Who Was John Candy? Exploring His Life As Steve Martin And More Remember Him 3 Decades After His Death

It’s been three decades since the Uncle Buck alum John Candy passed away. With his charisma and impeccable comic timing, he brought pure joy and laughter into people’s lives. Candy was beloved by fans and his co-stars, who remember him after all these years. 

Who was John Candy?

The late Canadian actor John Candy, known for his roles in Home Alone and Uncle Buck, was a comedic genius. He was an amazing character actor and beloved by his costars. The Uncle Buck alum had a ton of health problems including obesity and drug addiction. He also publicly spoke about having severe anxiety and panic attacks throughout his life. His acting career was short lived as he tragically passed away at the age of 43, due to cardiac arrest.

Candy’s co-stars lovingly reminisce their time with the late actor  

After 3 decades of his death, his co-stars remember him in the sweetest way possible. The actor’s home-alone co-star Catherine O’Hara recalls her time with Candy and says he was “just as lovely as you’d want him to be.”

Steve Martin, who costarred with Candy in ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ is all praise for the late actor, “John’s comedy lives on, but my memory of him has the words ‘kindness’ and ‘sweetness’ in the headlines,”

O’Hara also admires the late actor’s non-egotistical swagger and kindness. The Schitt’s Creek actress adds, “It’s so nice to be able to not have to make up any bull, because people loved him.” 

Laurie Metcalf recalls being scarred to do improv with John Candy

Metcalf and Candy starred together in the 1989 family comedy Uncle Buck when the former was relatively new to the film industry and comedy, “I hadn’t done hardly any movies. It was out of my comfort zone,” she says. 

The Roseanne actress lovingly remembers how Candy was patient enough to run lines with her repeatedly despite being the lead in the film. She adds, “But he was so patient and generous with me, and that’s what we did. We just worked on it together and had a lot of fun,”

“And I think that for me sums up how big-hearted he was and what a sweetheart he was,” she continued.

Metcalf also recalls how scared she was for improv so she would stick to the script which Candy instantly noticed. “I was scared to death to improv with him because it’s scary to me to begin with, but then to be faced with possibly doing it with a master? No,” 

Richard Lewis talks about being in “comedy heaven” with John Candy

Starring alongside Candy in Once Upon a Crime and Wagons East Lewis learned a great deal about improv and comedy.

Lewis recalled how he would make up fake scenarios and ask Candy to do improvs on them, “When I would hang out with him, I would say, ‘Listen, John, let me just make believe I’m a writer at SCTV, and let me just come up with [a scenario], and you do the voice, and you do the improv.”

Lewis lovingly calls his time with Candy a “comedy heaven.”