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(Friday, March 5, 1982, 12:15 p.m. PST) — Comedian John Belushi, whose wayward eyebrows and bulging belly animated his portrayal of the consummate slob on the NBC-TV sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live and in the movie Animal House, was found dead today in his garden bungalow at the Chateau Marmont hotel on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. He was 33 years old.

Belushi’s fitness trainer and occasional bodyguard Bill Wallace arrived at Belushi’s bungalow at the Chateau Marmont to deliver a typewriter and audiocassette recorder because Belushi had requested them the previous day. Wallace found Belushi dead, with no one else present in the bungalow.

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The cause of death was combined drug intoxication involving cocaine and heroin, a drug combination known as a speedball. Belushi’s death was investigated by forensic pathologist Michael Baden, among others, and while the findings were disputed, it was officially ruled a drug-related accident.

In an interview with the National Enquirer two months after Belushi’s death, Catherine Evelyn Smith admitted that she had been with him at the Chateau Marmont on the night of his death and had given him the fatal speedball shot. After the appearance of the Enquirer article, the case was reopened. Smith was arrested, extradited from Ontario, Canada, and charged with first-degree murder.

A plea bargain reduced the charge to involuntary manslaughter, and she served fifteen months in prison.