John Belushi‘s hilarious portrayal of Bluto Blutarsky — a whiskey-guzzling, toga-partying frat boy in Animal House — rocked audiences with laughter. But the real-life hard-partying ways of the Saturday Night Live comedian, which led to his OD via speedball at the age of 33, were not so funny.
On the night of March 4, 1982, John went out for some Hollywood debauchery with druggie/groupie pal Cathy Smith and SNL writer Nelson Lyon. Between stops at a restaurant, nightclubs, and ultimately John’s bungalow at the notorious Chateau Marmont, he ingested mass quantities of liquor, cocaine, and heroin. Famous party friends Robert De Niro and Robin Williams stopped by, but left after allegedly being creeped-out by Belushi’s drugged-up state and shady pals. Williams reportedly said, “If you ever get up again, call.” Belushi never did. His trainer Bill “Superfoot” Wallace found his horribly discolored corpse the next morning, curled in the fetal position with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.
Belushi had been battling problems with overeating, nicotine, pills, cocaine, heroin, and alcohol, but Cathy Smith told the National Enquirer that, ultimately, “I killed John Belushi. I didn’t mean to, but I am responsible.” She revealed that she accidentally injected lethal amounts of heroin into his system, at his request, hours before he died. Smith served 15 months in a California prison and John was buried in Martha’s Vineyard below a tombstone that reads, “He made us laugh, and now he can make us think.”
