Emmy Award-winning American actor, comedian and musician John Adam Belushi was born on January 24, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the College of DuPage. He was encouraged by his drama teacher to pursue acting, and he eventually did. His first break was as a comedian in 1971, joining The Second City comedy troupe. He was then cast in National Lampoon’s Lemmings, which played off-Broadway in 1972. In 1975, he became a regular cast member in Saturday Night Live. That year, he also lent his voice to the character Craig Baker in Tarzoon, le honte de la jungle. He also had television roles including 1977’s Things We Did Last Summer and The Rutles: All You Need is Cash.
In 1978, John Belushi appeared in the movie Goin’ South, which was directed by and starred Jack Nicholson. While filming Saturday Night Live, he made one of his best-known movies Animal House. He played John ‘Bluto’ Blutarsky and was praised for his performance. He and fellow SNL member Dan Aykroyd quit the series to pursue more movie projects. Both of them appeared in Steven Spielberg’s unsuccessful 1941 and were also in John Landis’ The Blues Brothers in 1980. Belushi also appeared in 1979’s Old Boyfriends.
Before his death, he pursued several movie projects including Noble Rot. He was also considering the lead roles in The Joy of Sex and Moon Over Miami. In September of 1981, Continental Divide was released, where Belushi starred as Ernie Souchack. Belushi died at age 33 on March 5, 1982 in his room at the Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles. The cause of his death was an injection of cocaine and heroin, termed as a speedball. It was later found out that Cathy Smith was with Belushi on the night of his death, and had given
him the fatal speedball shot. She served 18 months in prison.