40 Facts About Chris Farley

Christopher Crosby Farley was an American actor and comedian.

Chris Farley was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live for five seasons, from 1990 to 1995.

Chris Farley went on to pursue a film career, appearing in films such as Airheads, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, Beverly Hills Ninja, and Almost Heroes.

From his early acting days, and through the height of his fame, Chris Farley struggled with obesity, alcoholism, and substance abuse.

Chris Farley died of a drug overdose at the age of 33.

Christopher Crosby Farley was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on February 15,1964 to an Irish-American family, and grew up in Maple Bluff.

Chris Farley attended parochial schools in Madison, including Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart.

Chris Farley graduated from Marquette University in 1986, with a double major in communications and theater.

Chris Farley first learned the art of improvisational comedy at the Ark Improv Theatre in Madison.

Chris Farley then attended Chicago's Second City Theatre, starting the same day as Stephen Colbert, initially as part of Second City's touring group.

Chris Farley was eventually promoted to their main stage in 1989, and was a cast member of three revues, The Gods Must Be Lazy, It Was Thirty Years Ago Today, and Flag Smoking Permitted in Lobby Only or Censorama.

The character's name came from a longtime friend of Chris Farley's who became a Catholic priest and currently serves as pastor at St James Catholic Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

In early renditions of the character, Chris Farley used other names, depending on whom he knew in the audience, until the real-life Foley went to the show and had his name used, at which point Chris Farley felt the name best suited the character and refused to change it.

Some mannerisms of the character were a combination of the positions Chris Farley noticed his rugby teammates took on the pitch coupled with his high school football coach's habit of squatting down when giving pep talks and the voice his father used when he was angry.

Chris Farley performed impersonations of Tom Arnold, Andrew Giuliani, Jerry Garcia, Meat Loaf, Norman Schwarzkopf, Dom DeLuise, Roger Ebert, Carnie Wilson, Newt Gingrich, Mindy Cohn, Mama Cass, Hank Williams Jr.

Sandler and Chris Farley would make late-night prank phone calls from the SNL offices in Rockefeller Center, with Sandler speaking in an old woman's voice and Chris Farley farting into the phone and mooning cars from a limousine, and even once defecating out a 17th floor window.

Chris Farley was known to frequently get naked and do various stunts for laughs, including imitating Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb from the then-current film The Silence of the Lambs.

Chris Farley appeared in the music video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers single "Soul to Squeeze", which was featured on the soundtrack to Coneheads.

Chris Farley was particularly dissatisfied with Black Sheep, an attempt by the studio to recapture the chemistry in Tommy Boy, and which was only 60 pages into the script when the project was green-lit.

The original version of Shrek was more like Chris Farley himself, according to his brother.

Additionally, in Dana Carvey and David Spade's podcast Fly on the Wall tribute episode to the 25th anniversary of Chris's death, John Farley said he had been approached by the studio to complete Chris's lines due to his voice sounding almost identical to his brother's.

Chris Farley was slated for another voice role in Dinosaur as a young male Brachiosaurus named Sorbus who, despite his gigantic stature, was frightened of heights.

At the time of his death, Chris Farley had been in talks to co-star with Vince Vaughn in The Gelfin, and to star in a biographical film about comedian Fatty Arbuckle to be written by David Mamet.

Jim Carrey's role in the 1996 film The Cable Guy was originally intended for Chris Farley, but scheduling conflicts forced him to decline.

Chris Farley was offered the role of Ishmael in Kingpin, though he was forced by Paramount to turn it down to honor his commitment to star in Black Sheep.

Chris Farley was slated to appear in a third Ghostbusters film, which was at the time intended to be about a new trio of Ghostbusters taking on overpopulation in Hell.

Chris Farley had been in talks for the lead in an adaptation of the novel A Confederacy of Dunces.

Chris Farley even expressed interest in portraying Atuk in an adaptation of the novel The Incomparable Atuk.

Chris Farley was written in mind for a part in Grown Ups during early conception of the film.

Two months before his death, Chris Farley had a conversation with Spade about a hypothetical third film that would have starred the duo.

For most of his adult life, Chris Farley battled alcohol and drug addiction.

Bernie Brillstein, whose firm of Brillstein-Grey Entertainment managed Chris Farley, had repeatedly sent Chris Farley to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Chris Farley made a guest appearance on Nickelodeon's children's sketch comedy show All That.

The appearance proceeded without incident, but the physical comedy Chris Farley was famous for was minimal, arguably because it was noticeable Chris Farley was breathing heavily and struggling to perform.

On October 25,1997, Chris Farley made his final appearance on Saturday Night Live as a first-time host.

Chris Farley had strained his vocal cords during rehearsal and his exhaustion was so noticeable the producers nearly cancelled his appearance.

An autopsy revealed that Chris Farley had died of an overdose of a combination of cocaine and heroin, commonly known as a "speedball".

An authorized biography of Farley, The Chris Farley Show, was written by his brother Tom Jr.

The song "Purple Stain" from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 1999 album, Californication, contains the lyric "Chris Farley is an angel and I can prove this" as a tribute to Chris Farley.

Farley was the subject of the TV program, Autopsy: The Last Hours of Chris Farley, which premiered on November 19,2016, on the Reelz channel.