John Candy: We hardly
Knew Ye...



He played generous losers. Big-hearted chumps like the bobsled coach
fighting to win back his self-respect in last year's hit movie Cool Runnings.
Or the travelling salesman trying to find his way home in Planes, Trains and
Automobiles. Or the magnanimous polka king finding some space in his tour van
for a hysterical mother in Home Alone. Of all the comic actors who have led
the Canadian invasion of Hollywood_a list that includes Dan Aykroyd,
Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Rick Moranis and Michael J. Fox_John Candy
had a singular quality. He could be as funny as anyone. But what set him
apart was a tenderness, a gentle emotional candor that made him instantly
credible and lovable. Behind the comic mask, the tragic mask was always
peeking through, conveying the sense that his character deserved a better
fate. And that was certainly the feeling among friends, colleagues and fans
who were shocked by the sudden news of Candy's death last week_from a heart
attack early Friday morning in Durango, Mexico, where he was filming a comedy
western called Wagons East. He was 43.

Dave Thomas, who had known the actor since they were cast members of the
SCTVcomedy series in the 1970s, spoke to him by phone the day before he died.
``He was fine,'' Thomas told Maclean's in Los Angeles. ``I got his number [in
Durango] written on a Kleenex box in my car. I called him back and we laughed
and joked like always.'' Added Thomas: ``There were so many good times with
John, so many laughs. We would play on the phone, do voices and
characters just to play. I'll miss him and I love him.''

Candy was one of Hollywood's best-loved and most successful Canadian stars.
Since rising to fame as a cast member of SCTVin the 1970s, he has appeared in
nearly 40 movies. There were at least as many duds as hits. But Candy brought
a subtle wit and a natural screen presence even to the antic farce of such
amily vacation comedies as Uncle Buck (1989). ``I always thought John was
underrated as an actor,'' SCTV alumnus Eugene Levy told Maclean's. ``I think
a lot of people just took his performances for granted.''

Recently, after a string of box-office disappointments, the actor's career
took an upswing with the runaway success of Cool Runnings. His character in
the film, a bobsled coach who perseveres under the most daunting
circumstances, resembles the John Candy who championed underdogs in the real
world of sports. Just a week before his death, Candy, who secured a 20-per
-cent interest in the Toronto Argonauts in 1991, announced that he was trying
to put together a group to buy the beleaguered team from his partners, Bruce
McNall and Wayne Gretzky. ``If there is any way I can do it financially, I'm
sure going to try,'' Candy said.

As tributes poured in for the Newmarket, Ont.-born actor, the word that
kept cropping up again and again was ``generous.'' Candy, said SCTV cohort
Levy, ``was one of the sweetest people, one of the most down-to-earth people
that you could ever meet considering his stature in the biz. I don't recall
him ever turning down an autograph. Whenever anyone in the street said, `Hi,
John,' he always made sure that he said `Hi' back and made eye contact.''

The flip side of Candy's endearing populism was his distaste for the
trappings of fame. He was a Canadian star who played the Hollywood game by
his own rules. He constantly turned down interview requests, never letting
his wife, Rosemary, and his two children, Jennifer, now 13, and Christopher
Michael, 10, become fodder for People magazine prying. ``He was very
publicity-shy,'' said Levy. ``I don't think he liked to draw too much
attention to himself when he wasn't working.''

Some of Candy's allergy to the media may have been related to the way
reporters focused on his girth. ``It bothered him terribly,'' said Levy. ``He
was very sensitive about it. There are a lot of people, a lot of
press_particularly in this town [Toronto]_who always took cheap shots.''
Candy, in fact, cancelled a commitment to host the 1992 Genie Awards after
the CBC promoted his appearance with jokes about his size.

But fat jokes also dogged Candy in his work on-screen. He made them part of
his own comedy right from beginning, with the first, and most memorable
character that he created for SCTV in 1976 Johnny LaRue, the sleazy host of a
TV talk show, was notorious for excessive eating and drinking. And in a
classic SCTVsketch he created a devastating parody of an obese Orson Welles,
attacking meals of surreal size. However, it was one thing for Candy to mock
the stereotype on his own terms, and quite another for him to become its
target. As the star of Only the Lonely (1991), the actor played a romantic
lead for the first time in his career. But even then his character had to put
up with a fat joke; his mother called him ``my son the anorexic.''
Candy was concerned about his weight ``He was always on diets,'' said Levy.
``He would do the Pritikin thing and go on a program. He'd go down, then he'd
go back up.'' In 1984, the actor spent a month at California's Pritikin's
Longevity Center and shed 60 lb. He admitted at the time that the death of
another overweight comic, John Belushi, from a drug overdose in 1982,
convinced him to ``get healthy.'' In recent years, the actor regained his old
weight, and then some_he carried over 300 lb. when he died. His friends,
however, said they were unaware of any serious health problems.

John Candy was born on Halloween, 1950. When he was four, his father, a
car salesman, died of heart disease at 35. His mother and his aunt, who both
worked in Eaton's toy department, raised him in Toronto's East York community
with the help of his grandparents. He took up acting after studying
journalism at Centennial College. And after doing some stage work, playing a
couple of low-budget film roles, and appearing in commercials, in 1972 Candy
signed on with Chicago's Second City theatre_the company that would launch
such stars as Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Belushi.

But while they went on to create Saturday Night Live, Candy and other
Second City alumni found fame on the Canadian-made SCTV. He created vivid
comic characters, including the ghoulish Dr. Tongue, the polka-playing Yosh
Schmenge and Gil the (fishin' musician) Fisher. But he also worked miracles
in bit parts. ``The brilliance of John Candy,'' says Levy, ``is that you
could give him a part that didn't even read that well, and he just brought
the thing to life.''

Candy landed his first Hollywood movie role after impressing Steven
Spielberg at an SCTV party in Los Angeles. ``John was in fine form that
night,'' Levy remembers, adding that Spielberg later called Candy and offered
him a small part in his 1979 war farce, 1941. Later, Canadian director Ivan
Reitman gave Candy his first major role in Stripes, another military comedy.
``He had a good-sized trailer,'' Reitman told Maclean's. ``There was always
plenty of food. It was the fun place to be, and he was a congenial host.''
Remembering a tough, cold shoot in Kentucky, Reitman added: ``He was like my
big brother. He would give me a cup of coffee and a bad pastry and then I
would go out into the cold. He was a pillar of support.''

And as an actor, Candy did some of his finest work in supporting
roles_from Tom Hanks' lecherous brother in Splash (1984) to the corrupt
lawyer in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991). He always seemed happy to help. Recalled
former SCTVdirector George Bloomfield: ``I have a memory of John sitting on
the deck of my house once with my daughter, who was three at the time, and
staying there until he taught her how to do a double take. To this day she
can do a double take.'' The suddenness of John Candy's death has caused
double takes the world over. The man with the gentle face, the big heart and
the giant sense of humor will be sorely missed.




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