Jim Belushi Now: Farms, Family, and His Brother’s Legacy

Born: June 15, 1954, Chicago, Illinois ·
Ancestry: Albanian and Greek ·
Brother: John Belushi (1949–1982) ·
Sitcom: According to Jim ran 2001–2009 ·
Farm: Belushi Farms, Oregon, subject of Growing Belushi

Six facts anchor Belushi’s public record, and one pattern runs through them: family, comedy, and cannabis keep braiding together.

What is Jim Belushi doing nowadays?

Belushi’s center of gravity is no longer a soundstage. The farm sits in Eagle Point, Oregon, and Discovery turned it into the series Growing Belushi — but the operation is bigger than a TV show: Cannatech Today (cannabis industry news) reported that Belushi’s Farm grew from one Oregon license to 14 licenses across the country.

• A 2019 profile in MG Magazine (cannabis trade press) described a 93-acre spread with a 22,000-square-foot state-licensed grow — and noted Belushi was still studying cultivation.
• His own LinkedIn (Belushi’s professional profile) lists ongoing acting work alongside the farm.
• The Oregonian / OregonLive (Portland metro paper) reported that Belushi pursued cannabis partly as an anti-opioid-abuse idea.

Is Jim Belushi considered a nice guy?

Co-star anecdotes and fan accounts skew warm, though “nice guy” is a reputation, not a documented fact. The through-line in the coverage is simpler: Belushi is treated as a neighbor who happens to be famous. For another sitcom-era actor who left Hollywood behind, see Erik Per Sullivan: Why He Left Acting, Net Worth, and Life Now.

The takeaway: Belushi’s likability is now measured in Oregon townships, not Hollywood anecdotes.

The through-line: Oregon added a second act without erasing the first.

Why did Jim Belushi’s wife leave him?

Belushi married Jennifer Sloan in 1998, and she filed for divorce in 2018, citing irreconcilable differences — a split that Hello! Magazine (celebrity lifestyle outlet), profiling his Oregon life, connected to his time at Belushi Farms. Neither side publicly accused the other of wrongdoing.

The coverage kept circling back to geography: the man who rebuilt himself in Oregon was, by definition, not at home in Los Angeles.

The catch: without a public statement from either party, the “why” stays in the realm of inference — and the inference, consistently, is Oregon.

What ethnicity is Jim Belushi?

• His father, Adam Anastos Belushi, was of Albanian descent; his mother, Agnes Demetri, née Samaras, was of Greek descent. Jim and John were born in Chicago and raised in the Chicago area (Wikipedia, community-edited encyclopedia).
• Profiles and interviews describe Belushi as Albanian-Greek-American (Newsweek, national news magazine).

The heritage shows up in his comedy, his music, and even the farm: Belushi has leaned into the identity publicly rather than smoothing it into a generic Hollywood bio.

Why this matters: heritage is how Belushi tells his own story — a Chicago kid of Albanian and Greek parents who became an Oregon farmer, not a Hollywood archetype.

Did Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi get along?

Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi have remained friends and collaborators since the 1980s. After John’s death, Jim joined Aykroyd in live Blues Brothers performances, keeping the act alive — a chapter that shows up in LinkedIn (Belushi’s professional profile) and in decades of live dates.

Their relationship is also a reminder of how close the original circle was: Aykroyd was John’s partner first, and after 1982 he became a bridge for Jim.

The takeaway: their friendship is one of the few SNL-era bonds that outlived the original cast’s heyday — built on the Blues Brothers, not around it.

Who was partying with John Belushi the night he died?

John Belushi died on March 5, 1982, at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. The last person with him was Cathy Smith, who later pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Robert De Niro and Robin Williams reportedly visited his bungalow earlier that night but were not present when he died (Cannabis Business Times, cannabis trade journal).

Exactly who came and went, and in what order, has never been pinned down in one consistent account. For Jim Belushi, the date is the dividing line between life with his brother and life after him.

The pattern: the “who was there” question endures precisely because the record has gaps — and Jim Belushi has spent four decades living with the aftermath rather than litigating it.

Timeline signal

1. June 15, 1954 — Jim Belushi is born in Chicago, Illinois (Wikipedia, community-edited encyclopedia).
2. March 5, 1982 — John Belushi dies at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles (Cannabis Business Times, cannabis trade journal).
3. 1983–1988 — Belushi joins Saturday Night Live, then headlines Red Heat with Arnold Schwarzenegger (MG Magazine, cannabis trade press).
4. 2001–2009 — According to Jim runs on ABC (Hello! Magazine, celebrity lifestyle outlet).
5. 2015 — Belushi buys land in Eagle Point, Oregon, after a turning point in the Rogue River (Newsweek, national news magazine).
6. 2018 — The farm expands from an early 48 plants to a 93-acre property (LinkedIn, Belushi’s professional profile).
7. 2018 — Jennifer Sloan files for divorce (Hello! Magazine, celebrity lifestyle outlet).
8. 2020 — Growing Belushi premieres on Discovery (Cannatech Today, cannabis industry news).

The pattern: Belushi’s public life moved in blocks — comedy, sitcom, farm.

Confirmed facts vs. what’s unclear

What this means: the public record is stronger on where and when than on private motive.

In their words

Belushi said jumping into the Rogue River “reborn” him and pushed him to buy the land that became Belushi Farms.

Jim Belushi — Newsweek (national news magazine)

The Oregonian described Belushi in 2018 as “a changed man” in Southern Oregon, pursuing cannabis partly as an anti-opioid-abuse idea.

The Oregonian / OregonLive — Portland metro paper

Both quotes frame the same turn: the river, then the farm.

The shape of his next act

Belushi’s next act is already visible, and it doesn’t look like a comeback. For another sitcom-era actor who rebuilt his life after the spotlight moved on, see Brad Garrett: Net Worth, Sobriety, Height & Life Today. For Jim Belushi, the math is finally clear: keep building Belushi Farms and keep the band playing, or watch the family legacy curdle into nostalgia.

Frequently asked questions

The questions that still follow Belushi are the ones that trail any public reinvention: where he lives, how he changed, and what the family name means now.