‘Animal House’ Star Tim Matheson Says He Was ‘Lucky’ Not to Be Cocaine Addict

Tim Matheson says he is fortunate he by no means obtained too large into cocaine … saying he performed laborious — however, he nervous an excessive amount of about how the white stuff would have an effect on his work to get addicted.

The star of “Animal House” spoke with Page Six about his new memoir, “Damn Glad to Meet You” — a reference to a line his character says to potential pledges within the iconic school fraternity movie — and, he explains that as a result of he was a working actor, he was afraid of overindulging in coke.

Mainly, Matheson says he wasn’t a star and lived paycheck to paycheck … and, he was acutely conscious he may lose his earnings except he continued to carry out nicely.

That stated, Tim says he did not utterly shun the stuff … however, he did not use it as a lot as a few of his contemporaries who have been additional up the callsheet.

A kind of contemporaries … John Belushi — who died of an overdose of cocaine and heroin in 1982 at simply 33 years outdated.

Matheson says a part of the issue is that everybody in his era was saying cocaine wasn’t all that dangerous for you … clearly, not the case.

TM’s gone on to have fairly the profession since “Animal House” … taking components in “The West Wing,” “Hart of Dixie,” “Fletch,” “Batman: The Animated Series,” “Black Sheep,” “Van Wilder,” and “Virgin River.”