Chris Farley was such a dynamic comedic actor. His roles thrive in this absurdist, physical acting, a big man performing loud, brash, and big on screen. His weight lends to some of that but his presence always felt large and bombastic. Films like Tommy Boy, Billy Madison, and Wayne's World will live on forever due to his brash slapstick comedy.
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Additionally, Saturday Night Live owes a lot to Farley as well. He was one of the hotter, more promising prospects coming from the loaded talent pool on the sketch show. Unfortunately, his life and career were cut short when he tragically passed away at the end of 1997 at 33 years old. His cause of death was a drug overdose. Farley grappled with that addiction throughout his entire career. Sadly, SNL creator Lorne Michaels is all too familiar with comics and their bouts with drugs. Fellow alum John Belushi faced a similar fate. Consequently, to avoid history repeating itself, Lorne took various measures to try and help Chris in his battle.
Lorne Michaels Would Give 'Tough Love' to Chris Farley to Help Battle Addiction
Recently, biographer Susan Morrison appeared on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. There, she promotes her SNL book Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, chronicling Lorne Michaels' life and career with SNL and its members. There, she notes how the loss of John Belushi drastically affected how he handled those with addiction. Consequently, Chris Farley would frequently end up in Lorne's office over his drug woes.
"When Belushi died, it really hit [Lorne] hard," Morrison says. "And I think he felt like this whole approach of just letting people do their own thing on their own time, this was the wrong approach. We're a tribe, we're a group, and we have to look out for each other. And so by the time Chris Farley comes along ten years later or whatever, from the beginning, he clearly had addiction issues. Lorne would call him into his office and give him these talks about the drinking or the drugs."
But instead of keeping it to simple lectures in his office, Lorne would take tough measures to try and get the SNL comic back on the right track. "He couldn't metabolize it, but Lorne had really changed his approach," Morrison continues. "He would ban Farley from the show for weeks at a time if he was too f---ed up. And he sent him to a series of really tough love rehab places. And obviously, it didn't do it for him."
