John Candy!

 

"I think I may have become an actor to hide from myself.  You can escape into a character."

John Franklin Candy was born in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada on October 31st, 1950.  On his fifth birthday, Candy's father, only 35 years old, died of heart disease.  

Candy attended Neil McNeil Catholic High School, where he played football as an offensive tackle.  He had professional football aspirations that were curtailed by a knee injury.  He literally fell into acting. 

He took his first courses in college and by the time he graduated, he had already been cast in the popular Canadian sketch-comedy series Second City Television (SCTV).  The show was picked up by NBC in 1981 and Candy became an instant favorite.

He went on to appear in some the 1980's most memorable films, including The Blues Brothers (1980), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Spaceballs (1987), and the perennial Thanksgiving favorite, Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987).

In 1994, Candy went to Mexico to film the western comedy Wagons East.  Before he left, he called his good friend and fellow SCTV alum Catherine O'Hara, reportedly telling her that he felt "something bad is going to happen there."  Truer words were never spoken.  During production of the film, Candy, like his father before him, died of a heart attack.  The date was March 4, 1994.  Candy was just 43 years old.

His funeral played out like an Oscar Awards ceremony, attended by only the cream of Hollywood, including Tom Hanks, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Mariel Hemingway, Ed Harris and many, many more.  The eulogy was delivered by longtime friend and co-star Dan Aykroyd.

John Candy was enshrined in the mausoleum at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Location: Room 7, Crypt B1 (look up)

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• If you want to learn more about John Candy, take a voyage to Amazon.  It's all in books, one of which was co-written by Dan Aykroyd.
  
  
• The inscription "One Heart and One Soul" has its origins in the Bible, specifically Acts 4:32, "and the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them."
  
  
• Following his passing, the Canadian Screen Award, similar to America's Oscar and Emmy awards, was renamed "the Candy" in his honor.
  
  
• Candy sang on the 1984 We are the World album, singing Tears are Not Enough with the group Northern Lights.  Take a listen on YouTube.
  
  
• In 1989, Candy was given his own Saturday morning cartoon entitled Camp Candy.   You can watch an episode (with commercials) in its entirety on YouTube.