John Belushi's Biography

John Belushi was born on 24 January 1949 in Chicago.

He died on 5 March 1982.

Many critics regard John Belushi's greatest role to be Jake Blues in the cult film The Blues Brothers. Previously, Belushi and his co-star Dan Aykroyd had also attracted favourable attention for their work on Saturday Night Live.

Many biographies, including Bob Woodward's Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi have concentrated on John Belushi's drug habit which was to lead to his death.

Tanner Colby also wrote a biography of Belushi and in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal criticised Woodward:

"And after Bob Woodward's hatchet job in 1985, no one had really ever approached the subject again. Woodward poisoned the well and nobody wanted to touch it again. Judy [Belushi Pisano] realized that a full biography was never going to get done unless she did it - it would have to have her stamp of approval."

Woodward quotes Belushi as saying in reference to his drug addiction:

"I give so much pleasure to so many people. Why can I not get some pleasure for myself? Why do I have to stop?"

In an interview in Cosmopolitan in December 1981, John Belushi describes how his mind was working at the time:

"It's all false pressure; you put the heat on yourself, you get it from the networks and record companies and movie studios, and the you put more pressure on yourself to make everything that much harder because work is no longer challenging. You say, 'Well, I'll get all screwed up and then it'll be a real challenge again.' So stupid - I've often wondered why people do these things. You're so much happier if you don't, but I guess happiness is not a state you want to be in all the time."