John Belushi
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John Belushi was the son of Adam and Agnes Belushi. He was born on January 24, 1949. He graduated from Wheaton Central High School in Illinois he graduated in the year of 1967. He was a very popular student and was voted Homecoming King and most humorous student.
John was a great football player. He was co-captain of the high school football team his teammates called him “Killer Belushi”. John got a football scholarship and turned it down. He decided to attend Illinois Wesleyan, but he wasn’t accepted so he attended the University of Wisconsin at White Water. He only stayed for a year and went back to Wheaton. That fall he went to The Collage of Dupage (a 2-year junior college).
On January 5th, 1970 John Belushi graduated with an associates of the arts degree in general studies. John was offered his fathers restaurants several times but refused. In February 1971 John tried out for the Second City Comedy Troupe. He got the job and was the youngest ever to get the job.
John started to get a lot of attention and his impression of Joe Cocker began to become famous. John started doing drugs such as LSD, Marijuana, Mushrooms, Amphetamines, Peyote, and Acid.
In October 1972, Tony Hendra from National Lampoon Magazine went and watched Johns act. He offered John a job with National Lampoon. John accepted and flew into New York City. He was a success. They sold out of tickets every night he was on.
On February 11th, 1975, NBC gave John Belushi a job on Saturday Night Live (a comedy show that fills in the 11:30 to 1:00 an time slot on Saturday nights). The first hired were Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, And Garret Morris. The First show hosted by George Carlin went over great. Then Paul Simon hosted the second show and Rob Reiner hosted the third show.
On April 22nd, 1978 at 11:30 p.m. Paul Shaffer introduced The Blues Brothers. They were known as Jake and Elwood. Dan and John performed them. Their most famous act was “Hey Bartender.
John kept on doing the show until September of 1979 when he needed to move on and start to make movies. He took a deal that was brought to his attention two year before it was the Blues Brothers Movie. John died in 1982 of drug overdose. Before his death he made 7 appearances on the big screen:
Going South (1978)
National Lampoons Animal House (1978)
Old Boyfriends (1979)
1941 (1979)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Continental Divide (1981)
Neighbors (1981)
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