Chris Farley

About Chris Farley

Christopher Crosby "Chris" Farley (February 15, 1964 – December 18, 1997) was an American comedian and actor. He was a member at Chicago's Second City Theatre and later went on to join the cast of the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He starred in a string of successful comedic films in the 1990s before his sudden death of a drug overdose in late 1997.

Farley was born in Madison, Wisconsin. His family consists of three brothers (Tom Farley, Jr., and actors Kevin and John), his sister, Barbara, and his parents, Mary Anne, a homemaker, and Thomas, Sr., who owned an oil company. Jim Farley, group vice president for marketing and communication at Ford Motor Company, is his cousin.

Farley graduated from Edgewood High School. He also attended La Lumiere School in Indiana for one semester in his junior year, after a brief suspension for misbehavior.[citation needed] He then went on to graduate from Marquette University in 1986 with a concentration in communications and theatre. Many of his summers were spent as a camper and as a counselor at Red Arrow Camp, outside of Minocqua, Wisconsin. After Marquette, he worked with his father at the Scotch Oil Company in Madison. Farley got his start in professional comedy at the Ark Improv Theatre in Madison and the Improv Olympic theater in Chicago. He then went on to perform at Chicago's Second City Theatre. He was initially part of Second City's touring group, but was eventually promoted to their main stage. While working at Second City, he was discovered by Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels.