John Belushi
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John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian most notable for his work on Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon's Animal House, and The Blues Brothers.
Biography
Belushi was born in the United States to Adam Belushi, an Albanian immigrant who left his native village, Qytezë, in 1934 at the age of 15, and to Agnes. He grew up outside of Chicago in Wheaton, Illinois, where he was a high school football player, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the College of DuPage near Chicago. Belushi's brother James Belushi is also a successful actor and comedian.Belushi's first big break as a comedian occurred in 1971, when he joined The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, Illinois. Thanks to his uncanny caricature of singer Joe Cocker's intense and jerky stage presence, he participated in National Lampoon's Lemmings stage show in 1972 (which also featured future Saturday Night Live performer Chevy Chase).
From 1973 to 1975 the National Lampoon aired the Radio Hour, a half-hour comedy program syndicated across the country on approximately 600 stations. When original director Michael O'Donoghue quit in 1974, Belushi took over the reins until the show was canceled. Other players on the show included future SNL regulars Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, and Chevy Chase. Belushi married Judy Jacklin, an associate producer of the Radio Hour. A number of comic segments first performed on the Radio Hour would be translated into SNL sketches in the show's early seasons.
Belushi achieved national fame for his work on Saturday Night Live, which he joined as one of the original cast members in 1975. Between seasons of the show, he made one of his best-known movies, Animal House.
As several Belushi biographies have noted, on John's 30th birthday (in 1979), he had the number one film in the U.S., (Animal House), the number one album in the U.S., The Blues Brothers' "Briefcase Full Of Blues", and Saturday Night Live was the highest-rated late night television program, and one of the most highly-regarded television programs of the day. Being at the top of three different forms of public media (T.V., movies, and music), is considered to be one of Belushi's foremost feats, career-wise, and is one that is often overlooked in the wake of his drug exploits.
He left Saturday Night Live in 1979 to pursue a film career. Belushi would make four more movies in his career, and three of them, 1941, Neighbors, and most notably The Blues Brothers were made with former SNL alumnus Dan Aykroyd.
At the time of his death, Belushi was pursuing several movie projects, including "Noble Rot," an adaptation of a script by former The Mary Tyler Moore Show writer/producer Jay Sandrich entitled "Sweet Deception." Belushi was working with former Saturday Night Live colleague Don Novello, (known for his character Father Guido Sarducci), on rewriting the script. In addition, Belushi was also considering the lead roles in "The Joy Of Sex," a comic adaptation of the Dr. Alex Comfort sex manual, as well as a part in a Louis Malle movie called "Moon Over Miami." These projects were abandoned in the wake of his death.
In addition, the role of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters was written (by Aykroyd) with Belushi in mind. The role wound up being played by Belushi's former SNL castmate Bill Murray.
Death
Belushi was known to indulge in drinking bouts and drug abuse, which eventually cost him his life. Belushi was found dead on March 5, 1982, age 33, in a hotel room at the Chateau Marmont on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The cause of death was a speedball, an injection of cocaine and heroin. He was accompanied by his friend Robin Williams at the time of his death. His death was investigated by forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, among others, and while the findings were disputed, it was eventually officially ruled a drug-related accident. There was some suspicion of foul play by his companion and drug dealer at the time, Cathy Smith, who was a former groupie for The Band -- and inspiration for the song "Sundown", by then-boyfriend, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot.Belushi's life is detailed in the 1985 biography Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi by Bob Woodward, which was adapted into a feature film. Many friends and relatives of Belushi, including his wife, Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi, boycotted the film, even though they agreed to be interviewed at length for the book.
John Belushi is interred in Abel's Hill Cemetery in Chilmark, Massachusetts. His tombstone read "I may be gone, but rock n roll lives on."
The Grateful Dead song "West L.A. Fadeaway" is about Belushi's death. Belushi was a good friend to the band, especially Jerry Garcia. He even performed with them on occasion in the late 1970's.
His widow later remarried and is now Judy Belushi Pisano. Her biography (with co-biographer Tanner Colby) of her late husband, Belushi, a collection of first-person interviews and photographs, was published in 2005.
Filmography
- (1975) (voice) (1979 American dubbed version)
- Animal House (1978)
- The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978)
- Goin' South (1978)
- Old Boyfriends (1979)
- 1941 (1979)
- The Blues Brothers (1980)
- Continental Divide (1981)
- Neighbors (1981)
Trivia
- In the toga party scene in the basement of the frat in Animal House, the uncredited coed dancing with Bluto (Belushi) is his wife.
- Belushi wanted Bluto to go on the road trip with Boon, Otter, Pinto and Flounder but director John Landis told him that his character was best used sparingly.
- According to the Where Are They Now? - A Delta Alumni Update mockumentary included on the Double Secret Probation Edition of Animal House, Sen. John Blutarsky and his lovely wife, the former Mandy Pepperidge, have ascended to the White House.
- According to writer/actor Tim Kazurinsky in the book Live From New York, Belushi was instrumental in getting fellow Second City alumni Kazurinsky onto Saturday Night Live. But during his run on the show, Kazurinsky became very stressed out by the show's demands. He later called Belushi and said that he needed a ride to the airport because he was quitting the show and moving back to Chicago. Belushi and his wife refused to drive him to the airport, at which Belushi told Kazurinsky that the show's atmosphere can get bad at times, but that he still had access to major broadcasting airwaves. Instead, Belushi took the performer to a psychiatrist whom he saw for a year, while staying with the show during his run.
- He was portrayed by actors Eric Siegel in ', Tyler Labine in ' (which also features his friendship with Robin Williams), and Michael Chiklis in Wired. The last two films may not have portrayed the comic actor in the best light as they particularly highlight his drug use.
- Posters of Belushi as Bluto from Animal House in his signature "College" sweater (as well as replicas of the sweaters themselves) remain ubiquitous on college campuses as of 2006.
- The 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live aired on October 31 with host Donald Pleasence and musical guest FEAR. By personal favor/request from Fear fan John Belushi the band performed because Belushi promised them a spot after they failed to make the final cut (movie studio refusal) as musical composers in his movie 1941. The band proceeded to play offensive music and bussed in "dancers" (many were in well-known East Coast punk acts). The band used obscene language and the dancers destroyed the set with slam dancing on the stage. The end result was Fear were banned from playing and their actual performance was cut short; as they played Let's Have a War the audio and video cut to commercial.
- In an interview with the drummer from Fear Spit Stix, Stix explained Belushi hadn't been on SNL for years, but "for the show that we were on, he did make an appearance. In the beginning, he's at the urinal and he turns around to the camera, 'Live! From New York!' That was a favor he did for us because during rehearsal some of our crowd — bussed-in slamdancers — tripped over a cable or something, and the union people didn't want any dancers. So as a trade-off, he went up to Grant Tinker's office for us and said, 'I'll make an appearance on the show if the dancers stay.' John was such a generous guy." [link]
- Belushi was good friends with fellow SNL player Dan Aykroyd, whom Belushi recruited for SNL. They met in a Toronto speakeasy called The 505 that Aykroyd frequented, and immediately hit it off. During a discussion they had about Aykroyd possibly joining SNL, Aykroyd put on a blues record, sparking a fascination Belushi would develop with the blues. Dan educated John on the finer points of blues music, which led to the creation of their popular Blues Brothers characters.
- Belushi started the "Blues Brothers Bar" as it was known down the street from The Second City in the 1970s.
- John and his friend Dan Aykroyd were slated to present the first ever Visual Effects Award at the Academy Awards in 1982, but John died a few weeks prior to the event. Though devastated by John's death, Aykroyd presented the award alone, commenting on the stage "My partner would have loved to have been here to present this award, given that he was something of a visual effect himself."
- The role of Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters (1984) was originally written with John in mind. After he died, the part was rewritten for fellow Saturday Night Live player Bill Murray. John's friend Dan Aykroyd, who wrote the Ghostbusters screenplay, used to joke that the green ghost Slimer was "the ghost of John Belushi", given that he was played with a similar party animal personality.
- John Belushi had a song written about him by the Polish rock group Lady Pank. The song appears on the album Tacy Sami.
- John is mentioned in the song As John Belushi Said by the British cult band Television Personalities.
- John is mentioned in a song by rapper Copywrite: "Any crew you with is full of shit till the bullets hit when the uzi spit, I write more lines than the late John Belushi sniffed."
- During his run on SNL, John Belushi starred in a short film called "Don't Look Back In Anger", where he plays himself as an old man visiting the graves of his former castmembers (including Chevy Chase, who had been off the show at the time the film was shown) and reveals that the reason he's still alive is because he's a dancer. Ironically, Belushi was the first SNL castmember to die.
- John Belushi was, with Lenny Bruce, one of the two protagonists in Bradley Denton's short story The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians.
- Chris Farley was a huge admirer of John Belushi. He also started out in Second City, moved on to Saturday Night Live, appeared only once more, after he left the show, and in the end he died from the same reason, at the same age.
Famous Saturday Night Live characters
- Beethoven
- Samurai Futaba
- Bumblebee man
- 'Joliet' Jake Blues
- Joe Cocker
- Dino de Laurentiis
- Greek Restaurant Owner
- The Godfather
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Captain Kirk
- Fred Silverman
- John Belushi
The Best of the National Lampoon Radio Hour, liner notes by McConnachie, Brian and Simmons, Matty, Rhino Records, California, 1996.
Shales, Tom and Miller, James Andrew, "Live From New York - An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live", Little, Brown and Company, Boston, New York, London, 2002, ISBN 0-316-78146-0.
National Lampoon's Animal House - Double Secret Probation Edition DVD release, Universal Studios, California, 2003.
External links
- [The Life and Death of Captain Preemo] The true story of John Belushi's Death
- [Interview (MP3) with biographer Tanner Colby and widow Judith Belushi Pisano] on the public radio program The Sound of Young America regarding their book, "Belushi." Includes clips from Belushi's work on The National Lampoon Radio Hour.
- [Website] of the Belushi biography "Belushi," including outtakes from the book, an oral history.
- [John Belushi's Gravesite]
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