The Double Life Chris Farley Secretly Lived
One of Chris Farley's castmates on "SNL" was Canadian comedy legend Norm MacDonald, who hosted "Weekend Update" on the show. After Farley died, MacDonald shared what he learned about his friend only after his passing.
Speaking with Howard Stern on the shock jock's SiriusXM radio show, he revealed, "When we went to the funeral, we were shocked that he had the second life in Madison, Wisconsin where he went to soup kitchens ... and so he had the second life where he [was in] service to God." MacDonald also revealed in that interview that Farley's famous motivational speaker character on "SNL" was named after his real friend Matt Foley, who was a priest. MacDonald himself tragically died in 2021 after being diagnosed with cancer.
In 2019, A&E broadcast a documentary about Farley called "Anything For a Laugh," where fellow cast members revealed what they knew about his second life in philanthropy. Relaying that Farley would visit nursing homes and volunteer at soup kitchens while living in NYC, castmate Al Franken, who later became a senator, revealed he organized a visit between Farley and a sick young boy in a hospital pediatric ward that was very emotional. Franken revealed the encounter at the hospital, and visiting other children there simply to make them laugh, resulted in the two men crying in an elevator as they left, per Boston Globe.
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