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See Young John Belushi During His Saturday Night Live Years
The original SNL cast member would become one half of The Blues Brothers with fellow Not Ready for Prime Time Player Dan Aykroyd.
As one of Saturday Night Live's six original cast members, John Belushi's talent as an electric, physical performer brought a lot of energy to the program.
According to a September 2024 The New York Times interview with SNL's living Not Ready for Prime Time Players, Chevy Chase said that he urged creator Lorne Michaels to hire Belushi, who he'd previously worked with on the National Lampoon Radio Hour.
"He was a very sensitive and honest performer," his friend, collaborator, and fellow Season 1 cast mate Dan Aykroyd — who first met native Illinoisan Belushi in Toronto, Canada before SNL — told People. Belushi and Aykroyd created the fictional duo The Blues Brothers, who performed on Saturday Night Live and later got their own movie.
RELATED: Why the First Saturday Night Live Cast Were Called The Not Ready for Prime Time Players
What years was John Belushi on SNL?
1975-1979.
In Saturday Night Live's first episode, Belushi the second person to appear onscreen after head writer Michael O'Donahue, playing opposite him in "The Wolverines" cold open.
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John Belushi's SNL characters and impressions
Belushi originated a number of memorable characters, including Samurai Futaba and Olympia Café owner Pete Dionisopoulos.
The actor was also famous for his impressions, which ranged from musician Joe Cocker and Godfather patriarch Vito Corleone to Star Trek captain James T. Kirk, as well as his slightly off-beat take on Ludwig van Beethoven.
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Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982, three years after he departed SNL as a cast member. But Aykroyd prefers that fans remember the talent that gave him such a legacy, and what it was like to know him.
"He was well read, he was warm, he was funny, he was magnetic," Aykroyd told Rolling Stone in 2024. "He was a true thousand-watt aviation lamp walking around."
