Chris Farley’s Death, 27 Years Later: Inside the Funnyman's Troubling Final Days and the Mark He Made on the World of Comedy

27 years ago, comedian Chris Farley’s life came to a tragic end.

The Wisconsin-born star was discovered dead in his Chicago apartment from an apparent drug overdose on Dec. 18, 1997. He was 33 years old — the same age his longtime idol and fellow comedian John Belushi was when he died 15 years prior.

Farley set out to follow in Belushi’s footsteps from the moment he saw his father in hysterics over Animal House, and that’s exactly what he did. He landed a spot in Chicago’s Second City Theater in 1987 — the same place Belushi got his start — and was picked up by Lorne Michaels for Saturday Night Live in 1990 (15 years after Belushi made his debut on the same show).

The comedian continued on SNL for the next five years, debuting legendary characters, including motivational speaker Matt Foley, a wannabe Chippendales dancer and Cindy, one of the Gap girls. Though he was fired from the sketch comedy show in 1995 (along with his close friend Adam Sandler), Farley found success on the big screen, appearing in Tommy Boy and Beverly Hills Ninja.

But despite Farley’s wealth and fame, he was also plagued by his own demons, including addictions to alcohol, drugs and food. The comedian went in and out of rehab more than a dozen times throughout his life, and was sober for three years before relapsing again in 1995. Friends repeatedly urged Farley to get clean, in an effort to help him avoid a fate similar to his hero Belushi.

“I said, ‘Chris, you can’t follow John. You can’t follow his track. The guy did drugs. He’s dead. You can’t follow him with the drugs to find out who he was,’ ” Belushi’s brother Jim said on David Spade and Dana Carvey’s Fly on the Wall podcast.

But Farley brushed off the concerns of his loved ones and continued to live a life of excess.

“I mean, there’s no control in life, is there?” Farley told Rolling Stone in 1997. “There’s only one who’s in control, and He’ll take me when He wants me. I don’t want to know about it. It’s none of my business. But when it happens, I just ask that it won’t be painful and that He forgives me my sins.”

From his final days to his lasting legacy, here is everything to know about Chris Farley’s tragic death.

How did Chris Farley die?

There was no evidence of foul play and no drugs found in the apartment when Farley’s body was discovered — but those closest to the comedian immediately suspected that he had succumbed to his addictions. An autopsy report later confirmed what they feared: Farley died from an accidental overdose of cocaine and morphine.

In addition to the drugs, blood tests revealed that the comedian had taken the antidepressant Prozac and an antihistamine — but neither of those had contributed to his death, according to the Los Angeles Times. What was found to be a significant factor in Farley’s death, however, was coronary atherosclerosis, or a narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart, the medical examiner reported, per the Chicago Tribune. According to the Mayo Clinic, obesity, alcohol use and an unhealthy diet are all risk factors for coronary artery disease; Farley was 5 feet 8 inches tall and 296 lbs. at the time of his death and was well known for his addictions to drugs, alcohol and food.

“Chris played Russian roulette with drugs and alcohol, and it caught up with him,” Jillian Seely, a close friend of Farley’s, told PEOPLE shortly after his death. “He wanted more than anything to be sober, but his addictions overtook him.”

Even Farley himself recognized that he was on a self-destructive path.

“Let’s just say I had my share of fun,” Farley told Rolling Stone in 1997 about his drug usage. “But all that s--- does is kill someone. It is a demon that must be snuffed out. It is the end.”

Where did Chris Farley die?

Farley was found dead in his 60th-floor apartment in the 100-story John Hancock Tower in downtown Chicago. His younger brother, John, discovered his body in the front room of the rented apartment — lying lifeless on his back, wearing sweatpants and an open shirt.

“He died alone on a linoleum floor,” Father Matt Foley, a friend of Farley’s and the inspiration for one of his famous SNL characters, said in the documentary I Am Chris Farley. “It was not what we wanted for him or what he wanted for himself.”

When did Chris Farley die?

Farley’s body was discovered on Dec. 18, 1997, at around 2 p.m. However, his deadly downward spiral began four days prior, on Dec. 14.

On Sunday, Dec. 14, Farley spent the night partying at the Chicago club Karma. At about 2 a.m. on Monday, he moved the party to his apartment, according to Entertainment Weekly, where he did cocaine for nearly seven more hours. Farley then continued to party Monday evening, attending the 38th-anniversary celebration for Second City (the Chicago improv company where he got his start) and then club hopping throughout the night.

“He was partying too much and had no sense of direction,” former Chicago Bulls player Dennis Rodman told PEOPLE after he ran into Farley that night and had one of his bodyguards help him home.

Farley’s antics carried into Tuesday, Dec. 16: He allegedly hired an exotic dancer named Autumn to entertain him at his apartment, per Entertainment Weekly, where he was smoking marijuana, drinking vodka and trying to score cocaine.

“You could just tell he was on a rampage,” Autumn told the publication at the time.

Another exotic dancer, Heidi Hauser, alleged that she spent Wednesday, Dec. 17 — the last day of Farley’s life — with the comedian. She claimed she spent most of the day with him in his apartment as he consumed large amounts of vodka, heroin and cocaine. Hauser eventually left at around 3 a.m. Thursday, when Farley passed out on the floor of his apartment. His body was discovered 11 hours later, on Thursday afternoon.

How old was Chris Farley when he died?

Farley was 33 years old when he died.

What were Chris Farley’s last words?

Farley’s alleged last words were spoken to Heidi Hauser, the exotic dancer who he spent the final hours of his life with. According to New York Magazine, the two argued over money, which prompted Hauser to get up to leave. Farley attempted to follow her but collapsed on his apartment floor, struggling to breathe.

“Don’t leave me,” Farley reportedly said to Hauser before passing out. She then allegedly took pictures of him, stole his watch and left — leaving him a note saying she had had a lot of fun.

What was the public reaction to Chris Farley’s death?

Those who knew Farley — and his struggles with substance abuse and addiction — were not shocked by his death at a young age. A Chicago newspaper columnist even referred to Farley’s death as “the least-surprising premature death of a celebrity in show-business history,” Rolling Stone reported. However, it did not lessen the blow of the tragic loss.

“I wasn’t shocked,” Mike Myers said about Farley’s death in the documentary I Am Chris Farley, “but I was very sad.”

Public memorials for Farley were held in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Stars like Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Dan Aykroyd attended his funeral in his hometown of Madison, Wis., where a copy of “A Clown’s Prayer” was handed out to the mourners.

“As I stumble through this life, help me create more laughter than tears, dispense more happiness than gloom, spread more cheer than despair,” the prayer, which Farley kept in his wallet, reads in part.

Why didn’t David Spade go to Chris Farley’s funeral?

Several of Farley’s fellow comedians and Saturday Night Live costars attended his private funeral in Madison. But notably absent from the services was Farley’s best friend, David Spade.

Spade and Farley not only appeared on SNL together, but they also starred in the films Tommy Boy and Black Sheep. Their friendship went beyond the big and small screen, however — with Spade describing their bond as “like an old married couple” to the Today show. So when Spade did not attend Farley’s funeral, rumors sparked that the two had had a falling out.

Spade revealed years later, though, his real reason for skipping his best friend’s funeral.

“I think about him all the time,” Spade wrote in a Reddit AMA in April 2014, per Rolling Stone. “We had such a good time for so long and we were crammed together for so long that we did have our squabbles, but I think people misunderstood me not going to that funeral.”

He continued, “It was nothing about that. It was just too … emotional and I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

What is Chris Farley’s legacy?

Though Farley’s career and life were cut tragically short, he left a lasting impact on the world of comedy. He is widely remembered as one of the comedy greats and earned a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 2005, seven years after his untimely death.

“Everyone still has a real nice place in their hearts for him, they still remember him,” Spade said about his close friend at his Walk of Fame ceremony, per Today. “He goes down as one of the greats. And I still think about him every day.”

Farley’s friends in the comedy world have kept his spirit and memory alive in the decades since his passing. Adam Sandler wrote a tribute song for Farley, dubbed the “Chris Farley Song,” and performed it on his 2018 Netflix special Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh, again when he hosted SNL in 2019 and at the end of every stand-up comedy show on his 2022 tour.

“We laughed all night long because of Farley/ But a few months later the party came to an end/ We flew out to Madison to bury our friend,” Sandler sang in the song, recalling the last time he and Farley were together in July 1997 at Tim Meadows’ wedding.

Sandler continued, “Yeah I miss hanging out/ Watching you try to get laid/ But most of all I miss watching you torture [David] Spade/ You’re a legend how you want it, but I still wish you were here with me/ And we were getting on a plane to shoot Grown Ups 3.”

Spade and Dana Carvey also honored Farley with a two-part tribute special on their Fly on the Wall podcast. The episodes, which were released around the 25th anniversary of Farley’s death in 2022, honored the great comedy talent that Farley was — and lamented what he could have achieved had he not died so young.

“No one was competing with Farley,” Chris Rock said about the late comedian on the tribute special. “It was just like he’s Michael Jordan, and give him the ball.”

Rock later continued, “It's sad when our friend’s not here, but it is curious to [think] ‘Wow, what would that guy have done?’ ... He’s literally that level of actor, and that level of like, you just felt for that guy. Whatever ride Chris Farley was going to take me on, I was definitely ready to go on it.”

Farley is also set to be memorialized in an upcoming biopic. The film, which is based on the 2008 book The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts, will star Paul Walter Hauser and is reportedly being directed by Josh Gad and produced by Lorne Michaels.

“This is a glory story. Not a tale from the crypt. Ready to honor Christopher,” Hauser wrote on Instagram in April 2024 when he announced the project.

Read the original article on People