Judy Belushi-Pisano, actress, producer and widow of legendary comedian John Belushi, has died at the age of 73, family members said.
Her death was announced on Belushi’s social media pages on Saturday.
“There was no one else like her,” the Pisano and Belushi families said in a statement. “Judy made everyone feel loved. She was nonjudgmental, light, funny and pure. You could truly be yourself around her, and that alone was a gift.”
Belushi-Pisano was born on January 7, 1951, in Wheaton, Illinois, where she met John Belushi while attending the same high school.
In 1973, she and John moved to New York to work for National Lampoon, according to IMBD. She started as an assistant artist, but later became an associate producer for “The National Lampoon Radio Hour.”
According to CBS, they married in 1976.
She endured her husband’s worst drug addiction problems during his career on Saturday Night Live, before he died of an overdose in 1982 at age 36.
She worked on some of Belushi’s iconic comedies such as “The Blues Brothers” and “National Lampoon’s Animal House” — in which she appeared unnoticed — and spent much of her later life working on her late husband’s legacy.
She was involved in the making of the 2020 Showtime documentary “John Belushi” about his life and also wrote his biography.
“As we say goodbye, we pledge to continue her work and ensure that John’s legacy and that of the Blues Brothers will never fade,” the Pisano and Belushi families said Saturday.
Belushi Pisano later married film producer Victor Pisano in 1990. They divorced in 2010. She is survived by her children and grandchildren, People reported.