30 Years Since the Passing of John Candy

[BorneAgain]

Just realized that we lost John Candy 30 years ago today and figured a tribute threat felt right.

It's funny, I always liked him whenever he popped up in a movie, but it's only been in the last 10 years or so that I've learned about how he was as a person. So often with famous figures, we learn more about them and they really do fail to live up to the idea we have about them. All those disappointments do make it all the more special when they really are as warm and as kind as they came across and with John everyone has talked about what a wonderful man he was. I mean Tiny Lister himself (unprompted mind you) gushed about Candy being the best person he ever met:



(Do forgive me that its Hannibal interviewing him, it was the only video I could find of Lister talking about him)


As far as his film and TV work, I can't really do it justice, a marathon of all his movies will show you his comedic talent (with Planes Trains, & Automobiles as well as Only the Lonely demonstrating how great he was at drama to boot). I still think Hats Off Entertainment has still done the best tribute to how great he was on screen:



(language warning)

[Totorob101]

have not seen enough of his work but I loved him in Uncle Buck and his small role in Home Alone and he came across such a lovely and brilliantly funny guy, I must get to watch more of his work as he was very very talented. Really sad he was lost to us so soon,you are still much missed John.

[AwamoriRock]

His JFK performance is absolutely incredible. He’s throwing 100 in every scene.

[mountaindew]

I remember him from his role in Home Alone. The part where he said he forgot his kid at a funeral parlor was his own idea. 

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

He’s one of the funniest people who ever lived

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

They used to show this movie on Showtime multiple times a day and Damn if I didn't watch it every time.

This post made me look up his IMDB page, I knew he had a great career but didn't realize he was involved in SO much classic shit

[lildude8218]

I was in the car with my parents either heading to or heading home from Sea World when I heard about it on the radio. It was the same day that Kurt Cobain overdosed in Rome.

[BlackoutCreature]

[fw91]

[Vampiro138]

I love John Candy, one of very best. Love his improv in Home Alone which naturally needed Catherine O'Hara to play off of since she was on SCTV and could ad-lib herself. I feel if he were still around he would have done all the different Christopher Guest films.

I do love the story Martin Short told of Lucille Ball being difficult and insulting twords Martin Short on a flight and was yelling at him saying he was kicking her chair when he wasnt doing anything, and Martin gets off the flight and John Candy meets him at baggage to pick him up and Martin tells him what happened and John just goes "ok, lets go kick Lucys ass"

[mcmahonfan85]

[OGBoardPoster2005]

I wonder where his career would have gone had he lived.

Hollywood in his era was so much different than it is now and the roles have changed.

A lot of his contemporaries faded along the way. I'd like to think he would have found roles but with the direction of Hollywood I can see him going the way guys like Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray did.

[J. Hova]

I remember it clear as day. I was out of school for something, probably a teacher's institute day or something. I went with my dad to the Rock Island Arsenal (Dad was retired Navy) for him to pick up his prescriptions and it came across the radio that John Candy died. My Dad was pretty somber over it and while 8 year old me knew John Candy from Home Alone and Rookie of the Year, I don't think I had seen much of his other work at that time, I remember my Dad telling me that one of the funniest men on earth was dead.

In the years since I've grown to absolutely love John Candy's roles. I mean even bit parts like National Lampoon's Vacation, he was great in. It has become a family tradition to watch "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" on Thanksgiving and Steve Martin and him both just make me laugh like it is brand new every year.

As far as where he would be now, I think he'd just be one of those guys who always would have work. You never hear a bad story about him or that he was some prick on set. He'd have people willing to give him work or write roles specifically for him. He might even have been able to transition to serious roles if he wanted to.

[hassanchop]

Wonder how things would be if he was in Rick Moranis' role in Ghostbusters

Mar 4, 2024 20:43:07 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

[Feyrhausen]

One of his more dramatic roles was in Only the Lonely. Maureen OHara came out of a 20 year retirement for the movie after meeting Candy. She called him one of the best she had ever met.

The studio gave her a half trailer for the film. This upset Candy so he gave her his trailer instead.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Mar 4, 2024 22:11:00 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

I wonder where his career would have gone had he lived.

Hollywood in his era was so much different than it is now and the roles have changed.

A lot of his contemporaries faded along the way. I'd like to think he would have found roles but with the direction of Hollywood I can see him going the way guys like Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray did.

Chevy was infamously an asshole, he did that to himself. Aykroyd I don't know, he just ceased being able to get good work or make any himself

Murray, however, is now a critically acclaimed dramatic indie actor, and I 100% see John going in that direction.

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Mar 5, 2024 8:50:55 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Mar 4, 2024 22:11:00 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

I wonder where his career would have gone had he lived.

Hollywood in his era was so much different than it is now and the roles have changed.

A lot of his contemporaries faded along the way. I'd like to think he would have found roles but with the direction of Hollywood I can see him going the way guys like Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray did.

Chevy was infamously an asshole, he did that to himself. Aykroyd I don't know, he just ceased being able to get good work or make any himself

Murray, however, is now a critically acclaimed dramatic indie actor, and I 100% see John going in that direction.

Chevy still was drawing but perhaps that the declining returns later ended that moreso than him being an asshole. Although that likely helped make it easier to let him go.

Blues Brothers 2000 may have been what killed Dan. Making only 32 mil on a 30 mil budget. He got roles but never was at the same level again as he was prior to that. The next 10 years he gradually dropped off further and became more low key in his parts.

Bill got that in more recent years. It did feel like after Kingpin he dropped off as well.

I feel its more to do with Hollywood going in a different direction and the consumer as well. Neither of those actors fit the degenerative comedies of the late 90s and early-mid 2000s but went other avenues.

[wildojinx]

I can see Candy going more for Father or Grandfather (once he gets role) roles in family comedies (he already did so in Summer Rental, Great Outdoors, and Uncle Buck). He could still bring charisma to those roles IMO. He was also supposed to be in Pocahontas, so maybe he would have gone into voice acting (I just imagined him playing Squidward or Mr. Krabs and smiled).

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Mar 5, 2024 10:12:19 GMT -5 wildojinx said:

I can see Candy going more for Father or Grandfather (once he gets role) roles in family comedies (he already did so in Summer Rental, Great Outdoors, and Uncle Buck). He could still bring charisma to those roles IMO. He was also supposed to be in Pocahontas, so maybe he would have gone into voice acting (I just imagined him playing Squidward or Mr. Krabs and smiled).

He almost would have to go those routes. He would have been a great fit for those but its hard to imagine him in the kind of comedies that came later.

Granted John Candy would have been great in Eugene Levy's role in American Pie

[tirtefaa]

Mar 5, 2024 8:50:55 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Mar 4, 2024 22:11:00 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

I wonder where his career would have gone had he lived.

Hollywood in his era was so much different than it is now and the roles have changed.

A lot of his contemporaries faded along the way. I'd like to think he would have found roles but with the direction of Hollywood I can see him going the way guys like Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray did.

Chevy was infamously an asshole, he did that to himself. Aykroyd I don't know, he just ceased being able to get good work or make any himself

Murray, however, is now a critically acclaimed dramatic indie actor, and I 100% see John going in that direction.

Bill Murray is apparently just as bad, if not worse than Chevy is. He just gets away with it because he's a better like on screen performer.

As far as John Candy goes, I always liked him as a supporting actor, but not much of a fan of any of his bigger films... although that's not usually on him. The exception to the rule is Planes, Trains and Automobiles...which is one of the best movies ever made. Just too bad he went out on one of the worst movies ever made...Wagons East.