John Belushi - A Life Fast and Furious

The son of an Albanian immigrant restaurant owner, Adam Belushi, and his vivacious wife, Agnes, John Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on January 24, 1949. 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, Judy Jacklin, 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 which made him a star!

- John's biography Wired was made into a movie that was boycotted by Dan Akroyd, Jim Belushi, and his wife.

- The epitaph on John's tombstone reads "He made us laugh, and now he makes us think".

- John's favorite commedianne was Lucille Ball.

- The part of 'Dr. Peter Venkman' in 1984's movie Ghostbusters was written for John. The part ended up being Bill Murray's after John died.

- John started the Blues Brothers Bar down the street from the Second City in the late 1970's.

- James Taylor sang The Lonesome Road at John's memorial service at Martha's Vineyard Cemetery.

- At the time of his death, John was re writing a script called Noble Rot.

- John's drug user/dealer companion was charged in his death, for providing the drugs that killed him. She was given three years in prison.

- In the Toga party scene in Animal House , the uncredited co-ed dancing with John is his wife.

- John bought his father a Ranch house, and helped set up several of his Chicago friends with their own businesses.

- John appeared in Goin' South in 1975, with Jack Nicholson, where he was noticed by director John Landis.

- On April 1, 2004, recieved a Hollywood Star on the Walk-of-Fame. Recieving it on his half was his brother, Jim and friend, Dan Aykroyd.

- Salary Animal House $40,000 "Saturday Night Live"$750/week

One of his last sketches featured him as the final surviving cast member of the series. Ironically, he was the first cast member to die.

- Brother to actor Jim Belushi

With his fame came a cocaine addiction. John became known as a hard core party man. His last days were spent in West Hollywood's Chateau Marmont Hotel, with similar hard core users. Witnesses said that on March 5, 1982, John mainlined a cocktail of heroin and cocaine called a speed ball. The overdose caused a complete respiratory failure and killed him.

On March 9, Dan Aykroyd, in a black leather jacket and black jeans, led John's funeral procession on his motorcycle. John's memorial service two days later drew over 1000 relatives and friends to the Cathedral of Saint John Divine in New York. As he once promised John, Aykroyd played the Ventures "2000-pound Bee" at the service.