Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Farley shocked the comedy scene with his death in December 1997 at the age of 33.
The TV presenter was on SNL for five years between 1990 and 1995 alongside the likes of Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, and Mike Myers. However, despite his celebrity status, Chris’ life was filled with heartache as he struggled with his weight and drug addiction.
Chris Farley’s heartbreaking death
Despite attending rehab 17 times before his death, nothing could help Chris Farley save from an overdose of Class A drugs. He tried going cold turkey on alcohol and booze as well as diets and ‘fat farms’ to try and lose weight, but in the few days before he died he displayed concerning symptoms.
When opening Planet Hollywood in Indianapolis in July 1997, he appeared ‘disorientated’ while in the throws of the crowd and soaked himself with milk. When a friend cornered him and shared their concerns, Chris told them he wanted to “live fast and die young.”
He was found at the age of 33 from a drug overdose and found in his appointment by his younger brother John. Atherosclerosis was also a contributing factor – this is when there is a “narrowing of the arteries caused by a buildup of plaque.”
Talking about his late friend, Adam Sandler said performing the Chris Farley Song on SNL while hosting made him emotional, and said he misses the actor and “loved him so much.”
“The first few times we played that song, I would tear up and I couldn’t really sing it well because I’d get so emotional, and then I felt it and was able to get it out there. I remember his dad and I’m friends with his brothers and his mom and everybody and they still miss him a lot. So yeah, it gets me.
“I love hearing the crowd go nuts for Farley,” he said, adding, “Every show I do, by far the biggest applause of the night is talking about Farley, and any time I mention his name, the audience goes nuts. It feels great.”
Meanwhile, Bob Odenkirk, star of Breaking Bad also worked with Chris. He said in his book Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Drama: “I’d watch Chris stumble off into the night after killing it onstage and my mind would write ‘taken from us too soon!’ and all that. Someone would say, ‘Chris, you’re gonna kill yourself if you keep this up!’ and it was the billionth time he’d heard it. It didn’t help that, usually, the person predicting his terrible doom was someone Chris knew was envious of his talent and skyrocketing career.
“Chris tried. He did fight back. But he also, not so secretly, embraced and even maybe found purpose in fulfilling the hackneyed arc of it all.”
Chris almost played Shrek
Just before his death, Chris had recorded over 80% of his dialogue as the title character of the DreamWorks hit movie Shrek. The Hollywood star had “around five days of line readings” left for his part to be complete, according to his brother John. He said he had also been approached to finish Chris’ work as he sounded much like his brother. However, too heartbroken, he declined. Though he expressed regret and said he wished he had.
Their other brother, Kevin, told Yahoo the ogre was “a bit more like” Chris. “Originally, the Shrek character was a little bit more like Chris, like a humble, bumbling innocent guy. I understand why [they replaced him]. They probably wanted to make Shrek 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, so…”
He praised Mike Myers who took over the role from Chris. “The studio needed to do what they needed to do. It was a bad time, bad timing… a tragedy. Mike did a great job with Shrek. He knocked it out of the park.”
In the years since the iconic film was released audiences have had glimpses of Chris’ original dialogue and what Shrek would’ve looked like had he not passed away.
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