John Belushi

"I guess happiness is not a state you want to be in all the time."

John Belushi born on January 24, 1949 to Albanian immigrants, Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, in Humboldt Park, Chicago, Illinois.He was a boisterous, high energy, American comedian, actor, and singer.

He was one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL).

His breakout and best-known film role was as John "Bluto" Blutarsky, the lead in the 1978 National Lampoon's Animal House.

He also pursued interests in music, creating with Aykroyd, Lou Marini, Tom Malone, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Paul Shaffer, the Blues Brothers.

John struggled with heavy drug use that affected his comedy career. He was dismissed and rehired by Michaels on several occasions due to his behavior. 

On March 5, 1982, Belushi's trainer Bill Wallace found him dead in Bungalow 3 at the Chateau Marmont Hotel on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

He was 33 years old

Belushi died from combined drug intoxication caused by an injection of a heroin and cocaine mixture, known as a speedball.

Catherine Evelyn Smith admitted that she had been with Belushi the night of his death and had given him the fatal shot.

She was extradited from Ontario, Canada, arrested, and charged with first-degree murder. 

A plea bargain reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter, and she served 15 months in prison.

Belushi's has been interred twice at Abel's Hill Cemetery in Chilmark, Massachusetts on Martha's Vineyard. 

A tombstone marking the original burial location has a skull and crossbones with the inscription, "I may be gone but Rock and Roll lives on." 

His name is included on the Belushi family stone marking his mother's grave at Elmwood Cemetery in River Grove, Illinois and reads "He gave us laughter."

He was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.

Did you know that during the pre-production of the movie, Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman remarked Slimer was sort of like Bluto in the film Animal House, like the ghost of John Belushi.

Since then, Slimer has been described as "The Ghost of John Belushi" by Dan Aykroyd in many interviews.