John Belushi

John Belushi (24 January 1949 Chicago, Illinois – 5 March 1982 Hollywood, California) was a comic actor who achieved great success in television, motion pictures, and the music industry in a relatively short space of time. Between the years 1975 to 1982 Belushi became a cultural phenomenon in America, graced the covers of Rolling Stone and Newsweek, and was finally so famous that he was able to gain access to a private function at the White House without carrying any identification on his person. “All of the doors of the continent were open to him,” recalled his best friend Dan Aykroyd. “He was America’s guest.” January 1979 was Belushi’s miracle month, when he simultaneously held a number one spot in film (highest grossing comedy up to that time, National Lampoon's Animal House), television (highest rated late-night show, Saturday Night Live), and music (top album on the Billboard chart, Briefcase Full of Blues), a triple feat that has never been emulated. But his passionate, non-stop, over-the-top, wild and crazy lifestyle led to his untimely death from a drug overdose at the age of 33.

Filmography

• National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
• Goin’ South (1978)
• Old Boyfriends (1978)
• 1941 (1979)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• Continental Divide (1981)
• Neighbors (1981)

Bibliography

• Belushi, Judy Jacklin. Samurai Widow (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1990).
• Hill, Doug and Jeff Weingrad. Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live (New York: Vintage Books, 1987).
• Pisano, Judith Belushi and Tanner Colby. Belushi (New York: Rugged Land, 2005).
• Shales, Tom and James Andrew Miller. Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2002).
• Woodward, Bob. Wired (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984).