Chris Farley’s Death, 28 Years Later: Inside the Comedian's Final Days
- - Chris Farley’s Death, 28 Years Later: Inside the Comedian's Final Days
Lynsey Eidell, Nicole PomaricoDecember 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM
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Comedian Chris Farley died from a drug overdose on Dec. 18, 1997
He was 33 years old and was found dead in his Chicago apartment
Farley was best known for his role on Saturday Night Live and movies including Tommy Boy
Comedian Chris Farley's life came to a tragic end 28 years ago.
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.
The comedian starred on SNL for the 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.
Farley was also plagued by 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 sober, 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 in December 2022.
From his final days to his lasting legacy, here is everything to know about Chris Farley’s tragic death.
How did Chris Farley die?
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Chris Farley attends 69th Annual Academy Awards on March 24, 1997 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.
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 died of an overdose. An autopsy report later confirmed what they feared: Farley had 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.
“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.
“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?
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Chris Farley attends the 'Excess Baggage' premiere at the Mann's Village Theatre on August 25, 1997 in Westwood, California
Farley’s body was discovered on Dec. 18, 1997, at around 2 p.m. However, his fatal 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 reportedly 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).
“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.
What was the public reaction to Chris Farley’s death?
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Phil Hartman and Chris Farley at a Saturday Night Live cast party.
Those who knew Farley — and his struggles with substance abuse and addiction — were not shocked by his death at a young age. 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 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?
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Chris Farley and David Spade attend Second Annual MTV Movie Awards on June 5, 1993 at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
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, too — with Spade describing their bond as “like an old married couple” on 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?
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Chris Farley, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler & David Spade in 1997.
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. 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.
Spade and 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 Farley's talent 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.”
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.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
