Chris Farley
Biography
By Chad Stroh
Chris Farley was born February 15th, 1964 to Mary Anne and Tom, Sr.
Farley. He spent his childhood growing up in Madison, Wisconsin
along with his brothers John, Kevin and Tom. He attended Edgewood
High School and would go on to Marquette University. He graduated
from Marquette with a degree in communication and theatre. Soon
after this Chris made his way back to Wisconsin to work with his dad
at an Oil company.Later in his life
Chris moved to Chicago where he began doing comedy at Improv Olympic
comedy theater and also at Chicago’s Second City Theatre. He was
discovered at Second City by the founder of Saturday Night Live
Lorne Michaels.
He would join the cast of Saturday Night Live
in 1990 along with other relatively unknown comedian Chris Rock.
Farley would be very successful with Saturday Night Live creating
characters like motivational speaker Matt Foley who “lived in a van
down by the river” and Todd O’Conner, a huge fan of “da Bears!”. One
of his most memorable skits was auditioning for the Chippendale’s
alongside Patrick Swayze.
Farley also had a successful film career to
along with SNL. He made appearances in Waynes World (1992), Waynes
World 2 (1993) and Coneheads (1993). He co-starred with rising star
Adam Sandler in Airheads (1994) and Billy Madison (1995).
Farley left Saturday Night Live in 1995 and
would make two films with friend David Spade including Tommy Boy
(1995) and Black Sheep (1996). As Farley’s success grew, he was
given a main part in Beverly Hills Ninja (1997). While shooting his
last film Almost Heroes (1998), he suffered from alcohol and drug
problems.
His sad death came when Chris Farley was at a
high point in his career. He died at age 33 after overdosing on
Cocaine and Heroin. Both Chris Farley and SNL cast member Phil
Hartman would die six months apart. He was originally cast to be the
voice of Shrek (2001) but was replaced by former SNL alumni Mike
Myers. Farley stated many times that his idol was former SNL cast
member John Belushi who also died in a very similar manner.
