‘Animal House’ star Tim Matheson says he’s ‘lucky’ he didn’t become a coke addict in the ‘70s

Tim Matheson says he’s “lucky” he didn’t fall into hardcore drug use and become another Hollywood casualty.

In his recently released memoir, “Damn Glad to Meet You,” Matheson, 76, writes that cocaine was rampant in Hollywood during the ’70s and early ’80s. He admits to partaking but never in the excesses of some contemporaries and credits some of it to being lower down in the totem pole.

“I wasn’t the star,” he tells Page Six in an exclusive interview. “I was a working actor and I went from job to job.”

Tim Matheson had a front row seat to the excesses of Hollywood in the ’70s. Page Six The actor worked with John Belushi in “Animal House.” ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982 at the age of 33. ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

The “Animal House” star also credits working with older stars like Lucille Ball on the 1968 film “Yours, Mine and Ours” with instilling a strong work ethic.

He remembers that Ball “was tough and there was no chitchat on set. She meant business and she demanded that from everybody around her.”

Matheson managed to compartmentalize his life.

Matheson says not being a big star helped. ©Universal/courtesy Everett / Everett Collection Matheson (top row, third from the left) says older stars like Lucille Ball instilled a strong work ethic. Courtesy Everett Collection

“I worked hard when I worked,” he shares, “and then I’d play but I would never do anything to affect my work because it was so important to me.”

Matheson shares 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.

“The West Wing” alum had a front row seat to Hollywood excesses having co-starred opposite John Belushi in “Animal House.”

The “Virgin River” star says that initially people believed cocaine was fine to use. Getty Images Matheson explores his career and personal life in his memoir. AP

Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982 at the age of 33.

He also worked with writer Doug Kenney who died from an accidental fall in 1980 and Chris Farley who died of a drug overdose in 1997. Both of them were 33 when they died.

“These brilliant, brilliant lights just snubbed out,” Matheson rues. “And it was just stupid.”

He notes that “in the beginning, everybody said, ‘Cocaine is not bad for you…’ But no, the truth comes out.”