Thursday marks Chris Farley’s 60th birthday, and his cousin, Ford executive Jim Farley, is reminiscing about what a dork he was in real life.
“Chris tried very hard to get kicked out of any event we organized for our family,” Farley told Kelly Clarkson — who was a guest on his podcast Ride with Jim Farleywhere he talks to Ford fans like Clarkson, Matthew McConaughey and Sydney Sweeney — last month.
Says his cousin, who tragically died of a drug overdose on December 18, 1997, aged 33, two years after his memorable run at Saturday night livehe was always a total prankster who would do anything for a gag, even before he became famous.
“We had a family reunion one time and I think it’s the fourth time he’s been kicked out of college. And he just lost his job as a lifeguard in Madison, Wisconsin, which is like a two-month job, max. . . It’s seasonal. He lost that job because he was partying all night and slept through it,” said Jim. “So we went to a bar and he stole all the pictures in the bar and brought them home to our house. The police came the next day because the bar wanted their pictures back.”
Chris Farley 1990
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“That was Chris. He was always the same guy,” he added.
However, he says it wasn’t from his cousin either most an unforgettable wild moment.
“He started a fight at the Cinnabon in Chicago’s O’Hare airport,” Farley recalled. “We were trying to get back to Chicago for grandma’s funeral. He bought up all the Cinnabons from the O’Hare airport restaurant and then gave them to people, and we started a big fight over food.”
That move didn’t go down well with the authorities, Jim revealed.
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“The police kicked us out of O’Hare and we missed our connecting flight and we missed Grandma’s funeral,” Jim said. “We had a great time, but no one in Madison understood why we missed her funeral. So we just owned it. We said, yeah, ‘Well we started a fight over food at O’Hare and we got in trouble!’ ”
“I have a thousand different stories like that for Chris,” he added.
Like everyone else who knew and loved him.
In the documentary I’m Chis Farley, Chris’ brother Kevin recalled an incident that got him kicked out of school as a teenager after he stuck out his penis in a challenge during class and kept typing as if nothing was wrong. The class roared with laughter – the teacher, not so much.
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David Space, Chris Rock and Chris Farley. KMazur/WireImage Jim Belushi begs Chris Farley to stop using drugs after seeing brother John’s overdoses: ‘You have to stop’
“It was funny,” Kevin recalled, noting that even their dad couldn’t help but laugh at it. Because of the stunt, he was kicked out of school for one semester.
In the documentary, Chris’s friend, comedian and actor Bob Odenkirk, also said that Chris harbored a lot of insecurities, often related to his weight and being portrayed as a “fat guy”.
Odenkirk, 61, said he told Chris to go out and be the funniest fat guy he could be — which, of course, Farley did.
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In 1997, Farley was found dead in his Chicago apartment of a drug overdose, and his loss still hurts those who knew and loved him.
During appearances on David Spade and Dana Carvey’s A fly on the wall in a December 2022 podcast, Chris Rock said the star was more than funny — he was pure talent.
“It’s sad when our friend isn’t there, but it’s curious [think] ‘Wow, what would that guy do?'” said Rock, 59. “When I see Sandler in something like Uncut gems, it’s like, ‘Yeah, Farley could do that. He is literally that level of an actor, and that level as if you just felt for the guy. Whatever ride Chris Farley took me on, I was definitely up for it.”
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