Tim Matheson reflected on his career in Hollywood during the 1970s and early '80s, saying that he is "lucky" he didn't become another casualty to hard drugs.
The "Animal House" star, 76, revealed in his recently released memoir, "Damn Glad to Meet You," that he dabbled in cocaine but never went overboard like many other stars at the time. This, he said, came down to not being as prominent as other names in Hollywood.
"I wasn't the star," he told Page Six. "I was a working actor, and I went from job to job."
The actor added that he adopted a strong work ethic from older stars like Lucille Ball in the 1968 film "Yours, Mine and Ours." Ball, he said, "was tough, and there was no chitchat on set. She meant business, and she demanded that from everybody around her."
Matheson said that he learned how to compartmentalize his life.
"I worked hard when I worked, and then I'd play, but I would never do anything to affect my work because it was so important to me," he said, adding that he knew actors "who would get stoned on their way to a Broadway theater and could do a whole play, and actors would do that all the time," but he couldn't do that.
Having co-starred opposite John Belushi in "Animal House," Matheson said he witnessed firsthand the destructive path of Hollywood excess. Belushi died at age 33 of a drug overdose in 1982. Matheson also worked with Chris Farley, who died of a drug overdose in 1997, and writer Doug Kenney, who died in 1980 after an accidental fall. Both men were 33 years old at the time of their death.
"These brilliant, brilliant lights just snubbed out," Matheson said. "And it was just stupid."
He added that "in the beginning, everybody said, 'Cocaine is not bad for you …' But no, the truth comes out."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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