today we paying tribute to a man who gave us a lot of laughs
Farley was born on February 15, 1964, in Madison, Wisconsin and grew up in Maple Bluff.His father, Thomas John Farley Sr. (1936–1999), owned an oil company, and his mother, Mary Anne (née Crosby), was a homemaker.He had four siblings: Tom Jr., Kevin, John, and Barbara. His cousin, Jim, is Executive Vice President and President, Global Markets at Ford Motor Company.
Farley's family is Roman Catholic and of Irish and Scottish descent. Farley attended Catholic schools in his hometown, including Edgewood High School of the Sacred Heart. According to Joel Murray, a fellow Second City cast member, Farley would "always make it to Mass."
Many of his summers were spent as a camper and counselor at Red Arrow Camp, near Minocqua, Wisconsin. He graduated from Marquette University in 1986, with a concentration in communications and theater. At Marquette, he played rugby and discovered a love of comedy.
After college, he worked with his father at the Scotch Oil Company in Madison.He first learned the art of improvisational comedy at the Ark Improv Theatre in Madison, under the tutelage of Dennis Kern (see also: Joan Cusack.)
Farley ventured his way to Chicago, performing first at Improv Olympic. He then attended Chicago's Second City Theatre, starting the same day as Stephen Colbert, initially as part of Second City's touring group. He was eventually promoted to their Mainstage 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.
Along with Chris Rock, Farley was one of the new Saturday Night Live cast members announced in the spring of 1990.On SNL, Farley frequently collaborated with fellow cast members Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Tim Meadows, Rob Schneider, and David Spade, among others. This group came to be known as the "Bad Boys of SNL."
Popular characters performed by Farley included Matt Foley, an over-the-top motivational speaker who constantly reminded other characters that he "lived in a van, down by the river." The name of the character was drawn from an actual friend of Farley who, during a troubled period, lived in a van near a river. The real Matt Foley later became a Catholic priest and appeared in the 2015 documentary I am Chris Farley.
In late renditions of the character, 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 Farley felt the name best suited the character and refused to change it. Some of the mannerisms of the character were a combination of the positions Farley noticed his rugby teammates took on the pitch coupled with the voice his father used when he was angry.
Other famous Farley characters included Todd O'Connor of Bill Swerski's Superfans, a group of stereotypical Chicagoans who constantly shouted "da Bears!" a Chippendale's dancer, in a famous sketch that paired him with guest host Patrick Swayze;[16] one of the "Gap Girls", who hung out together at a local mall; a stereotypical lunch lady, to the theme of Lunchlady Land performed by Adam Sandler Bennett Brauer, a Weekend Update commentator who often divulged his personal and hygienic problems via air quotes; and himself on The Chris Farley Show, a talk show in which Farley quite often "interviewed" the guest, regularly getting very nervous.
Some of these characters were brought to SNL from his days at Second City. Farley also performed impersonations of Tom Arnold (who gave Farley's eulogy at his private funeral), Andrew Giuliani, Jerry Garcia, Meat Loaf, Norman Schwarzkopf, Dom DeLuise, Roger Ebert, Carnie Wilson, Newt Gingrich, Mindy Cohn, Mama Cass, Hank Williams Jr., and Rush Limbaugh.
Off screen, Farley was well known for his pranks in the offices of Saturday Night Live. Sandler and 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 Farley farting into the phone and mooning cars from a limousine, and even once defecating out a window. He was also known to frequently get naked and do various stunts for laughs. Chris Rock once claimed that he probably saw Farley's private parts more than Farley's girlfriend did.Sandler told Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show that NBC fired him and Farley from the show in 1995.
For much of his life he struggled with alcohol and illicit drug abuse; such addictions caused him to be suspended repeatedly from the cast of Saturday Night Live.Bernie Brillstein, who personally managed John Belushi and whose firm, Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, managed Farley, repeatedly sent Farley to drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
Following his final guest appearance on SNL on October 25, 1997, there was a visible decline in Farley's health. Farley's hoarse voice and flushed skin were the subject of public scrutiny.In the final years of his life, Farley had sought treatment for obesity and drug abuse on 17 occasions.
On December 18, 1997, Farley was found dead by his younger brother, John, in his apartment in the John Hancock Center in Chicago. He was 33 years old.An autopsy revealed that Farley had died of an overdose of cocaine and morphine,a combination called speedball. Advanced atherosclerosis was cited as a "significant contributing factor." Farley's death has been compared to that of his SNL idol John Belushi, who died at the same age of a similar combination of drugs.
A private funeral was held for Farley on December 23, 1997, at Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. Over 500 people attended this funeral, including many comedians who had worked with him on Saturday Night Live and on film, such as Dan Aykroyd and Adam Sandler;notably absent was Farley's best friend David Spade, who chose not to attend the funeral, stating years later that he had found it emotionally hard to handle Farley's sudden death.Farley's remains were entombed at Resurrection Cemetery.
On August 26, 2005, Farley was posthumously awarded the 2,289th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located in front of iO West.An authorized biography of Farley, The Chris Farley Show, was written by his brother Tom Jr. and Tanner Colby. The song "Purple Stain" from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 1999 album, Californication, contains the lyric "Farley is an angel and I can prove this" as a tribute to Farley.
A television documentary on Farley's life, I Am Chris Farley, was shown on August 10, 2015.Farley was also the subject of the TV program, Autopsy: The Last Hours of Chris Farley, which premiered on November 19, 2016 on the Reelz channel.
In 2018, Adam Sandler wrote and performed an emotional tribute song dedicated to Farley in his 2018 Netflix stand-up special “Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh". Netflix would later upload the tribute song to YouTube on the 21st anniversary of Farley's death.
Sandler would later play the song live on an episode of SNL that he hosted in May 2019
Long live one of the most greatest & funniest man on SNL and on gods green earth "Chris Farley"
R.I.P. buddy
Cinco de Mayo