John Belushi Biography

Fast Facts

• Met future wife Judy Jacklin at a Little League baseball game when they were teenagers
• Their first dinner date was at one of his father's restaurants
• Attended the same high school as the Washington Post's Bob Woodward
• They both won eighth-grade medals for citizenship and played on the football team
• (Woodward later wrote the grim Belushi biography Wired
• ) Inspired to take up acting and comedy after listening to Bob Newhart comedy records in high school
• Joined Chicago's Second City improv troupe in 1971
• Appeared in an off-Broadway production of National Lampoon's Lemmings in 1973 alongside future Saturday Night Live cast members Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest
• On his 30th birthday in 1979, had the number one movie (National Lampoon's Animal House), the number one album (the Blues Brothers' Briefcase Full of Blues) and the highest rated late-night program (SNL)
• Based his role as a newspaper columnist in Continental Divide (1981) on Mike Royko, who was a friend of his father's
• At his funeral in Martha's Vineyard, James Taylor sang "That Lonesome Road
• " Actors who have portrayed Belushi on-screen include Michael Chiklis, Eric Siegel and Tyler Labine