John Candy Facts
John Candy is one of the most beloved actors of all time. A rare achievement in the world of Hollywood. Candy was loyal, caring, bighearted, generous and very, very funny. His comedic genius can be seen in a long list of movies from Stripes to Wagons East. Who wants an orange whip?
1) Candy didn’t like seeing himself on screen at premiers so he would send his wife, Rosemary, to attend in his place. He would ask her which scenes the audience found most funny.
2) Candy and Sylvester Stallone almost made a comedy movie together called Bartholomew vs. Neff about feuding neighbors. It was announced in 1990, but sadly, it was never made.
3) You can watch John Candy in his own cartoon called Camp Candy. It ran for three seasons in the late 1980s and even included the voices of his own children.
4) Although Candy was asked to play a part in Ghostbusters, he declined to the surprise of director Ivan Reitman. The role eventually went to Rick Moranis.
5) In 1998 Candy was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
6) Candy won two Emmys in 1981 for his writing work on SCTV.
7) Candy was a huge fan of Gary Larson’s comic series The Far Side.
8) John Hughes enjoyed working with Candy so much that he’s appeared in more of his films than any other actor, including Uncle Buck, Home Alone, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles and The Great Outdoors.
9) Though he was invited several times to be a member of Saturday Night Live, he declined out of loyalty to his SCTV cast mates.
10) In 2006 he was honored by being included in a commemorative “Canadians in Hollywood” postage stamp.
11) If you wanted to make just ONE of the pancakes in the birthday scene from Uncle Buck, then you’d need: 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups milk, 9 medium eggs, 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter, and about 1 tablespoon vegetable oil.
12) Candy was a co-owner of the Argonauts, a Canadian Football League team that won the 1991 Grey Cup, similar to the Super Bowl.
13) Ween, an American rock band, dedicated its Chocolate and Cheese album to him.
14) He died at the age of 43 from a heart attack in his sleep during the filming of Wagons East in Mexico. Dan Aykroyd delivered the eulogy. He’s interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
R.I.P. John Candy.
"As long as you can savor the humorous aspect of misery and misfortune, you can overcome anything."
— John Candy