James Adam Belushi was born June 15, 1954, in Chicago, to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant and his mother was also of Albanian descent. He grew up in Wheaton, Illinois. He attended the College of DuPage and Southern Illinois University, where he graduated with a degree in Speech and Theater Arts.
In 1977, he joined Chicago’s Second City improv troupe and remained for three years. In 1979, Garry Marshall saw Jim performing for Second City and arranged for him to come to Hollywood and co-star in the TV pilot Who’s Watching the Kids (1978) for Paramount and, then, for a role in the series Working Stiffs (1979). Later, in 1983, he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live (1975) for two years. Jim came to national attention in About Last Night… (1986), playing the role he originated in the Chicago Apollo Theatre’s production of David Mamet‘s Obie-award winning play “Sexual Perversity in Chicago”.