Age, Biography, and Wiki
- Birthdate: January 24, 1949
- Birthplace: Humboldt Park, Chicago, Illinois
- Death: March 5, 1982, at the age of 33
- Cause of Death: Overdose of heroin and cocaine
- Early Life: Belushi was born to Albanian immigrant parents and grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. He attended Wheaton Central High School and later became a pivotal figure in comedy.
| Occupation | Screenwriter |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | 24 January 1949 |
| Age | 76 Years |
| Birth Place | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Aquarius |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 5 March, 1982 |
| Died Place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
- Height: 5 ft 7 in (1.727 m)
- Weight: Not publicly documented
- Measurements: Not available
| Height | 727 m |
| Weight | |
| Body Measurements | |
| Eye Color | |
| Hair Color |
Dating & Relationship status
- Marital Status: Married to Judy Jacklin Belushi
- Relationship Timeline: He was married to Judy from 1976 until his death in 1982.
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 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.
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'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.
| Parents | |
| Wife | Judith Jacklin (m. 1976) |
| Sibling | |
| Children |
Net Worth and Salary
- Net Worth at Death: Approximately $2 million
- Adjusted for Inflation: Around $5 million in today's dollars
- Salary for "Animal House": $40,000 in 1977
Career, Business, and Investments
- Career Highlights:
- Original cast member of Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1975 to 1979.
- Starred in films like Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980), and Neighbors (1981).
- Contributed to various other projects, including National Lampoon's Lemmings and The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash.
- Business Ventures: Notably involved in the entertainment industry, with most of his wealth coming from film and television projects.
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.
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.
Social Network
- Active During Life: Not applicable to modern social media, as they did not exist during his lifetime.
- Legacy: His work continues to influence and entertain audiences through reruns and references in contemporary media.
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."
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.
Education
- Wheaton Central High School: Graduated from this school in Wheaton, Illinois.
John Belushi's legacy as a comedian and actor continues to inspire new generations of entertainers. His impact on Saturday Night Live and his iconic roles in films like Animal House and The Blues Brothers have cemented his place in American comedy history. Despite his untimely death, his influence remains strong, and his net worth at the time of his passing reflects his success in the entertainment industry.
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.
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 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 on 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.
