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John Candy
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Biography
Actor. (b. Oct. 31, 1950, Toronto; d. Mar. 6, 1994.) This rotund, talented, and immensely likable comic actor spent too much time in substandard movies-even after achieving stardombut his personal appeal remained intact. Candy established several comic personas with Toronto's Second City comedy troupe and on the "SCTV" show in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He worked in several Canadian-made films-1975's It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time 1976's Find the Lady and 1978's The Silent Partner among them-before breaking into Hollywood movies (thanks to the American popularity of the syndicated "SCTV") with small parts in Lost and Found, 1941 (both 1979), The Blues Brothers (1980), and Stripes (1981), which all showed him to be very much at home on the big screen. Candy fared best in strong supporting roles and cameos (1983's National Lampoon's Vacation 1984's Splash! and Nothing Lasts Forever 1985's Volunteers and 1986's Little Shop of Horrors for example). Summer Rental (1985) was the first starring vehicle to allow him to play a human being, not a caricature, but this pleasant film was not well received; poor material sabotaged many of his other starring vehicles, such as Armed and Dangerous (1986), The Great Outdoors (1988), Who's Harry Crumb? (1989), and Delirious (1991).
Writer-producer-director John Hughes used Candy to best advantage and featured him in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) and Uncle Buck (1989); Candy returned the favor by contributing cameo appearances to Hughes' productions Home Alone (1990), and Career Opportunities (1991). The comic actor added pathos to his repertoire as the lonely mother-dominated cop in Only the Lonely (1991). He had a surprisingly effective cameo in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) and appeared without billing as a Chicago sportscaster in Rookie of the Year (1993). He also costarred in 1993's Cool Runnings as a former Olympic athlete who's persuaded to coach the Jamaican bobsled team. The part required acting, not comic shtick, and again Candy proved to be a natural. In 1994, he completed Canadian Bacon and directed a TV movie, Hostage for a Day before succumbing to a heart attack on location for Wagons East robbing the world of a great talent and warm screen presence.
Height
6' 3"
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Spouse
'Rosemary Candy (nee Hoban)' (19?? - 1994) (his death); 2 children
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Trivia
The musical group Ween dedicated their 1994 lp _Chocolate And Cheese_ to him.
Interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City, California, USA in the Mausoleum, Room 7, Block 1.
Candy was a co-owner of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League
Candy died while filming "Wagons East" in Mexico.
He was part of the group Northern Lights who sang the song "Tears Are Not Enough" which was on the We Are The World album.
He has a cameo in Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters" music video.
Two children, Jennifer (b.1980) and Christopher (b.1984)
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