Wired

This reissue of Bob Woodwords classic book about John Belushione of the most interesting performers and personalities in show business historyis told with the same narrative style that Woodward employed so effectively in All the Presidents Men and The Final Days (Chicago Tribune).John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose March 5, 1982, in a seedy hotel bungalow off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Belushis death was the beginning of a trail that led Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward on an investigation that examines the dark side of American show businessTV, rock and roll, and the movie industry. From on-the-record interviews with 217 people, including Belushi's widow, his former partner Dan Aykroyd, Belushis movie directors including Jack Nicholson and Steven Spielberg, actors Chevy Chase, Robin Williams, and Carrie Fisher, the movie executives, the agents, Belushis drug dealers, and those who live in the show business underground, the author has written a close portrait of a great American comic talent, and of his struggle to succeed and to survive that ended in tragedy. Using diaries, accountants records, phone bills, travel records, medical records, and interviews with firsthand witnesses, Woodward has followed Belushis life from childhood in a small town outside Chicago to his meteoric rise to fame. Bob Woodward has written a spellbinding account of rise and fall, a cautionary tale for our times, and a poignant and gentle portrait of a young man who had so much, gave so much, and lost so much.