John Belushi Visited His Castmates' Graves in SNL's "Don't Look Back in Anger" Film
Tom Schiller's 1978 film took on new meaning following the deaths of Belushi and Gilda Radner.
When Saturday Night Live marked a half decade on NBC with the massive SNL50: The Anniversary Special, four of the show's five living original cast members were in attendance: Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, and Chevy Chase (Dan Aykroyd chose to enjoy the festivities from home). Eighty-eight-year-old Morris, the oldest of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, proudly introduced a short film that now holds extra meaning for the cast and SNL fans alike: "Don't Look Back in Anger" starring John Belushi.
"Now look here, this film you're going to see, it's a great film made by my man Tom Schiller," Morris told the celebrity-packed Studio 8H audience. Made in 1978, Morris added that it "features the entire cast."
That was a sly joke, as Belushi is the only cast member who actually appears in the black-and-white film. Everyone else is referenced in name only — on gravestones, as Belushi "reveals" what happened to them after they left the trail-blazing sketch show.
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The film opens on Belushi, in makeup as an old man, getting off a train with a floral wreath in one hand and a cane in the other. "I thought I'd be the first to go," Belushi tells the camera, as he hobbles up to the "Not Ready for Prime Time Cemetery."
"Here's Gilda Radner," he says, explaining she went on to have her own show on Canadian TV for years and years. "Cute as a button, god bless her," he said of Radner, who in fact of cancer died eleven years later. He goes on to spin hilarious and wildly untrue tales of the other cast members' fates: Curtin died during plastic surgery, while Season 2 cast addition Bill Murray lived to the ripe old age of 38.
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"The Saturday Night show was the best experience of my life. And now they're all gone. I miss every one of them," Belushi says, before joyfully dancing on their graves.
John Belushi filmed the SNL short "perfectly the first take"
"The night before shooting, John had been out late partying. Early on the morning of the shoot we picked him up in a van that had a small bed in the back, and despite swerving and driving fast, I was amazed that he slept like a baby as we drove out to the cemetery location in Queens," the film's director, Tom Schiller, told Vulture in a 2020 interview.
"I was also amazed that he put in a great performance despite being hungover. In addition, without rehearsal, he hit every mark — every gravestone — perfectly the first take," he added.
"Don't Look Back in Anger" director Tom Schiller made dozens of SNL short films
Tom Schiller was an Saturday Night Live writer for 11 seasons, and even a Featured Player for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it stint in Season 5. But his surreal, often sweet short films are what Schiller's most remembered for on the show: Before the "SNL Digital Short," there was "Schiller's Reel," aka "Schiller Vision."
"Don't Look Back in Anger" was Schiller's third film for SNL, first airing in Season 3 on March 11, 1978, during the episode hosted by Art Garfunkel. Other memorable Schiller's Reel films include a La Dolce Vita homage starring Gilda Radner, and the gorgeous "Love Is a Dream" starring Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman — both of which, like "Don't Look Back in Anger," retroactively double as memorials for its gifted stars.
Schiller explained to Vulture why he cast Belushi as the oldest surviving Not Ready for Prime Time Player.
"It was about the time, I guess during the second or third year, that the show was really peaking and at its height in popularity," he shared. "I wondered: Who was the most symbolic character of Saturday Night Live? Belushi, the samurai — gruff but accessible and funny at the same time. And I thought about, What would it be like if he were the one to outlive everybody?"
Schiller admitted it was Belushi's "living the hard life" that informed his pick.
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John Belushi died in 1982
Ultimately, Belushi was the first of the early SNL cast members to die. He died on March 5, 1982 at age 33, found at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles.
"I still love him and you know, I remember him every day," his friend and collaborator Dan Aykroyd told Dan Rather in 2018.
Fellow late cast member Gilda Radner's spirit was also in the house during the SNL50 special — courtesy of her pals Curtin and Newman, who held up a photo of the star during goodnights.
