of DuPage, a junior college a few miles from his parents' Wheaton home,
where his father began persuading him to become a partner in his
restaurant, but John still preferred acting. While attending DuPage,
John helped found the "West Compass Players", an improv comedy troupe
patterned after Chicago's famous "Second City" ensemble.
In 1971, John made the leap to "Second City" itself where he performed
in various on-stage comic performances with others, who included
Harold Ramis and
Joe Flaherty. John loved his life
at "Second City" where he performed six nights a week, perfecting the
physical "gonzo" style of comedy he later made famous.
A year later, John and his live-in girlfriend from his high school
years, Judith Belushi-Pisano,
moved to New York because John had joined the cast of National
Lampoon's Lemmings, an off-Broadway rock musical revue that was
originally booked for a six-week run but played to full crowds for
nearly 10 months.
In 1973, John was hired as a writer for the syndicated National
Lampoon's Radio Hour which became the National Lampoon Show in 1975.
John's big break came that same year when he joined the ground-breaking
TV variety series
Saturday Night Live (1975)
which made him a star. The unpredictable, aggressively physical style
of humor that he began on "Second City" flowered on SNL.
In 1978, while still working on
Saturday Night Live (1975),
John appeared in the movie
Goin' South (1978) which starred and
was directed by Jack Nicholson.
It was here that director
John Landis noticed John and decided
to cast him in his movie National Lampoon's
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). John's minor
role as the notorious, beer-swilling "Bluto" made it a box-office smash
and the year's top grossing comedy. Despite appearing in only a dozen
scenes, John's performance stole the movie, which portrays college
fraternity shenanigans at a small college set in the year 1962.
In 1979, John along with fellow SNL regular
Dan Aykroyd quit the series to pursue movie
projects. John and Dan Aykroyd appeared in
minor roles in Steven Spielberg's
financially unsuccessful 1941 (1979) and,
the following year, in John Landis'
The Blues Brothers (1980).
Around this time, John's drug use began escalating. Cocaine, which was
ubiquitous in show-business circles in the 1970's, became his drug of
choice. After he first experimented with cocaine in the mid 1970s, John
almost immediately became addicted to it. His frequent cocaine sniffing
binges became a source of friction between him and Judy, whom he
married in 1976.
John's love for blues and soul music inspired the "Blues Brothers". He
and Aykroyd first appeared as Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, a pair of
white soul men dressed in black suits, skinny ties, fedora hats and
Rayban sunglasses, as a warm-up act before the telecasts of
Saturday Night Live (1975).
Building on the success of their acts and the release of their album "A
Briefcase Full of Blues", John and
Dan Aykroyd starred in the movie, which gave
John a chance to act with his favorite musical heroes including
Ray Charles,
James Brown and
Aretha Franklin.
Although John's reputation for being an off-screen party animal is
legendary, his generous side is less well known. Using some of his
money, he bought his father a ranch outside San Diego for him to live.
John helped set up some of his Chicago friends with their own
businesses and even financially helped his younger brother,
Jim Belushi, who followed his older
brother's path to both "Second City" and
Saturday Night Live (1975).
In 1981, John appeared in the movie
Continental Divide (1981),
playing a hard-nosed Chicago newspaperman who finds romance in Colorado
with eagle expert Blair Brown. That
same year, John and Dan Aykroyd appeared
again in the movie Neighbors (1981),
which gave them a chance to reverse roles, with John playing a
straight-arrow family man whose life is turned upside down when a wild
family man (Aykroyd) moves in next door.
In January 1982, John began work on the screenplay for another movie to
be titled "Noble Rot". Also, John had checked into a bungalow at the
Chateau Marmont, a popular celebrity hotel in Los Angeles. John's drug
use had been steadily increasing for over a year now, which alarmed his
wife and friends, but he continued to promise Judy that he would quit
someday. On March 5, 1982, John Belushi was found dead in his hotel
room at the age of 33. The local coroner gave the cause of death as a
lethal injection of cocaine and heroin. Several years later, John's
drug dealing/drug user companion during his final weeks, Cathy Evelyn Smith,
was tried and sentenced to three years in prison for supplying John
with the drugs. Close friend
James Taylor sang "That Lonesome
Road" at a memorial service at Martha's Vineyard cemetery where John
was buried.
to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant
owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his
mother was also of Albanian descent. He grew up in Wheaton, where the
family moved when he was six. Though a young hellion in grade school,
John became the perfect all-American boy during his high school years
where he was co-captain of the Wheaton Central High School football
team and was elected homecoming king his senior year. He also developed
an interest in acting and appeared in the high school variety show.
Encouraged by his drama teacher, John decided to put aside his plans to
become a football coach to pursue a career in acting.
After graduation in 1967, John performed in summer stock in rural
Indiana in a variety of roles from "Cardinal Wolsey" in "Anne of a
Thousand Days" to a comic detective in "Ten Little Indians". In the
fall of his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater,
John changed his image into a bad-boy appearance by growing his hair
long and began to have problems with discipline and structure of
attending classes.
Dropping out of Wisconsin, John spent the next two years at the College
of DuPage, a junior college a few miles from his parents' Wheaton home,
where his father began persuading him to become a partner in his
restaurant, but John still preferred acting. While attending DuPage,
John helped found the "West Compass Players", an improv comedy troupe
patterned after Chicago's famous "Second City" ensemble.
In 1971, John made the leap to "Second City" itself where he performed
in various on-stage comic performances with others, who included
Harold Ramis and
Joe Flaherty. John loved his life
at "Second City" where he performed six nights a week, perfecting the
physical "gonzo" style of comedy he later made famous.
A year later, John and his live-in girlfriend from his high school
years, Judith Belushi-Pisano,
moved to New York because John had joined the cast of National
Lampoon's Lemmings, an off-Broadway rock musical revue that was
originally booked for a six-week run but played to full crowds for
nearly 10 months.
In 1973, John was hired as a writer for the syndicated National
Lampoon's Radio Hour which became the National Lampoon Show in 1975.
John's big break came that same year when he joined the ground-breaking
TV variety series
Saturday Night Live (1975)
which made him a star. The unpredictable, aggressively physical style
of humor that he began on "Second City" flowered on SNL.
In 1978, while still working on
Saturday Night Live (1975),
John appeared in the movie
Goin' South (1978) which starred and
was directed by Jack Nicholson.
It was here that director
John Landis noticed John and decided
to cast him in his movie National Lampoon's
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). John's minor
role as the notorious, beer-swilling "Bluto" made it a box-office smash
and the year's top grossing comedy. Despite appearing in only a dozen
scenes, John's performance stole the movie, which portrays college
fraternity shenanigans at a small college set in the year 1962.
In 1979, John along with fellow SNL regular
Dan Aykroyd quit the series to pursue movie
projects. John and Dan Aykroyd appeared in
minor roles in Steven Spielberg's
financially unsuccessful 1941 (1979) and,
the following year, in John Landis'
The Blues Brothers (1980).
Around this time, John's drug use began escalating. Cocaine, which was
ubiquitous in show-business circles in the 1970's, became his drug of
choice. After he first experimented with cocaine in the mid 1970s, John
almost immediately became addicted to it. His frequent cocaine sniffing
binges became a source of friction between him and Judy, whom he
married in 1976.
John's love for blues and soul music inspired the "Blues Brothers". He
and Aykroyd first appeared as Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, a pair of
white soul men dressed in black suits, skinny ties, fedora hats and
Rayban sunglasses, as a warm-up act before the telecasts of
Saturday Night Live (1975).
Building on the success of their acts and the release of their album "A
Briefcase Full of Blues", John and
Dan Aykroyd starred in the movie, which gave
John a chance to act with his favorite musical heroes including
Ray Charles,
James Brown and
Aretha Franklin.
Although John's reputation for being an off-screen party animal is
legendary, his generous side is less well known. Using some of his
money, he bought his father a ranch outside San Diego for him to live.
John helped set up some of his Chicago friends with their own
businesses and even financially helped his younger brother,
Jim Belushi, who followed his older
brother's path to both "Second City" and
Saturday Night Live (1975).
In 1981, John appeared in the movie
Continental Divide (1981),
playing a hard-nosed Chicago newspaperman who finds romance in Colorado
with eagle expert Blair Brown. That
same year, John and Dan Aykroyd appeared
again in the movie Neighbors (1981),
which gave them a chance to reverse roles, with John playing a
straight-arrow family man whose life is turned upside down when a wild
family man (Aykroyd) moves in next door.
In January 1982, John began work on the screenplay for another movie to
be titled "Noble Rot". Also, John had checked into a bungalow at the
Chateau Marmont, a popular celebrity hotel in Los Angeles. John's drug
use had been steadily increasing for over a year now, which alarmed his
wife and friends, but he continued to promise Judy that he would quit
someday. On March 5, 1982, John Belushi was found dead in his hotel
room at the age of 33. The local coroner gave the cause of death as a
lethal injection of cocaine and heroin. Several years later, John's
drug dealing/drug user companion during his final weeks, Cathy Evelyn Smith,
was tried and sentenced to three years in prison for supplying John
with the drugs. Close friend
James Taylor sang "That Lonesome
Road" at a memorial service at Martha's Vineyard cemetery where John
was buried.