James Belushi (PATRICK MARTIN):
![James Belushi]](Graphics/James/portrait2.jpg)
Slightly
stocky but tall, strapping lead and second lead, brother of the late comedian
John Belushi, who first came to prominence in the mid-1980s and has claimed
a modest stardom in a series of minor comedies and actioners.
A talented and versatile player, Belushi began with Chicago's famed "Second City" theatre troupe and later played notable roles on Windy City stages in David Mamet's "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" and revivals of "Under Milkwood" and "Born Yesterday". Good notices and his brother's success on "Saturday Night Live" may have brought Belushi to the attention of TV talent scouts, and in the late 70s he tried two sitcoms, "Who's Watching the Kids" (1978), as one of two men trying to score with neighboring women by babysitting the younger siblings of the females, and "Working Stiffs" (1979), opposite Michael Keaton as a pair of lunkheaded janitors. Neither show lasted long, but after more stage work, Belushi made his screen debut in Michael Mann's slick crime thriller, "Thief" (1981).
Less manic than his brother, Belushi has typically played tough, urban
types (blue-collar workers, CIA agents, police detectives) with more than
a touch of the Everyman to them. His New York stage work (Sam Shepard's
"True West", a revival of the operetta "The Pirates of
Penzance") suggests a wider range than film and TV have sometimes
allowed. Indeed, Belushi's film breakthrough came with "About Last
Night" (1986), in which he recreated his stage role from "Sexual
Perversity" as the wisecracking, sexist Bernie Litko. Many of his
roles do not call on him to act so much as to react, hence the split critical
reaction to his work in the much-ballyhooed TV miniseries maelstrom of
postmodern virtual reality, "Wild Palms" (1993), with Belushi
as an ambitious businessman confronting his media-mongering Mad Hatter
employer. 
Belushi's two-year stint on "Saturday Night Live" in the mid-80s did suggest a low-key flair for comedy, but from the beginning his was an unruly presence resentful over producer Dick Ebersol's favoritism of Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Feature film work took off afterwards, though, and Belushi has typically found himself playing second fiddle to a canine cop ("K-9" 1989) or a cute little girl ("Curly Sue" 1991) or else making a suitably cool and deadpan foil to other action heroes ("Red Heat" 1988, opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger) or flashier star comedians ("Only the Lonely" 1991, "Once Upon a Crime" 1992, both with John Candy). His best dramatic opportunities to date came with his memorable sleazeball in Oliver Stone's "Salvador" (1986) and his harried schoolteacher in "The Principal" (1987).
James's Filmography:
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