"National Lampoon's Animal House" changed millions of lives.

The evidence is found onscreen. The success of "Animal House" cemented for Hollywood the popularity of actor John Belushi ("That boy is a P-I-G pig!"). It made director John Landis bankable and led directly to "The Blues Brothers."

The film was the first screenwriting credit (with Doug Kenney and Chris Miller) for Harold Ramis, who also wrote or had a hand in "Meatballs," "Caddyshack," "Stripes," "Ghostbusters," "Analyze This" and "Groundhog Day," among many more.

"Animal House" provided breakthrough roles for Peter Riegert and Thomas Hulce, who both went on to earn Academy Award nominations for other films. It was also the first film for Karen Allen and Kevin Bacon.

And blues guitarist Robert Cray is a member of The Knights in the film.

In an indirect but indisputable way, it's responsible for two ensuing generations of comic movies. An entire series of sex romps followed in its wake into the 1980s, and Judd Apatow and the Farrelly brothers seem to have memorized the more graphic bits and reinvented them for their own films. (Belushi's zit impression leading indirectly to "There's Something About Mary"? It's a possibility.)

The biggest name in the cast at the time was probably Donald Sutherland, just a few years removed from "The Dirty Dozen" and the film version of "M*A*S*H." (He was the original Hawkeye.) He became memorable as the guy whose pale bare buttocks were revealed as he reached for an item high on a shelf as Riegert's character walked in, discovering an affair between a professor and his girlfriend.

(Now, of course, there's an entire generation for whom Donald Sutherland is best known as the father of "24" star Kiefer.)

Not all of the life changes were for the good. Belushi's death at the wrong end of a needle remains a tale of caution 26 years after his passing. Kenney died in 1980 from a 30-foot fall off a cliff in Hawaii. And Sarah Holcomb, who played Hulce's girlfriend and was also the Irish girlfriend in "Caddyshack", left Hollywood in the early 1980s amidst mental illness and drug addiction. She's since recovered but is living under a new name well outside acting circles.

She's not the only one who's changed her name. But the other actor who underwent a name change has had a little more fortune and will be part of Decatur Celebration next weekend.

DeWayne Jessie will spend the first weekend of August in Decatur and perform under his adopted name: Otis Day, the lead singer of Otis Day and The Knights.

Jessie may be the most interesting of all the "Animal House" cases. He'd done a number of films before "Animal House," including a notable role as a deaf-mute in "Bingo Long and the Traveling All Stars," a role for which he won an NAACP Image Award.

He was hired for "Animal House" to lip-sync Lloyd Williams' singing and brought a believable frenzy to "Shout," the song in the movie's famous toga party scene.

He continued to act but eventually "became" Otis. He billed himself as Otis Day, formed a Knights band and recorded a CD with him singing the songs.

While Day still does a little acting here and there, his primary gig is the band, which plays 75 to 100 dates a year. And Day has the good grace to laugh when asked if the band closes with a 20-minute version of "Shout."

"No, it's not quite that long," he said. "It could be, but it isn't most of the time. We do stretch out with it, though."

The fascinating thing about Day's story is the actor so totally assuming the role. As Micky Dolenz of The Monkees used to say, it's like Robert Young (who played the lead role on "Marcus Welby, M.D.") becoming a doctor.

Who else has so wholly inhabited a role for so long?

Tim Cain can be reached at timcain@herald-review.com or 421-6908.