Dan Aykroyd said the summer before John Belushi died, it seems as if he’d gotten past his demons. They worked together on Saturday Night Live and on films such as The Blue Brothers. All the while, Belushi suffered from drug addiction. But the summer of 1981, he stayed with Aykroyd at Martha’s Vineyard and it seemed as if that was all behind him.
But when Belushi returned to New York that fall, he slipped back into his old bad habits. He died in March of the next year at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. Dan Aykroyd says he thinks about his old friend every day and still thinks “what if?”
Dan Aykroyd remembers getting the call the morning that John Belushi died on an episode of the What We’re Drinking podcast.
“I was typing a line for (Belushi) for Ghostbusters,” Aykroyd recalls. Belushi was supposed to play Peter Venkman in the film. Bill Murray ended up playing the iconic role.
“I was at our office at 155th Avenue. It was about 8:30 in the morning. I’m typing a line for him and the phone rings from LA and it’s the manager. And all I’m thinking is I gotta get to Judy’s house (Belushi’s wife) right now. She can’t hear this on the radio,” he continued.
Aykroyd said he ran from the building toward Belushi’s New York apartment. But as he sprinted by a newsstand, he realized it was too late. Because the papers already had it: “John Belushi dead at 33,” screamed a banner headline.
He said John Belushi was drifting away from everyone in the final months of his life. But Aykroyd said he still wonders what would have happened if he’d gone to Los Angeles to try and help John get help.
“That’s what I’ll live with,” Dan Aykroyd said. “Maybe I might have been able to catch him. I don’t know.”
It will be 40 years in March since Belushi died, but Aykroyd said his old friend and former bandmate is never far from his mind.
“I think of him every day,” he said. “I think of him every day.”
Death of John Belushi Back in Spotlight After Viral Video
Despite it being nearly 40 years since someone found John Belushi on the floor of a bungalow at the prestigious hotel, his death is back in the public spotlight after a video about Robin Williams went viral.
Impressionist Jamie Costa released a video recently that featured him as Robin Williams in his dressing room at Mork and Mindy learning about the death of John Belushi. Williams was with John Belushi the night he died. Moreover, he spent some time with Robert DeNiro and Belushi in Bungalow 3 of the Marmont doing cocaine, a report claims. Though they both were there, they left shortly after arriving because they found the scene depressing and strange, a retrospective on the death reveals.
Costa’s impression of Williams is spot on, and he takes Belushi’s death hard. The viral video sparked hope that a production company could create a Robin Williams biopic. If it does happen, that night in Bungalow 3 will likely play an important role in the film.
