John Belushi

About John Belushi

John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actor and musician, notable for his work on Saturday Night Live, National Lampoon's Animal House, and The Blues Brothers.

Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Agnes Willarda Belushi (née Samaras), a cashier and first-generation Albanian American, and Adam Belushi, an Albanian immigrant and restaurant operator who left his native village, Qytezë, in 1934 at the age of fifteen. Belushi was raised in the Albanian Orthodox church and grew up outside Chicago in Wheaton, where he was a middle linebacker for the Wheaton Central High School football team, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and the College of DuPage near Chicago. Belushi's younger brother James Belushi is also an actor and comedian. John met his future wife, Judy, while a sophomore in high school, and they stayed together until his death.

Belushi's first big break as a comedian occurred in 1971, when he joined The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, Illinois. Thanks to his uncanny caricature of singer Joe Cocker's intense and jerky stage presence, he was cast in National Lampoon's Lemmings, a parody of Woodstock, which played Off-Broadway in 1972 (and which also showcased future Saturday Night Live performers Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest).