John Belushi facts for kids

Quick facts for kids John Belushi
Belushi in 1976
Born	John Adam Belushi (1949-01-24)January 24, 1949 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	March 5, 1982(1982-03-05) (aged 33) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	College of DuPage University of Wisconsin, Whitewater
Occupation	Comedian actor musician
Years active	1972–1982
Known for	Saturday Night Live Animal House The Blues Brothers
Spouse(s)	Judith Jacklin ​ (m. 1976)​
Relatives	Jim Belushi (brother) Robert Belushi (nephew)
Awards	Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series
Comedy career
Medium	Film television music
Genres	Improvisational theatre comedy music physical comedy sketch comedy

John Adam Belushi (/bəˈluːʃi/; January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was one of seven Saturday Night Live cast members of the first season. Along with Chevy Chase he was arguably the most popular member of the Saturday Night Live ensemble. Belushi had a partnership with Dan Aykroyd. They had first met while at Chicago's The Second City comedy club, remaining together as cast members on the inaugural season of the television show Saturday Night Live.

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 Dan 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. John 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 dismissed from Saturday Night Live several times and rehired more than once. In 1982, he died at the age of 33. In 2004 that he was honored with a posthumous award of the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, several decades after his demise.

Early life

Belushi as a senior at Wheaton Central High School (1967)

John Adam Belushi was born to Agnes Demetri (née Samaras) Belushi and Adam Anastos Belushi in Humboldt Park, Chicago. Agnes was a pharmacy worker, who was born in Ohio to Albanian immigrants from Korçë, Albania. Adam Anastos Belushi was an Albanian immigrant from Qytezë, Albania, the owner of the Fair Oaks restaurant on North Avenue in Chicago.

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.

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, which inspired the Animal House scene of D-Day driving a motorcycle up the 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.

Career

The Second City and National Lampoon

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 and asked Belushi to join the cast. At Second City, Belushi met and began working with Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, and Brian Doyle-Murray.

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 declined the offer.

Saturday Night Live

In 1975, Chase and writer Michael O'Donoghue recommended Belushi to Lorne Michaels as a potential member for a television show Michaels was about to produce for NBC called NBC's Saturday Night, later Saturday Night Live. Michaels was initially undecided, as he was not sure if Belushi's physical humor would fit with what he was envisioning, but he changed his mind after giving Belushi an audition. He appeared alongside O'Donoghue in Saturday Night Live's first sketch (subsequently titled "the Wolverines") which aired on October 11, 1975.

Over his four-year tenure at Saturday Night Live Belushi developed a series of successful characters, including the belligerent Saturday Night Live Samurai; Henry Kissinger; Ludwig van Beethoven; the Greek owner (Pete Dionisopoulos) of the Olympia Café; Captain James T. Kirk; and a contributor of furious opinion pieces on Weekend Update, during which he coined a catchphrase, "But N-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O!" With Aykroyd, Belushi created Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers. Originally intended to warm up the studio audience before broadcasts of Saturday Night Live, the Blues Brothers were eventually featured as musical guests. Belushi also reprised his Lemmings imitation of Joe Cocker. Cocker himself joined Belushi in 1976 to sing "Feelin' Alright?" together.

Like many other Saturday Night Live cast members and writers, Belushi had health issues. They 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."

Film Career

In 1978, Belushi performed in the films Old Boyfriends (directed by Joan Tewkesbury), Goin' South (directed by Jack Nicholson), and National Lampoon's Animal House (directed by John Landis). Upon its initial release, Animal House received generally mixed reviews from critics, but Time magazine and Roger Ebert proclaimed it one of the year's best movies. Filmed at a cost of $2.8 million, it is one of the most profitable movies of all time, garnering an estimated gross of more than $141 million in the form of theatrical rentals and home video, not including merchandising. Animal House was written by Doug Kenney, Harold Ramis, and Chris Miller, and followed in the tradition of the Marx Brothers films that featured subversive and satirical plots that took on traditional institutions. Hollywood studios tried to copy the film's success without the satire, resulting in a string of "nerds vs. jocks" films in the 1980s with cheap sight gags. Meatballs and Stripes, both starring Bill Murray, followed this formula and even included motivational speeches in their last acts, much like the one given by Belushi's character Bluto. Both films were directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, who had served as a producer for Animal House.

Following the success of the Blues Brothers on Saturday Night Live, Belushi and Aykroyd, with the help of pianist-arranger Paul Shaffer, assembled studio talent forming a proper band. Saturday Night Live saxophonist "Blue" Lou Marini and trombonist-saxophonist Tom Malone, who had previously played in Blood, Sweat & Tears were there. At Shaffer's suggestion, guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, the powerhouse combo from Booker T and the M.G.'s, who played on dozens of hits from Memphis's Stax Records during the 1960s, were signed as well. In 1978 the Blues Brothers released their debut album, Briefcase Full of Blues, with Atlantic Records. The album reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum. Two singles were released: "Rubber Biscuit", which reached number 37 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Soul Man", which reached number 14.

In 1979, Belushi along with Aykroyd left Saturday Night Live. They filmed The Blues Brothers movie, which conflicted with the schedule of Saturday Night Live. Michaels also decided to leave at the end of his contract. NBC's pressure to use recurring characters was also a factor in their decision. Belushi and Aykroyd made two movies together after leaving: Neighbors (directed by John Avildsen), and most notably The Blues Brothers (directed by John Landis). Released in the U.S. on June 20, 1980, The Blues Brothers received generally negative reviews. It earned just under $5 million in its opening weekend, and went on to gross $115.2 million in theaters worldwide before its release on home video. The Blues Brothers band toured to promote the film, which led to a third album (and second live album), Made in America, recorded at the Universal Amphitheatre in 1980. The track "Who's ... Love" peaked at number 39.

The only film Belushi made without Aykroyd following departure from Saturday Night Live was the romantic comedy Continental Divide (directed by Michael Apted). Released in September 1981, it starred Belushi as Chicago hometown hero writer Ernie Souchack (loosely based on newspaper columnist and long-time family friend Mike Royko), who gets an assignment researching a scientist (played by Blair Brown) who studies birds of prey in the remote Rocky Mountains.

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. The New York Post published an account of these and other sensationalistic details of the event the following day.

Up to his death, Belushi was pursuing movie projects, including an ABSCAM-related caper called Moon Over Miami, to be directed by Louis Malle; and a diamond-smuggling caper called Noble Rot with Jay Sandrich, based on a script he adapted and rewrote with former Saturday Night Live writer Don Novello. Aykroyd advised him to return to the East Coast, where Aykroyd was writing Ghostbusters. Belushi also talked about producing a film in a High Times tribute article from 1982.

Belushi made a "guest-star appearance" on an episode of the television series Police Squad! (1982). Each opening of the show featured a running gag that featured the guest star dying right away. Belushi died shortly before the episode was to air. The scene was cut and replaced by a segment with William Conrad.

Filmography

Film

Television

Others

Discography

• Listen to Me Now/Jolly Green Giant (Alonas Dream Records, 1965) (with the Ravens)
• National Lampoon's Lemmings (Blue Thumb Records, 1973) (bass guitar, lead vocals on Lonely At The Bottom)
• Old Boyfriends: Original Soundtrack (Columbia, 1978) (lead vocals on Jailhouse Rock, You Belong to Me, Get Up and Down and Tush)
• National Lampoon's Animal House: Original Soundtrack (Universal, 1978) (lead vocals on Money (That's What I Want) and Louie Louie)
• Briefcase Full of Blues (Atlantic, 1978) US #1 (with the Blues Brothers)
• The Blues Brothers: Music from the Soundtrack (Atlantic, 1980) US #13 (with the Blues Brothers)
• Made in America (Atlantic, 1980) US #49 (with the Blues Brothers)
• Best of The Blues Brothers (Atlantic, 1981) US #143 (with the Blues Brothers)
• Dancin' wid da Blues Brothers (Atlantic, 1983) (with the Blues Brothers)
• Everybody Needs the Blues Brothers (Atlantic, 1988) (with the Blues Brothers)
• The Definitive Collection (Atlantic, 1992) (with the Blues Brothers)
• The Very Best of The Blues Brothers (Atlantic, 1995) (with the Blues Brothers)
• The Blues Brothers Complete (Atlantic, 2000) (with the Blues Brothers)
• The Essentials (Atlantic, 2003) (with the Blues Brothers)
• Neighbors (Fear Records, 2015) (with Fear)

Comedy albums

• Official National Lampoon Stereo Test and Demonstration Record (National Lampoon, 1974)
• The Missing White House Tapes (National Lampoon, 1974)
• National Lampoon Gold Turkey (National Lampoon, 1975)
• NBC's Saturday Night Live (Arista, 1976)
• National Lampoon That's Not Funny, That's Sick (National Lampoon, 1977)
• Greatest Hits of the National Lampoon (National Lampoon, 1978)
• National Lampoon White Album (National Lampoon, 1979)

See also

In Spanish: John Belushi para niños

• The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise
• Olympia Café
• Belushi, a 2020 documentary about him