John Belushi burst onto the comedy scene as one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live in 1975. But just seven years later, the talented young comedian and actor was found dead at a Hollywood hotel.
Belushi moved to New York in 1973, and by 1975, he had caught the attention of Lorne Michaels and was cast as one of the original stars of Saturday Night Live. While on the sketch show, he and Dan Aykroyd formed the iconic duo, the Blues Brothers — and together toured the country as a musical act, released a double-platinum album and made a movie.
By the time The Blues Brothers was released in 1980, Belushi was a bona fide star. But while the comedian was becoming a household name, he struggled with drug addiction behind the scenes.
“We had everything going for us, and yet because of those damn drugs, everything just got out of control,” Belushi’s high school sweetheart and wife, Judy Belushi-Pisano, told PEOPLE in 1990.
On March 5, 1982, Belushi was found dead of an apparent drug overdose. The comedian was 33 years old.
“John wasn’t perfect,” Judy, who died in July 2024, told PEOPLE in 2020. “But he was a full human being — caring and adventurous and kind. And he not only made people laugh. He made them feel.”
From the chaotic last hours of his life to the legacy he left behind, here is everything to know about John Belushi’s death.
How did John Belushi die?
John Belushi promotes the release of his film ‘The Blues Brothers’ in 1980 in Chicago, Illinois.
Steve Kagan/Getty
On March 5, 1982, Belushi was found dead in his room at the Chateau Marmont by his personal trainer, Bill Wallace, who was there to deliver a typewriter to him, per The Hollywood Reporter. Though police did not initially suspect that foul play or drugs played a role in his death, according to the coroner’s report shared in The New York Times, the hours leading up to the tragic discovery told a different story.
The evening prior to Belushi’s death, the Animal House actor reportedly dined on the Sunset Strip with Robert De Niro, attended a comedy show at the Improv in West Hollywood and then listened to music while “drinking heavily” at On the Rox, a private club on the Strip, The New York Times reported. After the clubs closed, Belushi continued to party back at the Chateau Marmont, Rolling Stone reported.
“John was always the guy who went a little too far and wanted to stay too long at the party,” Belushi’s wife, Judy, told PEOPLE in 2020.
After the night of partying and drug use, Belushi began to complain of hot and cold flashes before eventually falling asleep around 8 a.m., per the coroner’s report. Within four hours of going to sleep, he was found unconscious and not breathing by Wallace.
Despite the Los Angeles Police Department initially reporting that Belushi’s death appeared to be by “natural causes,” needle marks found on his arms pointed to an overdose. According to the coroner’s report, released a few days later, Belushi’s official cause of death was listed as “acute cocaine and heroin intoxication,” per The New York Times.
Though there were enough drugs in Belushi’s system to kill a healthy individual, according to Rolling Stone, the autopsy also found that the comedian was in poor physical health despite his young age — suffering from congestion of the lungs, liver and spleen, a swollen brain, an enlarged heart, clogged arteries, a distended bladder and obesity.
Aykroyd was the first to tell Judy that her husband had died. He told PEOPLE in 2024, “That’s a piece of trauma that will be with me forever. I lament that he’s not around. It’s more than wistfulness: it’s a true lamentation.”
When did John Belushi die?
John Belushi aka Jake Blues of The Blues Brothers performs live at The Winterland Ballroom in 1978 in San Francisco, California.
Richard McCaffrey/ Michael Ochs Archive/ Getty
Belushi was found unresponsive by Wallace at around 12:30 p.m. on March 5, 1982, according to The New York Times.
“I’m having trouble waking John up,” Wallace told Belushi’s agent, Bernie Brillstein, in a phone call, per The Hollywood Reporter. After attempting CPR, a second phone call to Brillstein revealed the gravity of the situation: “There’s something really wrong with John,” Wallace said.
Wallace then contacted paramedics, who declared Belushi dead at 12:45 p.m., The New York Times reported. According to the police and the coroner’s report, Belushi had died sometime between 10:15 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.
Where did John Belushi die?
The body of Comedian John Belushi is transported by Los Angeles County Medical Examiner Officer from the Chateau Marmont Hotel, March 5, 1982 in Los Angeles, California.
Bob Riha, Jr./Getty
Belushi died in Bungalow No. 3 at the Chateau Marmont, the famous Hollywood hotel where he had been staying since Feb. 28, 1982, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Earlier that winter, he had spent more than a month as a resident at the hotel, working on the script for Noble Rot, a romantic comedy he was hoping would be his next hit. However, Belushi’s growing problem with drugs was derailing his progress and causing problems in his marriage. As a result, Belushi’s wife, Judy, opted not to accompany him on that final (and ultimately fatal) trip to L.A.
“He was abusing cocaine again, and that interfered with everything in our life,” she told PEOPLE in 1990. “I knew he couldn’t handle himself in L.A.; he never could.”
As a result, Judy revealed she spent years working on forgiving herself for Belushi’s death — for allowing him to travel to L.A. solo knowing his self-destructive tendencies.
“Guilt is very complicated,” she told PEOPLE. “Part of it is making yourself more important than you really are—thinking ‘I could have stopped this.’ As I began to realize I couldn’t do anything about it, I let go of the guilt.”
Who was with John Belushi when he died?
Cathy Smith, the woman accused in death of comic John Belushi leaves court after yesterday’s hearing to see whether she’ll be extradited to California.
Erin Combs/Toronto Star via Getty
Belushi spent the final hours of his life in the company of some of Hollywood’s biggest names. After leaving On the Rox and returning to his bungalow at the Chateau Marmont, Belushi was visited by Robin Williams, who had just performed a comedy set, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
De Niro, who had dined with Belushi earlier in the evening and was also staying at the Chateau Marmont, also reportedly stopped by the comedian’s bungalow in the early morning hours of March 5.
But one individual was with Belushi for most of the night and early morning: A back-up singer named Cathy Smith, according to Rolling Stone. According to her later testimony, Smith drove Belushi back to his hotel from the Hollywood nightclubs, partied and injected him with drugs during the early morning hours and remained with him until about 10 a.m., when she left the Chateau Marmont in Belushi’s car.
According to Smith, she “really didn’t know” if Belushi was sleeping or dead when she left the bungalow that morning.
How old was John Belushi when he died?
Portrait of John Belushi.
Richard E. Aaron/Redferns
Belushi was only 33 years old when he died.
“The same violent urge that makes John great will also ultimately destroy him,” SNL writer Michael O’Donoghue said a few years prior to Belushi’s death, according to a 1982 PEOPLE cover story on the comedian. “He’s one of those hysterical personalities that will never be complete.”
Animal House director John Landis echoed a similar sentiment about Belushi, per the Los Angeles Times: “He abuses his body in ways that would kill bulls,” Landis said a few years before Belushi’s death. “If he doesn’t burn himself out, his potential is unlimited.”
What were John Belushi’s last words?
John Belushi in ‘National Lampoon’s Animal House’ (1978).
Universal Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
Belushi reportedly uttered his last words to Smith, with whom he spent his final hours.
According to Smith’s account of the morning, Belushi took a shower and fell asleep at around 8 a.m., per Rolling Stone. However, he was wheezing and shivering while he slept. Smith became concerned about Belushi’s breathing and woke him to drink a glass of water at around 9:30 a.m., she told Rolling Stone. After he drank the water, Smith asked him if he needed anything else.
“Just don’t leave me alone,” Belushi said to her, which is believed to be the actor’s last words.
Smith, however, left the hotel room about 30 minutes later. When she returned at around 2 p.m., Belushi’s body had been discovered and the hotel was swarming with police and press.
“In reality, I’m the only person in the world who was there, perhaps, when he died. I’m not quite sure when he died,” Smith told Rolling Stone. “I know I’m the last person who saw him alive.”
What was the public reaction to John Belushi’s death?
A general view of the gravesite where John Belushi is thought to be buried in Chilmark Cemetery on Martha’s Vineyard on June 22, 2015 in Chilmark, MA.
Paul Marotta/Getty
Though Belushi’s drug use and partying habits were well-known amongst his inner circle, it did not soften the blow of his untimely death — which left his fans, friends and family devastated. Judy, his wife and high school sweetheart, described the shocking loss as “a gut punch.”
“And then it was like I was thrown into the center of a tornado,” she told PEOPLE in 2020.
Part of that whirlwind was the public response to Belushi’s death. Following his passing, Belushi’s fans clamored to visit his burial site on Martha’s Vineyard to pay their respects — turning the small Chilmark cemetery into a tourist attraction. His grave received so many visitors (many leaving liquor, beer cans, cigarette butts and marijuana joints) that Judy was forced to move his burial location from the center of the cemetery to near the entrance, The Ledger reported.
Similar events happened at the Chateau Marmont. Hotel staff completely remodeled Bungalow 3 after the comedian’s death, in the hopes of deterring curious fans, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Were charges ever filed in John Belushi’s death?
Cathy Smith is interviewed by the media.
Cal Millar/Toronto Star via Getty
Smith, who was with Belushi the night he died, was briefly questioned and detained by police after she returned to the Chateau Marmont on the day his body was discovered. Police found a syringe and a spoon in her purse, but released her, according to the Los Angeles Times. Shortly after, Smith left L.A. for her native Toronto.
But reporters tracked Smith down and she agreed to a paid interview with Tony Brenna of the National Enquirer. On June 29, 1982, she appeared on the cover of the tabloid underneath the headline “I Killed John Belushi.” In the story, Smith admitted to being responsible for Belushi’s death — describing how the comedian was afraid of needles, so she would inject him with cocaine and heroin.
“At 3:30 a.m., I shot up John for the last time,” she told the National Enquirer.
As a result of the tabloid story and her taped interview with Brenna (which the Enquirer was forced to turn over to L.A. prosecutors), the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office leveled charges against Smith in connection with Belushi’s death.
In March 1983, she was indicted on one count of second-degree murder and 13 counts of administering cocaine and heroin. After a number of Belushi’s companions testified that they witnessed Smith inject Belushi with drugs several times on the night of his death, Smith pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and three counts of providing and administering drugs. She was sentenced to three years in prison, per the Los Angeles Times.
Smith served 15 months in prison and was released on parole in March 1988. She later died in September 2020 at the age of 73, according to The New York Times.
What is John Belushi’s legacy?
John Belushi in ‘Continental Divide’ (1981).
Amblin/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
Belushi’s legacy lives on not only in the world of comedy and entertainment but also in the many actors he inspired to get sober after his death.
The comedian has been credited with causing a shift in the role drugs played in Hollywood in the 1980s and beyond. “The Belushi tragedy was frightening,” Williams, who became sober shortly after his friend’s death, told PEOPLE in 1988. “His death scared a whole group of show-business people. It caused a big exodus from drugs.”
More than 40 years later, Belushi’s story continues to have an impact. In 2024, John Mulaney spoke about how SNL creator Michaels told him about Belushi’s tragic death to help him overcome his own struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.
“He goes, ‘I knew John Belushi for seven years. I’ve been talking about him for 48 years, because that’s the shrapnel that happens when someone goes down like that,’ ” Mulaney said on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.
He continued, “And he goes, ‘You know, John didn’t want to die. You know, he didn’t plan to. Just because it’s a story, just because it’s sort of set in stone like history, people don’t want to die from this.’ ”
Aykroyd has kept the memory of his friend and collaborator alive through several of his projects — including the 1984 classic Ghostbusters, which he was writing at the time of Belushi’s death. Aykroyd originally wrote the role of Peter Venkman (who was played by Bill Murray) for Belushi, but after his death, he fashioned the green ghost Slimer after his late friend.
Aykroyd also founded the House of Blues chain of restaurants and live music halls in honor of his former Blues Brother.
“Every time I walk into a House of Blues, I think, ‘John, why aren’t you around to enjoy these places where we have the gods of Blues on the wall, the ceiling?’ “Aykroyd told PEOPLE in 2024. “You can be sure I have a drink and I toast a Crystal Head Vodka to him when I’m in these places.”
Belushi is also consistently remembered as a talented actor and comedian whose life and career were cut too short.
“The bottom line is he was a charming guy and a brilliant performer,” director Landis said about Belushi to The Guardian in 2019. “He was strong like a tractor and smart like a bull and he really could have gone on to do anything.”
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