Jim Belushi - Career

Career

From 1977 to 1980, Belushi, like his older brother John, worked with the Chicago theater group The Second City. During this period, Belushi made his television debut in 1978's Who's Watching the Kids and also had a small part in Brian De Palma's The Fury. His first significant role was in Michael Mann's Thief (1981). After his elder brother John's death, from 1983 to 1985 he appeared on Saturday Night Live; he portrayed characters such as Hank Rippy from "Hello, Trudy!", and "That White Guy". Belushi also appeared in the film Trading Places as a drunk man in a gorilla suit during a New Year's Eve party. He made a guest appearance in Faerie Tale Theatre's third season episode Pinocchio, starring Paul Reubens as the titular puppet.

Belushi rose to greater prominence with his supporting roles in About Last Night..., Salvador and Little Shop of Horrors (as Patrick Martin) (all 1986), which opened up opportunities for lead roles. He has starred in films including Real Men, The Principal, Red Heat, Homer and Eddie, K-9, Dimenticare Palermo, Taking Care of Business, Mr. Destiny, Only the Lonely, Curly Sue, Once Upon A Crime, Wild Palms, Royce, Race the Sun, Separate Lives, Retroactive, Gang Related, Angel's Dance and Joe Somebody (2001). K-9 produced two sequels that were released straight to video, K-911, featuring Mac, Sonto & Reno as "Jerry Lee", K-9: P.I., featuring King as "Jerry Lee", and George Lopez as the building inspector in "George's Extreme Makeover: Holmes Edition".

His voice work includes The Mighty Ducks, The Pebble and the Penguin, Babes in Toyland, Gargoyles and Hey Arnold!, and the more recent Hoodwinked, Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King, and The Wild. He also lent his vocal talents for 9: The Last Resort (a PC game released in 1995), in which he portrayed "Salty", a coarse yet helpful character. In 1997, he portrayed the "Masked Mutant" in the Goosebumps PC video game, alongside Adam West as "The Galloping Gazelle". On January 4, 2001, Belushi appeared on the ER episode "Piece of Mind". The episode focused on both Dr. Mark Greene's life-or-death brain surgery in New York and Belushi's character, who had been in a car accident with his son in Chicago. Belushi's performance contributed to his re-emergence in the public eye, and the following year he was cast as the title role in ABC's According to Jim. His first animation voice-over was as a pimple on Krum's head in Aaahh!!! Real Monsters on Nickelodeon. That performance led him to be cast in the continuing role as Simon the Monster Hunter in that series, where he ad-libbed much of his own dialogue.

In 2003, Belushi and Dan Aykroyd released the album Have Love, Will Travel, and participated in an accompanying tour. He also performs at various venues nationwide as Zee Blues in an updated version of The Blues Brothers. He released his first book, Real Men Don't Apologize, in May 2006.

Recently, Belushi was a narrator of an NFL offensive linemen commercial. Belushi also introduced the starting lineups for the University of Illinois football team during ABC's telecast of the 2008 Rose Bowl.

Belushi started to take interest in his Albanian ancestry. During his visit to Tirana on November 11, 2008, he received the order Honor of the Nation from the President of Albania, H.E. Bamir Topi. On October 9, 2009, he received Albanian citizenship.

Belushi appeared in MC Hammer's video "Too Legit to Quit" in 1991 (in the extended full-length version). He also hosted a celebration rally for the Chicago Cubs playoff series in Chicago prior to the 2008 World Series. Steve Dahl has dubbed him "The Funniest Living Belushi."

In 2010, Belushi was cast in a pilot for CBS called The Defenders a series about defense lawyers. The one-hour series premiered on September 22, 2010. In two episodes in 2011, Belushi was paired with Blues Brothers partner Dan Aykroyd. On May 15, 2011, The Defenders was canceled by CBS.

In 2011 Belushi was cast as corrupt businessman Harry Brock in Born Yesterday, which opened on Broadway in late April.