Behind Closed Doors (2016–…): Season 3, Episode 5 - John Candy - full transcript
- Where's your wife?
- Don't have one.
- How come?
- Long story.
- Do you have kids?
- No, I don't.
- How come?
- It's an even longer story.
- NATALIE: He's not
your typical leading man.
- It's the Canadian in me, so.
- MAN: [laughing]
Eh?
- Eh.
- NATALIE: More an every-man
than matinee idol.
- Hey, he's back, everybody!
- Ooh! Ooh!
- NATALIE: But there are few
who didn't fall in love
with John Candy's wit and charm.
- He's just naturally appealing.
You love his face,
that cherubic face.
- NATALIE: As one of the most
bankable comedic actors
of the 1980s, his characters
ranged from hilarious
to silly, touching,
and even dramatic.
- He was quite nervous,
but I thought he was perfect
for the role and he delivered.
- NATALIE: We'll take you
behind the scenes,
from his improv days
at Second City...
- He had a childish delight
in the comedy that he was doing.
- NATALIE: ...to his rise
to fame on SCTV...
to finally,
Hollywood domination.
- And that's just...a dream,
really, for me.
- You really get to see
the warmth that's at the heart
of his character.
- NATALIE: But it wasn't
all laughs in Candy's world.
- TRACEY: As a child no one
actually explained to him
what happened, so his dad
kind of disappeared.
- NATALIE: And personal
struggles crept in.
- JOE: You couldn't
talk about his weight,
he was so hypersensitive
about it.
- I think it bothers other
people more than it does me.
Does it bother you?
- MAN: Doesn't bother me at all.
- Oh, good, I was wondering
'cause you brought it up.
- NATALIE: A life filled
with triumphs and then tragedy.
- Actor John Candy died today.
He had a heart attack while
working on location in Mexico.
- Oh, God, no.
- I was just devastated.
I'm still devastated.
- NATALIE: Relive the legacy
of John Candy.
- Big bear chasing me!
- [door bursts]
- NATALIE: As close friends
and colleagues share
heartwarming memories about
the legendary funnyman.
- He was probably the most
charming, talented actor
that I've ever worked with.
- I didn't know that you could
be a movie star
and just be a regular guy
at the same time.
- He was just always taking it
to the next level, all the time.
- He can do anything,
he's a real bona fide comedian.
- ♪
- NATALIE: This is "Behind
Closed Doors: John Candy."
Hello and welcome to
"Behind Closed Doors,"
I'm Natalie Morales.
John Candy is one of Hollywood's
most beloved comedic actors.
Best remembered for his clever
humor and the impressive range
he displayed on the big screen
as well as his over-the-top
personalities on the Canadian
sketch show, SCTV.
Whether it was laugh-out-loud
roles in hit films
like "Stripes" and "Splash,"
or the sympathetic characters
he brought to life in "Planes,
Trains & Automobiles"
and "Uncle Buck," it seems
that everyone knew and loved
John Candy.
Yet his first real brush
with Hollywood royalty
back in the spring of 1977
may never have even happened
if it weren't for a party that
Candy and his SCTV cast mates
threw in Los Angeles before
heading back to Toronto
to begin taping SCTV's
second season.
- JOE: So, we all came
to California, Bel-Air,
and lived in this house
for...at least a month.
We were writing shows,
just writing shows.
Finished the month's worth
of writing, did some good stuff,
and so we had
a party that night.
John, of course, took charge,
he got the, uh,
band to come in and play,
he hired the bartender
and the bar, all of that stuff,
John took care of, naturally,
'cause he was
"Johnny in Charge."
And people started showing up
for the party,
and I was surprised
at some of the people.
Chevy Chase showed up,
Laraine Newman came,
I was like, "Whoa, Jesus!"
Bill came--Bill Murray--
and then who else shows up?
Steven Spielberg.
- People kept saying to John,
"Steven Spielberg
really wants to meet you,"
and he thought,
"No, no chance,"
you know, "Everyone's
just drunk," you know...
- What the heck? Spielberg!
He apparently had seen
some of the shows and liked
the shows.
- Steven Spielberg did actually
really want to meet him.
- NATALIE: Spielberg,
the young director hot off
the massive success of "Jaws,"
is now face to face with Candy.
- TRACEY: The opening line
to Steven was,
"I liked your movie
about the fish,"
which is basically "Jaws,"
and, um, Steven talked to him,
and said that he'd like
to work with him at some point.
He didn't take it seriously,
but Steven was serious,
and he actually cast him
in "1941."
- [machine gun sound effects]
- That's beautiful.
- NATALIE: Although Candy's
role was small,
and the film
a commercial failure,
"1941" helps put the actor
on Hollywood's fast track,
appearing alongside stars
Dan Akroyd and Jon Belushi
in 1979.
- It's wonderful working
with live television performers,
because they know what
real pressure means.
- NATALIE: The three would come
together again
the following year in the smash
hit, "The Blues Brothers,"
and the momentum from that helps
fuel Candy's next few roles,
which would propel him
to stardom.
But to really understand
the man,
we have to start
at the beginning.
John Franklin Candy is born
on October 31st, 1950,
in New Market, Ontario,
Canada.
- I remember him telling me,
"You wanna know what sucks?
"It's having your birthday
on Halloween
and your name is Candy.
That's horrible."
[laughs] He didn't like that.
- NATALIE: Candy's father,
Sidney, a war veteran,
is a car salesman,
and his mother, Evangeline,
stays home to raise John
and his older brother, Jim.
- They were just a really happy
sort of family,
Catholic upbringing...
- NATALIE: But when John
is just five years old,
tragedy strikes:
his father, who is only 35,
dies suddenly of a heart attack.
- John's family were obviously
devastated.
As a child no one actually
explained to him
what happened,
so his dad kind of disappeared.
He didn't really know
why or how.
- NATALIE: After Sidney's death,
Evangeline moves the family
to a modest neighborhood
in East York, Ontario.
- John lived with his mother
and his aunt lived there
for a while as well,
and yes, they pretty well
brought him up, and--
and his brother, Jim.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Candy would later
say in interviews how painful
it was to grow up without
a father or role model,
but the young Candy
finds an escape.
- He watched a tremendous
amount of television.
- TRACEY: He inhaled the medium.
He quite famously said
no one ever said
he was going to be on TV,
but that if he didn't stop
watching it,
he would turn into one.
[laughs]
- He wanted to be as funny
as the people he saw
on television.
- NATALIE: Jackie Gleason,
George Burns, Lawrence Welk,
and Jonathan Winters are some
of the entertainment icons
Candy counts as influences.
As a teenager,
his passion also extends
to the big screen.
- I remember seeing "Bullitt"
with him. Steve McQueen.
And later on we watched, um,
"Midnight Cowboy,"
and then, well, we thought
that was so great and I think
we sat through it twice.
- He would just basically
watch movie after movie.
And often he would go home
and he would do impressions,
make his mom laugh and I think
maybe that was where
the comedy seed was sown,
he just loved
to make people laugh.
- NATALIE: From as early
as age ten,
Candy takes on the father's
role of the household,
working side jobs--including
selling fish and chips,
greeting cards and paint.
Though Candy gives much
of his earnings to his mother,
he saves a little to buy
hockey tickets,
even being in the stands
for the Toronto Maple Leaves'
Stanley Cup victory in 1967.
He also treats himself to a car.
- The car, he called it
the White Knight, you know,
and it was a...I think it was
a big Chevy.
- NATALIE: And that's when Candy
imparts to childhood friend
Jonathan O'Mara a valuable
driving strategy.
- John taught me road rage.
We're driving along the 401,
a big highway through Toronto,
and--and I, um--in his
White Knight,
and he'd let out this string
of [unintelligible]
when somebody cut him off.
You know, it's blankety-blank,
"You, effing-- [bleep]."
That kind of thing,
and more, and worse.
And I'd go, "John, jeez."
Then he goes, "Come on, O'Mara,"
and he says, um,
"You're gonna do this, I'm gonna
show you how to do it,"
and so I started my little rant,
and it was very--very mild.
And he's going, "Jo--O'mara,
that's terrible,
that's a D-.
You call yourself an Irish man?"
- NATALIE: In high school,
Candy's grades are just average,
while his real ambition is to
become a star football player.
Nicknamed "The Pink Panther"
in his high school yearbook,
as a junior,
Candy helps his team win
their first championship.
But his senior year
on the grid-iron
doesn't go as planned.
- That's when he had a bad
accident with his knee.
Blew his knee out.
- NATALIE: Deeply disappointed
with his football
dream shattered,
Candy decides on a whim to join
the United States Marines
in 1969, at the height
of the Vietnam War.
- [helicopter rotors whirring]
- JOE: I said, "Johnny,
you can't go down there,
you'll come back in a box."
And he said,
"Well, que sera, sera,
what will be, will be,"
but he was that fatalistic
about things.
- TRACEY: His uncle had
fought in the war,
his dad had fought in the war,
so maybe that was how he--
he should go.
- JOE: I don't think he even
considered the Canadian forces.
So he thought he'd go
to Paris Island,
which is where the boot
camp is, I believe,
and he'd get trimmed down
and his life would take
a turn for the better.
So he decided he was gonna go
down to the recruiting center
in Buffalo.
Oh, the recruiting sergeant
in Buffalo,
he ordered a medical for John,
and, uh, the result was
his knee was too bad,
they said, "Don't.
You wouldn't last, you wouldn't
last through basic training."
- NATALIE: Realizing he had
to plot his next move,
Candy, now 18, begins to tap
into something he dabbled with
in high school: performing.
After first studying journalism
at nearby Centennial College,
he switches his focus
to theater.
And it's during this time
he'll meet someone
who will change his life
forever: the future Mrs. Candy,
Rosemary Hobor.
- Rose Hobor was a, um,
law student.
And...they hit it off
straight away,
and they were pretty much
together from day one,
there on in, just in love.
- NATALIE: Though Candy
won't finish college,
he continues to pursue acting,
finding work in commercials
and on stage.
- John at the time was sort of
split between, uh,
some small theater stuff
that he was doing,
and the sporting goods
department of Eaton's,
where he was working.
- NATALIE: Fate steps in
when a performer named
Valri Bromfield
is on the lookout to fill a spot
in her children's theater troop.
- I was shopping for something
in a department store,
and I walked in and this guy
waited on me, and he was funny.
So I talked to him
and I laughed with him,
and I said, "We need a king,
we need a guy to play a king.
Do you wanna
come in and do it?"
And he said,
"Yeah, yeah, I wanna do it,"
and he did, he came,
he joined the company.
That's how I met John.
He was hilarious
and he changed up the company,
but he had that way about him,
people liked him,
he could get away with more,
there was nothing sinister
in his eyes or in his heart,
I mean, he was--that's the kind
of person he was.
- NATALIE: Bromfield introduces
her new funny friend
to her old pal from high school
and current performing partner,
Dan. Dan Akroyd.
- John and Danny and I
hung out together
in 505 Queen Street,
which was my apartment.
They would all come and have
part--drink there, I guess,
and hang out there,
and it would be open all night.
- DAVE: We would meet
at 1063 Avenue Road,
which was the house that
Marty Short and Eugene Levy
were renting.
They were mainly parties
for people to get together
and laugh and talk about
what they thought was funny,
what they observed on television
that was funny.
Marty Short sort of
romanticizes it
and says it's like
Paris in the 20s. Wasn't.
It was in Toronto in the 70s.
But it seemed like there were
a lot of people that kind of
came to Toronto to get into
showbusiness at the same time,
and had a kind of similar
sensibility about the work.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Which might explain
this cast of future all-stars,
many of Candy's contemporaries,
who performed in a 1972-73
Toronto production
of Stephen Schwartz's musical,
"Godspell."
- JAYNE: It's now called
The Legendary Cast of "Godspell"
in Toronto.
Victor Garber was Jesus.
It was with Eugene Levy,
Gilda Radner.
- Andrea Martin was in it,
uh, Marty Short.
- JAYNE: Paul Schaffer
was our band leader. [laughs]
- Myself, and Jayne Eastwood.
- JAYNE: We just became...
a gang, it was unbelievable.
- John was not in "Godspell,"
but John also hated "Godspell,"
which made me laugh,
because...
I didn't wanna be a musical
star, either,
but I wanted to be
in showbusiness
and that was the only gig
in town.
So, um, he thought we were
a bunch of precious idiots
dancing around singing about
Jesus in "Godspell,"
and he was right.
- NATALIE: At about the same
time, Bernie Sahlins,
who co-founded the legendary
comedy theater Second City
in Chicago, has an idea
to bring a satellite location
to Toronto.
- JOE: I was at Second City
in Chicago at the time,
and Bernie came around
and says,
"Anybody wanna volunteer
to go up and start a theater
in Toronto?"
And everybody looked puzzled.
[laughs] Not a lot
of enthusiasm for it.
And we didn't know anything
about Toronto,
nobody knew anything, [laughing]
nobody wanted to do it.
Except Brian Murray--
Brian Doyle Murray--and myself.
We said, "Yeah, yeah,
we'll go to Toronto
and open a theater, sure!"
- NATALIE: Sahlins,
Doyle Murray and Flaherty
are among those who head up
to the great white north
to hold auditions.
- So, who walks in the door
to audition?
Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy,
Gerry Salsberg, Jayne Eastwood,
Danny Akroyd, with his partner,
Valri Bromfield,
and there was one more person,
a young guy that Valri
dragged along,
and she wanted us to see him,
he's a young guy
named John Candy.
- John and I auditioned
the same week for Second City,
I'm pretty sure that's
where I met him.
So John had to improvise
with this other actor.
- So we had John and this guy,
and this guy, he...
was a motor mouth.
- And he just kept going
and talking and--
you know, if you keep talking,
it'll be funny.
- And John was there,
sitting--sitting in a chair
and listening to him, you know?
And he just, "Mm-hmm."
- VALRI: He had a way of
performing in the silence,
like, he would stand there
and look at you,
and I think you could be
working as hard as you can,
and the audience
is looking at him.
- Every once in a while,
the guy would
say, "Don't you think?"
And he'd go, "Oh, yeah, yeah."
And that's all he did.
After it was over, you know,
we--that guy was gone
and we said, uh,
"Boy, I really like John,
that young guy John."
- John's listening
was so compelling,
they just hired John right away.
He never said a word!
- He had a quality we saw,
you know?
We said, "Jeez, that guy,
he's gonna look good on stage."
- NATALIE: Candy makes such
an impression that he is chosen
for the Chicago main stage
Second City cast.
And it's in Chicago
where fate would step in
once again, leading Candy
to work with a group
of soon-to-be legendary
performers
who would help propel
the young actor's career
to exciting new heights.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Now that John Candy
has been chosen to join
the Chicago troop of the iconic
comedy institution, Second City,
in 1973 he moves south
of the border,
and begins to work alongside
other talented performers,
such as Bill Murray
and Betty Thomas.
But Candy has a large
learning curve ahead of him.
- He didn't shine,
he was new, he was raw,
and he didn't pick it up
right away, you know.
- NATALIE: Flaherty is curious
if Second City co-founder
Bernie Sahlins notices
the same thing.
- JOE: I said, "What do you
think about Johnny?"
And Bernie said, "Yeah,
sometimes he gets lost
up on stage,
he becomes invisible."
- NATALIE: And so Second City
upper brass relocates Candy
to their Toronto troop,
which in their new
and improved location,
includes future comedy legends
Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy,
and Dan Akroyd.
And how does the hometown
crowd react?
- ROBIN: Well, he was just
truly funny,
the audience adored him,
and he loved being on stage.
- DAVE: He created
what I used to call his room
on stage when he would do
improvs.
They were all mimed,
they're all invisible
to the audience,
but very real to him
and he played them as very real.
He would take a book
and he would go,
"This book is exactly
what you're looking for."
He'd open it up and he'd go,
"Here, read it."
And I'd take it and he'd go,
"It's in Latin." [laughs]
He had a childish delight
in the comedy that he was doing
and I loved that aspect of him.
And the audience loved it too.
- NATALIE: Soon,
Catherine O'Hara,
Andrea Martin, Thomas,
and of course, Flaherty,
would all join the Toronto crew
as Candy truly starts to shine.
- JOE:
He's really getting good.
John's learning his craft,
as they say,
improving as a performer.
- He was magnetic,
I mean, he just walked on
and you were just immediately
with him.
And he almost had to hold back
sometimes
to not overpower a scene.
Because he had such charisma
and such magnetism.
- JOE: He's just naturally
appealing.
You love that face, you know,
that cherubic face,
that round face.
- ROB: John used to say that
improv was like a tennis game.
Somebody lobs you the ball,
and then you lob it back.
The thing is to always--
to keep giving,
to keep adding to the scene,
to keep giving the other guy
a setup, and to be responsive
to what he gives you.
- JOE: We were improvising
a scene.
I think I was a hot dog vendor,
and, uh, I was making up
the hot dogs,
and John said something
and he turned his back to me
for something,
and I had the, uh,
hot dog in the bun,
and I just went-- [spits]
I just made that sound,
and John went-- [hisses]
Like that from the back
of the head.
I just did a-- [spit]
a sound, and he knew
it was the hot dog hitting him
in the back of the head.
Oh, we had all kind of fun.
- And it was always funniest
when he couldn't get the scene
going.
He would open up
a cupboard,
mime a bottle of whiskey,
get a glass down,
pour the drink, put it back,
close the door, you know,
killing time so he could
still be on stage
and trying to think of
where to go or what to do.
- DAVE: Here's a thing John
did, I learned this from him:
if a scene was going south,
admit it.
And I was out there
doing a scene with John
one night and it just tanked.
And so the stage manager,
Jeff, hit the lights,
and John whispers to me,
"Stay out," and I said, "What?"
That means, "Don't exit,
stay out."
And the lights came back up
and John picked the scene
right back up where
it was tanking,
and the audience went nuts.
- ROBIN: There wasn't anything
like Second City,
and then all of a sudden,
this whole new hip kind of thing
was happening.
- It became the place to go.
It was just extraordinary.
- NATALIE: The momentum leads
to cast members landing
various spots on Canadian
television.
Candy appears
on a quirky kids' show
called "Cucumber."
- "Cucumber" was basically a
show about a moose and a beaver
that lived together,
and there's one episode
where the weather
is just horrific.
- Is that a bird?
Is it a plane?! Is it--
- It's, uh, Weatherman.
Mind if I stay
until it stops raining?
- NATALIE: Candy also logs time
on the trippy CBC program
"Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins."
- JOHN STOCKER: Johnny was
really easy to work with.
"Johnny, do this."
"Okay."
"Do more of that."
"Okay."
And I think...that was part
of...his persona,
was, "You want me to do it
that way? I'll do it that way."
- NATALIE: In between TV gigs,
Candy is hired to help open
a Second City theater
in Pasadena, California,
which is short-lived.
When he's not working,
Candy,
who is still dating
his girlfriend, Rosemary,
enjoys entertaining at home.
- JAYNE: We'd be having these
feasts at John's place.
We had lobster dinners there
all the time,
but he wouldn't feed us
'til twelve o'clock at night!
And Joe Flaherty would be
furious, he'd be like,
"John! John, do you think we
can eat at seven o'clock today?"
John would be just like,
you know, with his cigars,
and he had this big, brown,
easy chair, just like--
[laughs] Just laughing.
He loved hosting.
- NATALIE: But everything
would change for this tight-knit
Toronto crew when in 1975,
Akroyd lands a major opportunity
in New York.
- JOE: Says, "There's this guy,
Lorne Michaels,
"he wants me to do this show,
'Saturday Night Live',
do you think I should do it?"
You know.
"Yeah, it's TV, why not?"
He says, "Okay, I'm gone."
- NATALIE:
Along with John Belushi,
a breakout star
from Second City Chicago,
Akroyd and Radner signed on
to be part
of "Saturday Night Live's"
now legendary first season.
- Everybody around that time
wanted to be in SNL.
Lorne Michaels was actually
coming to Toronto
to look for fresh talent.
- JOE: Bernie Sahlins
and Andrew thought,
"They're gonna come in and just
take all our good talent,
unless we offer them
their own TV show."
- NATALIE: And so Second City
producers scramble
to do just that.
- JUUL: Well, Global
were the first producers
in the show,
they had the facility,
but they were basically
a news station
and didn't--I don't think they'd
ever produced anything
but, like, cooking shows.
Nothing on this scale.
- NATALIE: Harold Ramis,
a Second City alum from Chicago
is tapped as the show's
head writer.
- JOE: I asked Bernie
if we could get Harold,
'cause I loved working
with Harold, he's...
and he's brilliant,
and he--he said yes,
he could come in,
and so Harold and I picked
the cast for, uh,
for the TV show.
I wanted to use John Candy
first.
He really found himself
as a performer.
- NATALIE: Co-starring
with Candy
are his Second City pals,
Flaherty, Thomas, Levy,
O'Hara, Martin and Ramis.
But now comes the hard part:
figuring out what this new show
actually is.
- JOE: Well, we had a meeting
one day, and I remember I said,
"Why don't we do a lot
of television parodies?"
And they said, "Okay, why don't
we be an imaginary television
station that produces its
own shows?"
And then Catherine says,
"Why don't we just do Canada?"
I said, "Why don't we just
make it a fictional place?"
I said, you know,
"Platz--Platzberg or Duckville,
or Melonville."
Melonville, I--somebody said,
"Alright, let's go
with Melonville."
So that was it,
that was the show.
- NATALIE: "Second City
Television" premieres
on September 21st, 1976,
airing only monthly
on smaller Canadian stations
for the first six episodes,
but it's a critical success,
and a new run is ordered.
By the fall of 1977,
SCTV is now a weekly show,
and gaining momentum.
- SCTV was wacky.
It was all these great
characters.
- JOE: Every city had
their own kinda grool guy
that would introduce movies
and they were always bad movies.
Just typical John,
great character!
[imitating lisp]
"I just talk like this
and my name's Dr. Tongue."
And it's--okay, that's perfect,
we've got Dr. Tongue.
- NATALIE: Candy and Flaherty
also earn laughs
playing the Farm Film
Report Guys.
- Howdy, farmers,
I'm Big Jimmy McBob.
- And I'm Billy Sol Hurok.
- I was Big Jim McBob,
and John was Billy Sol Hurok.
Like Siskel and Ebert, except
all they were interested in were
movies where things blow up.
- [explosion]
- [cheering]
- It blowed up good!
- Yeah, it blowed up real good!
- NATALIE: But perhaps Candy's
most memorable SCTV character
is the grandiose Johnny LaRue.
- Well, Johnny LaRue was pretty
much John Candy exaggerated.
He liked spending money,
everything was extravagant
with him.
- DAVE:
That came from reality.
There was a Johnny LaRue thing
where he wanted a crane;
John wanted a crane.
- That's my crane!
You can't take that!
Look, I'll get you the money,
I'll do it!
Look, just give me
ten more days!
That's all I need, ten days!
I--I got a show coming up!
- JAYNE: Every once in a while
I would do SCTV and John,
he was like...a star,
and is hysterical,
and you could give John
anything
and he would, like,
really go with it.
He was just always taking it
to the next level, all the time.
- NATALIE: SCTV is getting hot,
as Candy's lovable brand
of comedy begins to creep
into US households,
where it airs in syndication.
But behind the scenes,
tensions mount,
and Candy's tenure with
the beloved show
would soon come to a surprising
and abrupt halt.
- ♪
- NATALIE:
"Second City Television,"
now officially known as SCTV,
is gaining traction,
and John Candy is one
of its breakout stars.
But thanks to the low pay
and the long, stressful hours,
from early on the situation
had been far from ideal.
- DAVE: I didn't even know
this at the time,
but they were paying Eugene
and me more than John
and Andrea and Catherine,
because we were writing more.
I remember we were sitting
in our office on, uh,
Lombard Street,
when we got our checks,
and John's joking all like,
"What you get?"
And I just took my check
and fired it at him, you know,
like, "Look for yourself,"
and he opened it up
and it's like a hundred bucks
more than him,
and he was pissed off.
This was the beginning
of John's legendary feud
with Andrew Alexander,
and unfortunately,
I played a role in it.
- NATALIE: Alexander,
who runs Second City,
is signing the checks,
but head writer, Ramis,
apparently didn't do much
to help Candy's argument
for equal pay.
- Harold continued to kind of
lowball John's contribution
to the writing.
In interviews and--and some
stuff we did on stage,
Harold would say,
"Well, you know,
"John's ideas are coming written
on the back of a cocktail napkin
from the night before."
And what Harold was missing
in that was that
if you read the cocktail napkin,
there was a good idea there.
And one of the gags,
the visual gags that really
defined SCTV at the beginning
of the show,
was throwing the televisions
out of the windows
of the apartment building.
- MALE ANNOUNCER: Yes!
SCTV was on the air!
- [TVs crashing]
- DAVE: That was John's idea.
That came only from John.
- NATALIE: Though Candy
does get a raise,
salary disagreements continue.
The comedian and his boss
are also at odds
over something far less
predictable: food.
- DAVE: John saw himself
as kind of the father figure
for the crew,
and the rest of the cast,
and if there was cheapness,
he was offended
that it was insulting to them,
not to him.
- Monday we went overtime,
and Andrew ordered Swiss Chalet,
uh, a chicken chain up there
in Toronto,
and John was...irate.
"How dare you order
Swiss Chalet for the crew
and the guests?!"
- The Swiss Chalet meals
were fine,
everybody was fine with it,
but John thought it was cheap.
And when Andrew got
Swiss Chalet meals
for the entire show,
John got really mad,
and punched a hole in the wall
of his dressing room.
- He raised hell,
I'll never forget that.
He put a hole in the drywall.
- And I took him a...a magic
marker and drew
a frame around it to
make it like a piece of art,
and that stayed there
for the whole season.
We wouldn't let anyone fix it.
- VALRI: He was just
that kind of a guy,
he was very concerned with
how people were treated fairly
and whether they were
treated fairly.
- NATALIE: Despite SCTV's
momentum,
in early 1979,
Global doesn't renew the show,
which ultimately gets
resurrected once production
moves to Edmonton.
But Candy is ready
to branch out,
so he makes a bold move:
he quits STCV.
It's not just his professional
life that is changing.
That spring, after almost
a decade of dating,
Candy marries his long-time
love, Rosemary.
- JAYNE: God bless her,
the sweetest woman in the world,
she just put up
with a lot that John ha--
you know, dragged her into.
- Rose was just really
supportive.
She was always really supportive
of John and his art.
- JAYNE: She was not
a showbiz person,
she was a potter,
a brilliant potter.
And, uh, a really good balance
for John, I think.
- NATALIE: Big news
for the newlyweds comes quickly,
when they learn they're going
to become parents,
which is around the same time
Candy starts to land
small but memorable film roles.
- He was thrilled with the fact
that he was going
to be a father.
He was actually working
on "Blues Brothers" in 1980
and he had it hsndwritten onto
his contract that if Rose
went into labor, that he
would be able to leave set
immediately because he didn't
wanna miss a minute of it.
- NATALIE: In February of 1980,
the Candys welcome a daughter,
Jennifer.
Fatherhood seems to fit
the Canadian perfectly,
as Candy explains
on the Canadian news program
"That's Life" a few years later.
- MALE INTERVIEWER:
And you're a father.
- Yeah, that's great,
that's my daughter over there,
Jennifer...
which is the best thing
that ever happened to me.
- NATALIE: But before his film
career starts to take off,
Candy will land his next
television opportunity,
leading a show called
"Big City Comedy,"
which features Second City
alum, and is produced by,
of all folks,
the Osmond family.
- I got a call in Los Angeles
to come and do a pilot
in Salt Lake City.
At the Osmond facility,
where there was, uh,
no coffee, no drinks, uh,
no alcohol,
because it's the Mormon
facility.
- NATALIE: But just like he did
as SCTV, Candy figures out
a way to take care
of his own.
- John made it happen.
It was a party.
There was alcohol,
there were ashtrays backstage,
and there was coffee.
We couldn't do without it.
- NATALIE:
The pilot is picked up
and the production
moves to Canada.
- AUDRIE: John was very
in charge,
and the production values
were high, John kept them high.
There was a--a mambo number
which John, you know,
he did his-- [speaks gibberish]
And any time John smiled,
he just lit up.
He was the personality
of the show,
and his characters
always had like a...compassion.
That's why people could
relate to John,
just with his self-effacing
smile or his...his sweetness,
and his sharing
and his generosity,
you always knew
you could count on him.
He taught me how to
behave with people,
he taught me, you know,
"Just be yourself,"
with, uh, big stars,
"Just be yourself,
they'll love ya, come on!
Just be yourself!"
"Okay, John,
I see it works for you."
- NATALIE: "Big City Comedy"
lasts only one season,
but 1981 would see Candy
making great strides again
in Hollywood with
the soon-to-be
classic film, "Stripes."
- IVAN: I'd just finished
my, sort of first
directorial film,
it's called "Meatballs."
I suddenly thought, "Oh,
I have this great idea,
Cheech and Chong join the army."
Of course, uh,
I couldn't get Cheech and Chong,
I couldn't make a deal.
- NATALIE: For the lead roles,
Reitman taps "Meatballs" star
Bill Murray,
and Harold Ramis,
who he knows from
an off-Broadway show he produced
years earlier,
and which featured some
of the "Saturday Night Live"
players before SNL even existed.
The whole cast, basically, yeah.
- But Harold didn't get a job,
he was working for...NPR
or something, and...
I called him and I said,
"Look, I have this draft
"of this movie that I think
I'd love you to be in,
and I'd like you to re-write."
And so he did a fast draft,
with the original writers
as well,
and it became the movie
that you know right now.
- NATALIE: When it comes
to casting the role
of Dewey "Ox" Oxburger,
Reitman, who grew up in Canada,
wants Candy.
- REITMAN: I knew him
personally,
he was part of that whole
community in Toronto,
so I was a fan.
He wasn't Fatty Arbuckle,
you know,
which was the, kind of,
quintessential big man
of comedy that came out
of Hollywood from the 30s.
Uh, he brought a kind of
different kinda character to it.
And I thought, "Yeah,
he'd be wonderful, I..."
And he...he got on board
right away.
He had quite long hair
when he showed up,
and you see it when he arrives
at the bus depot.
- Well, I hope this
is the mass hall.
How's it going, Eisenhower?
- And he's quite obnoxiously
funny in that scene.
- [machine whirring]
- NATALIE: Also the scene
where they had
to have their hair shorn.
That had to be in one take,
right?
Was there extra
stress with that?
- We all knew that there
was only one take on this.
- Yeah, how is it that Bill
and Harold were able to walk out
with a lot of hair
on their heads still?
- REITMAN: You know,
I think it was a mistake.
It was a mistake of mine
as a director, I thought,
"Cheez, I can't let my two
stars be practically bald headed
through the whole film,
so we'll go a little easier."
And of course, Candy had
every--I said, "Take it off."
And I think he was pissed,
actually, that they all sort of
got just a medium cut.
- NATALIE: Although Candy's role
is a supporting one,
he shines easily.
- I was always trying
to find some way, uh,
to keep his character
front and center,
because my instinct was
that it was gonna be good,
it was gonna be a factor
for the film.
- There was one scene
that John Candy
did not particularly like.
I think you know which one
I'm talking about.
- Well, we did this
mud wrestling thing,
and mud wrestling was
all the rage about the time
that we wrote that screenplay.
- DAVE: They wanted John
to take his shirt off,
John was pretty heavy
at this time,
John didn't want
to take his shirt off,
and I know why.
- He was somewhat embarrassed
by his size and by the fact
that he was gonna be
in long underwear,
so he had nothing to hide,
there was no way for him
to hide.
- JOE: It was a very unfair
thing for Harold to do.
Harold had done a bunch
of jokes on John's weight
in SCTV.
We would do fat jokes,
and he'd play along with 'em,
you know, but this one was
kind of going too far.
Yeah, he said, "They were just
using me as a fat joke."
Did not like it at all.
- I remember talking to him,
you know, between takes,
and just like, "Goddammit,"
he just couldn't wait
for that scene to be over,
you know,
it was humiliating
and embarrassing to him.
And he committed to the scene
and he gave it his all.
You know what?
Would the movie had been fine
without that scene? Yeah.
Absolutely.
- NATALIE: "Stripes" is one
of the top five grossing films
in the US in 1981,
and the smash hit gives Candy
a taste of real fame.
- He was actually
in Amsterdam not so long after,
and he was recognized
and he realized all of a sudden
that actually people were
starting to recognize him
as--as a film star.
- NATALIE: That same summer,
SCTV fans are thrilled to see
Candy rejoin his old pals
on the small screen,
as SCTV's new season airs
on NBC in the United States.
- What I love about it is
it's funny, it's not dirty,
it's really good satire
and really good humor.
- NATALIE: In between one
hilarious impression
after another,
Candy, along with Eugene Levy,
ups SCTV's game even further.
- Gene had the idea,
"Let's do Lutonians,
two Lutonian brothers that
play nothing but polkas,"
and Schmenge was a name that
John had come up with earlier.
- Hello, I'm Yosh Schmenge.
- And I'm Stan Schmenge.
- And we're the Happy Wanderers.
- JOE: And that's how
that started,
and it was pretty dead funny,
you know.
- NATALIE: SCTV is now
a late-night TV staple
and critical darling,
as Candy and his colleagues
will go on to win two
consecutive Emmys
in 1982 and 1983.
John Candy is now an
international film
and television star,
but the shocking death
of a close friend
will soon send him reeling.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Hot off the success
of the hit comedy, "Stripes,"
and in the midst of an
impressive SCTV run on NBC,
John Candy seems destined
for stardom.
But on March 5th, 1982,
tragedy strikes close to home.
- The preliminary investigation
of comedian John Belushi's death
reportedly points to an
accidental overdose of cocaine
by intravenous injection.
- The Los Angeles Times
quoted a source and said
the comedian had cocaine
in his blood,
which could possibly have led
to lung failure
or to a heart attack.
- When John Belushi died,
it really affected John Candy.
He was a friend of John's
and he loved him.
- John knew and respected
Belushi, and he was quite shaken
by his death.
- I was the one who told
John, and when I told John,
John broke down into tears.
And he said, "Oh, God, no,
it's starting."
And what he meant by that was
that our carefree
young generation that had been
the kind of gorillas of comedy,
were now dying off,
and John felt that, you know,
the grim reaper
was coming for him.
So, he was crying for Belushi,
but he was crying for himself
at the same time.
And it broke my heart
to see that, 'cause I knew
how profoundly
that affected him.
- TRACEY: I think he took it
as a bit of a warning
to everybody within
that group,
that they needed to look after
themselves and get healthier.
- NATALIE: Severely shaken
from the loss of a friend,
and anxious about
his own health,
Candy resolves to lose weight
and lead a cleaner lifestyle.
- He tried really hard
to sort of get healthy.
- NATALIE: Meanwhile,
Candy's film career thrives,
first with a memorable cameo
as a security guard
in "National Lampoon's
Vacation."
- Sorry, folks, park's closed.
The moose out front
should've told you.
- NATALIE: And then with
a significant role
in the mermaid classic,
"Splash,"
alongside a young Tom Hanks.
- All my life I've been
waiting for someone,
and when I find her,
she's...she's a fish.
- Nobody said love's perfect.
- The young lover's brother
is the devilish John Candy.
Whenever Candy appears,
laughs stream from the screen.
- They just were
a great team,
and that movie took off.
- NATALIE: "Splash" rakes in
almost 70 million dollars
at the box office,
and also reunites Candy
with his former SCTV pal,
Eugene Levy,
after Candy leaves the show
for good in 1983.
But just before "Splash,"
Candy has an opportunity
to costar in what will become
an even bigger film.
A little something called,
"Ghostbusters."
- We wrote a part specifically
for him, and it was Louis Tully,
who lived down the hall
from Dana Barrett,
the Sigourney Weaver role.
But I sent it to him
and he said,
"Look, I don't know
how to play this guy,
"maybe I could, uh,
play him with a German accent
with big German shepherds
in my apartment,"
and I said, "Well, I don't think
you can have dogs, you know,
"we've got this thing where
the dogs are on the roof
"and it's gonna get really
confusing to the people,
"and I don't think you should
be German,
you gotta be an American."
[laughs]
I could tell he didn't get it,
even though we actually
tailored it thinking of him
as we were writing the lines.
So he basically passed.
- NATALIE: Thanks to the success
of "Splash,"
Candy has arrived,
scoring major roles
in high-profile films
like "Brewster's Millions"
with Richard Pryor,
and "Summer Rental,"
which Candy is particularly
attracted to
because it's directed
by comedy legend Carl Reiner.
- Talk to me a little bit
about John Candy.
- He's a--an ultimate comic,
he's a comic who can
do anything,
and he was honed in
improvisational comedy,
in, you know, SCTV,
Second City.
- INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
- He's a real bona fide
comedian.
- TRACEY: Carl Reiner really
gave John Candy
the directing bug.
He was the first director
that showed him the scenes
and would ask for his opinion,
and they just loved
working together.
- NATALIE: During shooting,
Reiner's concerned
about Candy's weight.
- TRACEY: Carl worried
about John, uh,
he wanted him to, uh,
be healthy, so he basically
brought a pritikin chef
onto set to look after John.
John did the pritikin diet
several times,
and he actually did that just
before he shot
"Brewster's Millions,"
and you can actually see
how much weight he lost
in that film.
Yeah, he went back and to
from that diet a few times,
and he did try to look
after himself, um,
but he did struggle
with his weight.
- He is a...a handsome man
trapped in a larger frame
than is necessary.
- INTERVIEWER: [laughs]
- He really is,
he's got soulful eyes,
women find him sexy,
Playgirl Magazine voted him
as one of the ten sexiest
women--
- INTERVIEWER: I saw that.
- --men, rather.
And, uh, I see it,
I saw it before they did,
I said to my wife,
"This guy's very sexy."
- NATALIE: Candy's wife in
"Summer Rental," Karen Austin,
gets to experience that
sex appeal first-hand. Sort of.
- KAREN: He had not done
a love scene before,
and he was a little nervous
about that,
and I was nervous about that
'cause love scenes are not easy.
I would say he was--
it was probably the easiest
love scene I ever did 'cause
I felt like John
was just adorable.
We laughed all the way
through it.
He had a really tender soul,
and I think that's what gave him
so much empathy for other people
and why he cared about
how the crew was,
and he cared about
the other actors.
- NATALIE: With Candy and Austin
playing parents,
they often discuss his
experiences as a family man.
After all, being a father is
the role Candy is most proud of.
- KAREN: I think he talked about
Rosemary as his bride.
When we did the movie,
Jennifer was, I think,
four years old,
and his son was just a baby,
and he loved his wife
and his children so much.
- NATALIE: Which some say
is the real reason Candy's now
working on overdrive,
appearing in five movies
in 1985 alone.
- Our feeling was he wanted
to make enough money
to sock aside for his family,
so that they'd be fairly
comfortable after he left.
- DAVE: There was a clock
going in John's head,
John's dad died of a heart
attack when he was 35,
and John really worried
that--genetically--that he
was on that same clock.
- JAYNE: I think that might've
plagued John a lot.
I think he felt it was like this
hammer that was coming down.
- NATALIE: The paychecks
are rolling in,
but it doesn't always
translate to success.
"Summer Rental" performed
only modestly at the box office,
and is followed by two
disappointments,
"Volunteers," which sees
a Candy-Hanks reunion,
and "Armed and Dangerous,"
opposite his old buddy, Levy.
But 1987 will turn the tide,
when Candy signs on
to be part of Mel Brooks's
Star Wars-inspired parody,
"Space Balls."
His character's name...
- Hi.
- Who are you?!
- Barf!
- What are you?
- I'm a mog.
Half man, half dog.
I'm my own best friend.
- Mel had written something
that was...a parody
of Chewbacca that was
funny and goofy,
and could get away saying
all sorts of funny lines.
- NATALIE: But there's a problem
with figuring out
how to transform Candy
into the intergalactic half-pup.
- Mel Brooks was very reticent
to cover John's face.
He said, "Hey, we paid
a lot of money for this guy,
we want him recognizable."
So we tried different wigs,
uh, some facial hair,
like whiskers on dogs.
I don't know how many trials
of different dog makeup
applications we tried,
none of it was acceptable.
Mel wanted it to fit into
the satirical,
kind of schlock
of the rest of the movie.
It took me a long time
to figure it out.
- NATALIE: Barf ends up
stealing many of his scenes,
as "Space Balls" brings in
38 million dollars
at the box office,
and goes on to become
a much-quoted classic.
But it hasn't been easy
for Candy to consistently
find projects that are
financially
or critically successful.
- MALE INTERVIEWER: Do you
take the misses personally?
- Uh, yeah, yeah.
You do, 'cause you wanna go in
and do the best you can,
and, uh...you hope everyone
else is doing the same,
and feeling the same,
but there are some that just
kinda walk through it.
- People don't realize,
you don't pick a movie
having seen it.
[chuckles] Okay?
You pick the movie based
on a script,
the way you read the script,
you might've pictured
an amazing thing,
that's not necessarily
how the director or the--uh,
studio or producers
made that movie.
- I spent 20 years thinking
that you trust people
and that they know what they're
doing, and, uh, you know,
producers and directors
are going, "Gosh, he's great,"
and when you work with some
people and you go-- [groans]
- INTERVIEWER: [laughing]
"Let me outta here!"
- "They've been faking it
all these years!"
- JON: Like everyone,
he's had plenty
of his unsuccessful movies,
but you can point to something
really funny he did
in each of those movies.
And there's something
about him that he always
found that extraordinarily
funny thing.
- NATALIE: Candy is about
to harness that skill
and watch it pay dividends
when he teams up with
the writer, director,
and close confidante
who will make some of the most
beloved films
of John Candy's career.
- ♪
- Welcome back.
After first making a name
for himself
as a Second City performer
in Toronto,
and then as a breakout SCTV
star in both Canada and the US,
John Candy graduated
to Hollywood in the early 1980s,
with memorable supporting roles
in some major hit films.
Candy had also become a leading
man in various comedies,
and by 1986, was living
in Tinsel Town
with his wife Rose
and their two young children,
Jennifer and Chris.
Fate stepped in
when a script called
"Planes, Trains,
& Automobiles"
crossed Candy's desk.
It was written by John Hughes,
who was hot off the success
of films like
"The Breakfast Club"
and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
With "Planes, Trains
& Automobiles,"
Candy and Hughes would soon
embark on their first
official collaboration
and a life-long friendship.
- TRACEY: John Hughes and
John Candy were best friends.
When they finally ended up
working together,
they just clicked.
- I worked for John Hughes
on a bunch of movies
in the 80s,
and I think "Planes,
Trains & Automobiles--"
that is the movie where I think
that special nature
of...John Hughes's relationship
with John Candy, like,
really, really developed.
- What was your first
reaction when you got
the script and you looked at it
for the first time?
- Oh, I loved it. I couldn't
believe John Hughes had written
this for me and I was wondering
how he got in my head, uh,
the dialogue, everything
was just so perfect,
it was so funny.
- NATALIE: Candy plays
Del Harris,
and Steve Martin is cast
opposite him as Neal Page.
- TRACEY: Neal Page
is a marketing executive
and he wants to get home
to his family for Thanksgiving.
Along the way,
the weather has different ideas,
and he actually meets
a shower curtain salesman
called Del Griffith,
who basically plagues him
on his whole journey
from the airport onwards.
- JOHN: It's your worst
nightmare,
traveling with somebody
who won't shut up.
But he's really not
a bad sort,
he's really a good soul,
I think he's, uh, uh...
a road warrior of sorts.
He knows the turf,
he knows the area,
and Steve's character has
never traveled outside
of the limousine or the--
to the airport
and the first class lounge.
- TRACEY: John Hughes
loved to improvise,
so Steve Martin and John Candy
would improvise a scene
and they would wait for
John Hughes to shout, "Cut."
And he wouldn't,
so they would continue,
to the point where John Hughes
actually used up
twice the industry average
of film for that movie.
- And that whole thing
in the bed
with the hand in between
two pillows,
a lot of that was improvised.
- Those aren't pillows!
- [screaming]
- They would work through
things like, for instance,
the big scene, um,
at the end,
where Neal goes back
to the train station and,
you know, figures out that
Del doesn't have a home.
- NEAL: You said you were
going home,
what are you doing here?
- DEL: I, uh...
I don't have a home.
Marie's been dead
for eight years.
- They did...18, 19 takes
of that,
and it got progressively
more and more emotional,
more and more serious.
- And John Candy, you know,
you really get to see
the warmth that's at the heart
of his character.
The power of that whole ending
is that he's just a man
who wants to have a close
friend, and the loveliness
and the emotionality that
comes through him
in that part, it's terrific.
- A lot of critics are saying
this is really the best vehicle,
the best performance so far,
how do you feel about that?
- Well, I think it's, uh...
one of the first opportunities
I've had to run a character
from A to--to, uh, to Z.
- He was empathetic in it,
and, uh, you felt for him,
and that really demonstrated
his acting skills.
- JOHN: There's a little bit
of everything in this picture,
uh, it runs the full range
of emotions, it's a--
one of the best experiences
I've had working on a film,
and I'm really proud of it,
I feel good about this movie.
- DAVE: He's probably the first
big director that looked at John
and said, "You're a star."
And he actually treated him
like a star.
And John loved that,
John loved John Hughes for that.
- I have a lot of respect
for John Hughes,
and it was just, uh,
a dream, really, for me.
- NATALIE: "Planes, Trains
& Automobiles" is a critical
and box office success,
and marks just the beginning
of Candy and Hughes's
many collaborations.
- John Hughes just started
writing for John Candy.
- They would talk day and night
on the phone,
they would roll ideas
of each other, uh,
they were kindred spirits,
really.
And it got to a stage where
John Candy trusted John Hughes
so much that as soon as
John Hughes said,
"I have a part for you,"
he would just say,
"Tell me where and when."
- NATALIE: Which is exactly
what happens once Hughes
writes 1988's
"The Great Outdoors."
- [horn blowing]
- Yeah!
- [barking, growling]
- Whoa!
- NATALIE: Howard Deutch,
who worked with Hughes
on "Pretty in Pink"
and "Some Kind of Wonderful,"
takes the directorial reigns.
- HOWARD: When John Candy and I
talked about it,
he had this--decided he wanted
to grow a very big beard, uh,
'cause it was the woods
and it was the outdoors,
and he said that would be
his character.
- John showed up...
with a beard.
And he grows a really
handsome beard, you know?
And he's good looking
with a beard.
- So, Universal saw the beard
and said,
"You have to get him
to shave the beard,
'cause we can't see his face."
- "We don't want anybody
to not recognize him."
- So I said, "John, I think
that--you know, everybody's
talking about maybe you should
shave the beard."
He said, "This movie will always
be a black spot on my soul
if you make me shave my beard."
- They made him shave, and he
was really not very happy
about that.
- NATALIE: At least,
Candy gets to reunite
with his old Toronto buddy,
Dan Akroyd.
- And it's a whole week
you'll be here. [laughs] Okay.
- He and Dan played
brother in laws,
and there was this kind
of tension between them
the whole time,
in terms of character.
- [nervous laughter]
- But after we were shooting,
they would always be together,
hanging out, laughing,
talking about their Canadian...
relationship and what went on
when they were younger.
- NATALIE: A less welcome
co-star, a 1500-pound
Hollywood legend known as
Bart the Bear.
- A bald-headed bear!
- [growls]
- [screams]
- Said, "I don't have to do
anything with the bear, right?"
I said, "No, there's plenty, you
gotta do a lot with the bear."
He said, "But I don't have
to get close to the bear."
I said, "No, I think we need
to get close to the bear."
- Okay, okay, you got it?
Good, good, okay.
Alright, yeah, you let me know
when you're ready to come out,
we--we can put it on, okay?
- John was terrified
of that bear.
- [bear grunting]
- Whoa!
- [bear grunting]
- Big bear!
- TRACEY: There was no
CGI back in those days,
so when you see him running
in "The Great Outdoors,"
he literally is running
for his life.
- [yelps]
- He was extremely worried
about that.
I--I don't blame him,
it's a real bear.
- ♪
- Whew! Ooh.
- Hey, he's back, everybody!
- Ooh! Ooh.
- Chet.
- Big. Bear!
- Big bear. [laughs]
- HOWARD: With all that,
I should convey that he was
probably the most charming,
loving, talented, uh,
actor, right up there for me
that I've ever worked with.
He loved people,
he loved kids,
he would always stop and sign
as many autographs as he could.
He was miserable-- [laughs]
the whole movie,
but some people came to visit
him one day,
and I remember him saying,
"Hey--" they said,
"How are you?" and he said,
"I get to dance, I get to sing,
I get to do all this,
I'm a lucky guy."
And that's how he was.
- NATALIE: Hughes writes
another role for Candy,
and this time, he is
back in the director's chair.
- BUCK: Hey.
How you doing?
- Who are you?!
- I'm your uncle Buck.
- Do I have an uncle?
- "Uncle Buck" I think was
one of the great ones.
- TRACEY: Uncle Buck was
just a perfect character
for John, and he played it
beautifully.
- How'd you like to spend
the next several nights
wondering if your crazy,
out-of-work bum uncle
will shave your head
while you sleep?
- INTERVIEWER: Who's Uncle Buck?
What's he like?
- He's an airdwell uncle,
little bit of a gambler,
little bit of, uh, living
on the streets.
He gets a call in the middle
of the night to come look
after his nieces and nephew,
who are living
in the suburbs of Chicago,
and, uh, I don't think
he's ever been out there before,
so he's really the last choice.
- Hey, I, uh, stopped
smoking cigarettes.
- Oh, good.
- BUCK: Isn't that something?
[laughs] I'm on to cigars now.
Yeah, I'm onto a five-year
plan, eliminated the cigarettes,
then I go to cigars,
then I go to pipes,
then I go to chewing tobacco,
and I'm onto that nicotine gum.
[chuckles]
- NATALIE: In one of the most
memorable moments
from the movie,
Candy goes toe to toe
with a very young,
pre-"Home Alone"
Macaulay Culkin.
- Where do you live?
- In the city.
- Do you have a house?
- Apartment.
- Own or rent?
- Rent.
- What do you do for a living?
- Lots of things.
- MILES: Where's your office?
- Don't have one.
- How come?
- BUCK: I don't need one.
- Where's your wife?
- Don't have one.
- MILES: How come?
- It's a long story.
- Do you have kids?
- No, I don't.
- MILES: How come?
- It's an even longer story.
- Are you my dad's brother?
- What's your record
for consecutive questions asked?
- 38.
- I'm your dad's
brother, alright.
- John helped him a lot
through his dialogue,
it was far too much
and far too rapid-fire,
I think, for a kid that age
to get through it,
as good as Mac was.
- Just for you.
- Oh, my God.
He put onions in the eggs.
- He was just great with him.
It helped Macaulay to really
be comfortable,
but he was always
so giving with the other actors.
- What you blow all that
makeup for?
We're just going bowling.
- I'm not going bowling.
- Come on, it's a great sport,
and it's virtually impossible
to get pregnant while doing it.
- John Candy was the way I think
you'd probably expect him to be.
For me, he was kind,
he was easy to be around,
he was funny.
- Have you ever
heard of a tune-up? [laughs]
- [laughs] You ever hear
of a ritual killing? [laughs]
- My character, Tia,
is this angry teenager.
- I'm stunned
that I'm related to you.
- One of the things that's,
I think, so lovely,
is that you think you're alone
and you're really not.
- I'm sorry.
- Hey. Hey, come on.
Nothing to be sorry about.
I'm just kinda glad I get
the chance to know you again.
- JEAN: John Hughes wrote
this amazing, flawless--
in my opinion--script,
and what I saw was
a relationship of two guys
who would just
riff off of each other
and it was almost
like they were partners.
- John Hughes, are you and him
joined at the hip now?
- John's writing, uh,
through all of his pictures,
has always had, uh,
an undercurrent,
another story being told
underneath, very subtly,
and it's a...it's quite
enjoyable working
on a project of his.
- If you think about...through
the history of Hollywood,
about special relationships
with actors and directors,
you know, like a Marty Scorsese
and a Robert DeNiro, say,
the relationship that John Candy
had with John Hughes
was very much that kind
of a relationship,
and easily the two funniest
people I've ever met in my life,
who were utterly comfortable,
and trusting in terms of
their creative sensibilities.
- NATALIE: "Uncle Buck" earns
positive reviews for both
Candy and Hughes, helping to
cement their legacy together.
But it's an entirely different
side of Candy
that will soon be tested,
when he takes on
the most dramatic role
of his career
in a political thriller which
will ignite real controversy.
- ♪
- NATALIE: It's the end
of the 1980s and John Candy
was on a hot streak thanks
to fruitful collaborations
with his close friend
and now Hollywood powerhouse,
John Hughes.
"Planes, Trains & Automobiles"
and "Uncle Buck,"
both written and directed
by Hughes,
showcased a more heartfelt and
tender side to Candy's acting,
earning him accolades with
both fans and critics alike.
But in the midst of this
creative
and highly successful period,
Candy was looking to gain
more control of his projects,
and so he formed his own
production company, Frostbacks,
which co-produced the slap-stick
detective farse,
"Who's Harry Crumb?"
- VALRI: Harry Crumb
was his film,
and you could tell 'cause
he worked so hard.
He worked so hard on that,
meaning he set himself up
for so much difficult stuff.
- BEN: On "Harry Crumb,"
which was all disguises,
there was, uh, bald caps
and other time-consuming, uh,
makeups.
We had such a good time.
It was so pleasing
to work with him.
- NATALIE: Although
the film is a flop,
Candy revels in donning
all those disguises,
while his production company's
next project will see Candy
taking on an altogether
new form, as a cartoon.
"Camp Candy" premieres on NBC
in the fall of 1989,
and the animated star
finds himself
in pre-teen prime time.
- We were on at 8:30 in the
morning opposite "Gummy Bears"
and..."Muppet Babies." [laughs]
- He was the camp counselor
and I was the camp nurse,
and the kids would, you know,
run in and say,
"Oh, there's this turtle
that's stuck on the bridge"
and he'd go "Oh, we gotta go
help the turtle,"
and then I said,
"Don't let the turtle bite you."
Lots of kid stuff,
very gentle and sweet
and harmless and a little bit
of a lesson,
a little Mr. Rogers in him,
you know?
- It's not a very violent show,
it...there's some nice
experiences going on within it,
it's a lot of fun,
we're talking about
the environment
and communication
with each other and...
- VALRI: He wanted to teach kids
about feeling included
and not being sad and not
being lonely,
he was very sensitive.
And that may have come
from his life, I don't know.
- NATALIE: With Candy voicing
the main character,
the show would run
for three seasons.
The turn of the decade sees
Candy jumping back
onto the big screen,
for a small role
in another John Hughes venture
called "Home Alone."
Chris Columbus directs,
while Candy's "Uncle Buck"
co-star, Macaulay Culkin,
becomes a household name.
- [screams]
- NATALIE: "Home Alone" goes on
to gross a whopping
286 million dollars at
the North American box office,
making it at the time
the highest-grossing
live action comedy film ever.
In 1991, Candy re-teams
with Columbus and Hughes
for "Only the Lonely,"
starring Maureen O'Hara
as Candy's mother,
and Ally Sheedy as his
lover interest.
- Candy as a romantic lead?
- Well, I don't know if you'd
consider him a romantic lead.
You know, John Candy plays
every man in this movie,
and he's just a regular guy
like all of us,
and he actually finds love.
- NATALIE:
But it's another film,
Oliver Stone's
controversial "JFK,"
that truly puts Candy's
acting skills to the test.
- Action!
- OLIVER: Kevin Costner
was a centerpiece,
but I wanted to surround him
with as many well-known faces,
so I had people like
Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau,
Tommy Lee Jones and Joe Pesci
and Kevin Bacon,
Donald Sutherland and so forth,
and there was a role
for a southern lawyer
from New Orleans who was
quite a character.
- NATALIE: Candy reads
for the role of Dean Andrews,
an attorney many believed to be
a player
in one of the conspiracy
theories surrounding
the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy.
- The thing that really
amazed me was,
he came to the door,
picked me up,
gave me a big hug,
but...it was the first time
I've ever seen him nervous.
- OLIVER: So I guess he hadn't
done much drama,
and so this was like,
out of his league.
I've read of his work on
"Planes, Trains & Automobiles"
and various things, but, uh,
I approached him because
I thought he was
perfect for the role,
and he actually was scared of
it, but he took it,
and I admire him for that.
- BILL: We had always talked
about him doing, like,
a serious dramatic role
and I think it was something
that--inside him that he always
really wanted to do.
And then he just crushed it.
- OLIVER: Candy played him
very well,
we did a few other scenes
where he had--he was sweating,
you know, 'cause the character
was supposed to sweat.
He was quite nervous
and, uh, I encouraged him,
and he delivered.
- NATALIE: With the help
of a dialect coach,
Candy's "Nawlins" accent
is perfect,
as he disappears
into the character.
- [Cajun accent] If I give you
the name of the big enchilada...
then it's "Bon voyage, Deano."
I mean, like, permanent,
I mean like a bullet in my head,
you dig?
- KEN: He had the character
down good,
talking this jazzy type.
It wasn't John Candy,
this was an actor.
This was a very good actor.
And it was the first time
I--I really, "Wow.
He's got some chops."
- NATALIE: Although Stone
comes under fire for his take
on history...
- There's only so many
known facts,
and I had to speculate
the rest of the way,
so I'm being--I think--
criticized unfairly
for...speculating.
- NATALIE: "JFK" and Candy's
dramatic turn are lauded
by critics worldwide.
The epic film is nominated
for eight Academy Awards,
and wins for both editing
and cinematography.
Outside of Hollywood,
another unexpected opportunity
falls in Candy's lap,
thanks to the die-hard
hockey fan's friendship
with the Los Angeles Kings owner
and Canadian entrepreneur,
Bruce McNall.
McNall is looking for
investors to join him
in buying the Toronto Argonauts,
a football team
north of the border.
- TRACEY: Bruce McNall
started to sort of really
engage with all
the celebrity fans,
Wayne Gregsky, who is obviously
a very famous hockey player,
was looking to go in
on this deal with Bruce,
and he said to John,
"Do you think I should do it?"
And John said,
"Oh, my gosh, yes, you know,
can I...can I come in
on it too?"
- The key is, it's fun.
It's a lot of fun.
Yeah, there's risk,
but what the hell?
You know, that's life.
- MARTIN: Candy really responded
to--when he was in LA--
Wayne Gregsky being
acquired by the Kings,
because of course,
Wayne Gregsky was Canadian.
So, that was just
a huge boost for...for Candy,
and, uh, he was just very
excited about it,
and, uh, he, as much as
possible, hung out with Gregsky.
So eventually, Candy,
Gregsky and McNall
bought the Toronto Argos.
- NATALIE: Candy puts up
one million dollars
of his own money,
and is ecstatic to be part
of a sport he's loved
since childhood.
The new co-owner enlists
his Hollywood friends
to help him promote the team.
- TRACEY: He would get up
at 4:00 in the morning,
do radio shows, do promotion,
do adverts...
- Have you bought your season's
tickets yet
for the Toronto Argonauts?
No? Well, you should.
- He probably worked harder
than anybody at that time,
and he loved those team members.
- NATALIE: And whenever Candy
appears on the field
during Argonauts' games,
the crowd goes wild.
- He flew all of us up to the--
to his guest box.
Akroyd was there,
Jim Belushi was there,
and John is down on the field
with 50,000 people
at the Dome Stadium in Toronto
being cheered by the city,
walking with Wayne Gregsky
and Bruce McNall, waving,
and Danny looks at me and goes,
"He did it."
I said,
"What are you talking about?"
"He's Johnny Toronto,
he made it happen, look at him!"
We were all laughing
our asses off in that booth,
because it's true,
it's like he believed it
before it happened
and he made it happen,
he became Johnny Toronto.
- A very exciting thing
for John Candy was...
when the team won
the Grey Cup in 1991.
- NATALIE: But by the end
of 1993,
after two losing seasons,
things fall apart.
- Bruce and Wayne
were losing a lot of money
with the Toronto Argos.
John was capped,
so he would only lose
a certain amount,
but for Bruce and Wayne,
they were losing an awful
lot of money,
and they basically decided
that they were gonna have
to sell the team.
They didn't tell John this
initially,
they looked for a buyer,
and when John found out,
he was pretty devastated.
- NATALIE: But before Candy's
run as a football co-owner
would end, a sports movie
comes along
that will put his name
back up in lights,
followed by another role
that would be his last.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Although John Candy
is still basking
in the excitement
of being an owner
of the Toronto Argonauts
football team,
it's time for the actor
to return to his day job.
- TRACEY: John had to go back
and earn some money,
so he started doing
some films again.
- NATALIE: Meanwhile, a Disney
movie about Jamaica's
first bobsled team
is in pre-production,
and its director is sure
about one thing.
- We had to cast a coach,
and I'm like,
"Oh, my God, who is a great
ex-coach who'd be
an Olympic gold medalist?"
And Jeffrey Katzenberg said,
"It should be John Candy."
I said, "No, that tone
is all wrong, it's just,
Candy is like my hero,
but that..."
and he's like, "No, no, no,
it's gonna be John Candy."
"Yes, Mr. Katzenberg,
it's a great idea,
Mr. Katzenberg."
- NATALIE: And so Candy
is cast as the team's coach,
and the script,
which was initially more
of a serious sports film,
is rewritten.
"Cool Runnings" is born.
- RAWLE: I was nervous to meet
him 'cause
a lot of times when you meet
celebrities in reality,
you're like, "Ugh,
this guy's kind of a jerk."
But John Candy was--
he superseded my expectations
of...what a movie star
is all about,
I didn't know you could be
a movie star and just be
a regular guy at the same time,
it was like, "Wow."
- NATALIE: As coach Irv Blitzer,
Candy embodies that regular guy
with ease.
- JON: He's got these
extraordinary moments,
there's real stuff in there,
and without an actor like John--
forget comedian like John,
but actor like John--
I don't know that we would've
pulled that off.
- What I liked about him is--
which I didn't realize,
is a lot of actors don't stick
around when it's your, uh...
when you're on camera
and they're off-camera,
and they would just be
in their trailer somewhere,
but John Candy was there a lot,
and he would give us
the lines off-camera,
which, uh--
[chuckles]
A lot of stars don't do that.
- NATALIE: But there's another
reason why Candy
is so accessible.
- At first, I thought, "Wow,
what a contribution that is."
And at some point,
he said,
"I don't have to walk
all the way back to my trailer.
I'd rather stay here than walk
those 200 yards and back again."
Especially at that altitude
in Calgary,
or when it was boiling hot
in Jamaica.
- NATALIE: For most of his
adult life, Candy has struggled
with keeping his weight
in check.
- INTERVIEWER: Does anybody
ever pressure you about
your weight and say,
"Why don't you slim down?"
Have you ever considered--
- No. No, not really.
I think it bothers other people
more than it does me.
- You couldn't bring it up
to him,
you couldn't talk
about his weight.
He was so hypersensitive
about it,
and he got so offended
if you did.
- But, uh,
it--doesn't bother you?
- INTERVIEWER:
It doesn't bother me.
- Oh, I was wondering,
'cause you brought it up,
so I was just wondering
if it was bothering you.
- You can't separate John's
persona and his characters
from his weight, I mean,
"Oh, it's very sensitive."
No, it's not.
That's who John was.
That's who John always was,
and it had a lot to do
with forming who John was.
- NATALIE: Although
"Cool Runnings"
and Candy's performance
are well received,
during this time,
Candy is also having issues
with anxiety and panic attacks.
- We went to, uh,
a Calgary Flames hockey game.
We leave early so he can beat
the crowds.
But you can't beat
all the crowds.
And as we're walking out,
he gets stopped,
and then the next person,
and then the next person.
And he couldn't say no
to anyone for a picture
or an autograph,
but he needed to leave.
And suddenly, you could see
this...anxiety and stress,
because half of him is
desperate to get out of there,
and the claustrophobia
was setting in,
and the other half was the
inability to say no to someone.
- DAVE: John bent over backwards
to be nice to people,
and people took advantage
of that.
And John would let them take
advantage of it because
he was just such a sweet,
gracious guy.
But it would get to him.
But where it'd get to him
was with his drinking.
John was a jolly drinker,
and he would drink
rum and cokes.
But like clockwork,
at about midnight,
he would switch to Courvoisier.
And then his personality
would change.
- [fingers snap]
- And then, John...
wouldn't take [bleep]
from anybody.
He'd kinda get tired
and kinda maudlin,
but he wouldn't go to sleep.
- ♪
- DAVE: "Victory at Sea"
was a documentary about WWII,
and there was like,
I don't know, 50 of 'em.
John had them all.
- MALE NARRATOR:
July 16th, 1945.
The desert of New Mexico.
- DAVE: And John would put in
"Victory at Sea"
and we would watch that
at his house and have snacks,
you know, late at night,
and then
I'd see the sun come up.
I saw the sun come up with him
so many times, you know?
I loved him so much,
but he was really complicated,
you know?
- NATALIE: Back on the work
front,
Candy and his production
company begin shooting
a Canadian TV movie
called "Hostage for a Day,"
but this time, Candy's
behind the camera,
in his directorial debut.
- ROBIN: John was directing
this film in Toronto,
and hired all of his friends,
so I got this great part
as the wife of George Wendt.
And he was sort of giving
back to all these people.
- Robin Duke, Don Lake.
John Hemphill, John Vernon,
I mean, the cast is just great--
Currie Graham--
really good people.
- MALE REPORTER:
Is there anybody else?
- Well, there is a list,
if you wouldn't mind. [laughs]
- He came up with a group
of people who loved him,
that was--that was joyous.
He always was...kind of
within his tribe, you know?
- Why I chose Second City
actors is--
and improvisational actors--
is because our tendency
is to work for the betterment
of the scene.
And, it's not, uh,
"I can do this,
and I will do this
and I will do this,"
it's more, "We,"
it's--it's--collective.
- He was directing you
as an actor,
so he understood that,
so he gave you
really strong acting notes
to make it truthful,
make it believable.
You know, John--as much as he
wanted to make people laugh,
he wanted to laugh,
you know?
He just wanted to keep
the party going
and be laughing.
- NATALIE: Candy keeps
the laughs going
in Michael Moore's political
comedy, "Canadian Bacon,"
which won't be released
until 1995.
But his next role
sends him south of the border,
starring in the western
comedy, "Wagons East."
- John was cast on
"Wagons East,"
and he was co-starring
with Richard Lewis
and Richard Picardo.
- It's a chance to get paid,
and be on a horse for a second.
I loved the script, and, uh,
John Candy was a friend,
and, uh, to be with John,
I wouldn't pass it up
for anything, you know?
He's just so brilliant,
he really nails this
wonderful character.
- TRACEY: He didn't actually
want to go to Mexico,
he had a weird feeling
about it,
and he wasn't having
the best time there, either,
I think he was in pain
with his hips.
- John was at his highest
weight about that time.
I saw the horse that he--
they put him on,
because I thought they were
gonna put me on it, they didn't.
That horse was massive.
Had to be.
- TRACEY: I think John
did struggle with his weight
at that stage,
but it's difficult,
when you're in so much pain,
to actually exercise
and try and get that weight off,
and also because
he worked so hard,
he didn't actually sleep
that much,
and your body needs to run
on something, it needs fuel,
so, you know, I think it was
just a case of--of--
he was just getting by,
really.
- He couldn't wait to get out
of there, he hated the movie,
and just thought it was...POS.
And, uh, and couldn't wait
to get back.
- I remember he was really
sad and upset,
about the living conditions
of the Mexicans down in Mexico,
where they were shooting it.
He said it was terrible
and he felt terrible
that they had to live that way,
he'd never seen
anything like that.
- But he was really professional
and he would just act
his heart out.
So they were about three
or four days
before the end of shooting,
and, uh, they finished
filming on the 3rd of March
and he was really tired.
Sound guy said, "Can we just
do a retake of one thing?"
And he said, "Oh, please,
can we do it tomorrow?
I'm really--I really am tired."
That was fine, you know, "Sure."
And John went back to his room,
called his co-stars,
told them how happy he was
with the filming that day,
made a spaghetti meal
for his assistants, went to bed.
He was always on time and he was
not on set that morning.
So when they couldn't get
a hold of him, uh,
Frankie Hernandez,
who was his driver,
broke into the apartment,
and unfortunately,
they found John had passed away.
- Actor John Candy died today.
He had a heart attack while
working on location in Mexico.
He was just 43 years old.
- NATALIE:
Word of Candy's death gets out.
And close friends and family
are stunned.
- Catherine called me
the next day,
the day after he died.
I was on a sitcom at that time.
And she's crying and she said,
"John died last night,"
I said, "Oh, God, no!"
- Candy died in his sleep
soon after finishing a scene
from a new movie,
"Wagons East."
- DAVE: I called Rose
right away.
And, somebody picks up
the phone at the house,
and is just, "Hello?
Who's calling?"
And you--when you hear that
funereal tone of the person
taking the calls,
you knew it was true.
- VALRI: Dave and I were doing,
uh..."Grace Under Fire."
And so that morning,
Dave and I were just crying
the whole time,
and we had to...we had to stop,
we were shooting that day
and that night,
and it was just so sad,
and it took us so long
to get used to that because
I hated that he was alone.
Ugh. Hated that.
It was just so sad,
but at least I had Dave with me,
at least the two of us
were crying together, you know?
- DAVE: Danny drove down
with Donna,
and we all just hugged
and talked and just...
We couldn't believe it because
it was like...
he had always...thought
that he was gonna die at 35
like his dad and then when he
beat 35--we passed 35,
we thought, "He made it!
He's gonna be like Raymond Burr,
one of those big guys that's
gonna live long," you know?
- I was driving and heard it
on the news.
And of course,
it was a surprise,
you're not expecting this,
but you're not shocked.
You're not feeling like,
"Oh, that's impossible,
how could that possibly
have happened?"
Everyone was expecting that
at some point to happen.
Even though when it happens,
you're still surprised
by that moment,
but it was gonna happen.
- It's a very sad situation,
uh, just happened.
I saw Rose yesterday, uh,
and, uh, it's--it's just...
um, it's a shock,
but it's not that surprising,
uh, for various
genetic reasons, etc.
- When you heard the news
that he passed away at 43,
do you remember that moment?
- Yeah, I mean, it's...
it's just so unfair, uh,
that the world sort of loses
this, um, extraordinary talent,
um, and a talent
that people ended up loving
in a...in a real big way.
- NATALIE: "Wagons East" wraps,
and cast and crew get through it
with a heavy heart.
- You know, we love John,
you know? And people love him,
and you know, the actors,
together with the crew,
we just sucked it up, you know,
we weren't gonna let down,
in fact, you know,
we gave it 300% more
than we could, you know.
And, uh, I'm really proud
to have known John,
and his work lives on.
- NATALIE: Audiences
have always loved Candy,
and the relatable every-man
he brought to so many
of his roles.
Yet, ironically,
after his death,
he will be given a send-off
that will be fit for royalty.
- ♪
- NATALIE: On March 9th, 1994,
John Candy's funeral is held
at Saint Martin of Tours Church,
in the Brentwood section
of Los Angeles.
- Going to the church
was beautiful.
So sad, because we were just--
we knew we were gonna miss him
for the rest of our lives.
- NATALIE: More than 200
mourners, mostly close friends
and family, paid their last
respects to the fallen star,
including Candy's long-time
Toronto pal, Dan Akroyd.
- DAVE: Danny's eulogy
for John is one of the most
magnificent speeches
that I have ever heard
or read in my life.
Uh, it was...wonderfully
uplifting and spiritual,
and...gave a real homage
to John.
And...I remember,
I sat beside Jim Belushi,
and Jim held my hand,
squeezing it
for the whole thing,
to the point where it was
getting kinda awkward, you know?
I was like, "Come on, Jim,
you know, we're not lovers,
you can let go
of my damn hand."
But on the way down
to the cemetery,
when I was in the limo
with Danny and Andrea Alexander
and somebody else,
and while on the 405 we see
there's no cars on the 405.
"What the hell is this
all about?"
And then we saw cops had...
closed the ramps,
and as the funeral procession
went by, they were saluting.
And...Danny and I started
laughing 'cause we realized,
"He shut down the 405.
He would love this!"
They shut down the 405 for him,
all the way from Sunset
down to that cemetery.
So we were all kinda
touched by that.
One thing Danny said to me
when we were driving
in the car, he said,
"You know, if you add up
all the hours that John
"was awake when we were asleep,
he probably lived to about 80."
And we laughed at that,
you know.
- NATALIE: The following week,
a memorial service
is held in Toronto,
Candy's hometown.
Approximately 700 people
pack St. Basil's Church,
with many waiting on line
in the bitter cold
and blustering snow.
- It was a...national
mourning, when he died.
- JONATHAN:
It was open to the public,
and the place was packed,
of course.
- ROBIN:
Because he was Johnny Toronto,
everybody knew John Candy,
everybody has a story about
John, he was just a presence
in this town.
- JAYNE: Catherine O'Hara
did probably the best speech
I've ever heard anybody do
in my entire life.
- John was a humble,
sensitive man,
full of faith,
who seemed forever grateful
for his gifts and his time
on this Earth.
- ROB:
She totally nailed it.
It was just the right mix
of--of--of lightness
and heaviness,
and real love for John.
- NATALIE: And the love
doesn't end there.
Far from it, in fact.
To honor their hometown hero,
Candy's name is proudly added
to the Toronto Walk of Fame.
Second City Toronto, where his
comedy career really began,
names the Block Box Theater
after Candy.
His high school pays him
tribute.
- JONATHAN: They named a wing--
the arts wing after him,
The John Candy Wing,
and they had a little display
case and, uh,
they had things in there
about him.
- NATALIE: And in a rare
accomplishment,
Candy's smiling face lands
on a Canadian postage stamp.
But his legacy is felt
everywhere.
- I think it was a shock
to everybody, you know,
in the world, practically,
you know, he was known.
Even probably in Japan
or Russia, you know,
he made his impact.
- NATALIE: More than 25 years
after Candy's death,
that impact is undeniable.
What were your overall
impressions of John Candy
as a performer?
- Just a big, lovable guy,
you know?
Really funny, naturally,
he was always...
a very lively and, uh,
very warm person.
- Ha!
- Oh!
- [laughing]
- Kids will love that.
- JOE: He was funny,
just funny,
he had a good sense
of humor,
and John was great
to work with,
everybody liked
working with him.
- ♪
- NATALIE: And for friends
and colleagues,
the loss still hurts.
- What happened?
Such a huge life,
such a big spirit.
Where does it go? You know?
It's, like, so...unbelievable.
- ROB: Oh, I was devastated.
I'm still devastated.
I can't watch a John Candy
film now. I can't.
I know I'm robbing myself
of--of--all this great comedy,
but it just makes me sad.
- MARTIN: Charlie Chaplin,
Buster Keaton, Woody Allen,
he was up there with the biggest
comedy stars ever.
- ♪
- JAYNE: I think what makes
John a great stage performer
and a film performer,
is not only his humor,
but his humanity.
- ROBIN: He was loved.
Loved by one and all.
He would make everybody
feel good.
- JAYNE: And he would
talk to anybody.
There wasn't a fan in the world
who got rejected by John,
and he had plenty of them.
- It's the Canadian in me, so.
- INTERVIEWER: [laughs] Eh?
- Eh?
- "Hey, nice to meet you,
da-da-da," signing autographs,
and, uh, yeah, he just had time,
he was unbelievably generous
with his time.
- I've never seen anybody
who was so comfortably funny
and could put people at ease.
And for a man that was, like,
a big man,
and...in many ways kind of
really imposing in the room,
it was--it was kind of amazing.
- ROBIN: I think that's
just his heart, his kindness,
you know, that was his gift.
- He was just...in love
with life,
and performance, and acting,
and laughing,
and making people laugh.
- Not crude, not gross,
just...full of--of--of... of
celebration.
And when John Candy laughed
at something you did?
Oh, it was just
a great feeling.
- He just wanted to make
people feel good.
Simple as that.
And he, he accomplished it.
- He had more to give.
He left a big hole.
- If John candy was alive now,
he would've won an Oscar by now.
He would be considered
an extremely diverse actor,
because he only scratched
the surface of--as far as
all his serious roles.
- AUDRIE: God, I wish
he could've gone forever,
because he would've done
such good work.
Who didn't love John
in any role?
Name one role that John
wasn't loved in.
You can't. You can't.
I loved him
in everything he did.
- DAVE: I was really privileged
to have known him
for as long as I did
and to see him realize
all the--in his short career--
he realized his dreams
in a way that a lot of people
don't ever do, you know?
And that's a wonderful thing.
If you can say that that's
what you did with your life,
that you realized the dreams
and ambitions you had
when you started out,
what else do you need?
I mean,
that's pretty remarkable.
- ♪
- Don't have one.
- How come?
- Long story.
- Do you have kids?
- No, I don't.
- How come?
- It's an even longer story.
- NATALIE: He's not
your typical leading man.
- It's the Canadian in me, so.
- MAN: [laughing]
Eh?
- Eh.
- NATALIE: More an every-man
than matinee idol.
- Hey, he's back, everybody!
- Ooh! Ooh!
- NATALIE: But there are few
who didn't fall in love
with John Candy's wit and charm.
- He's just naturally appealing.
You love his face,
that cherubic face.
- NATALIE: As one of the most
bankable comedic actors
of the 1980s, his characters
ranged from hilarious
to silly, touching,
and even dramatic.
- He was quite nervous,
but I thought he was perfect
for the role and he delivered.
- NATALIE: We'll take you
behind the scenes,
from his improv days
at Second City...
- He had a childish delight
in the comedy that he was doing.
- NATALIE: ...to his rise
to fame on SCTV...
to finally,
Hollywood domination.
- And that's just...a dream,
really, for me.
- You really get to see
the warmth that's at the heart
of his character.
- NATALIE: But it wasn't
all laughs in Candy's world.
- TRACEY: As a child no one
actually explained to him
what happened, so his dad
kind of disappeared.
- NATALIE: And personal
struggles crept in.
- JOE: You couldn't
talk about his weight,
he was so hypersensitive
about it.
- I think it bothers other
people more than it does me.
Does it bother you?
- MAN: Doesn't bother me at all.
- Oh, good, I was wondering
'cause you brought it up.
- NATALIE: A life filled
with triumphs and then tragedy.
- Actor John Candy died today.
He had a heart attack while
working on location in Mexico.
- Oh, God, no.
- I was just devastated.
I'm still devastated.
- NATALIE: Relive the legacy
of John Candy.
- Big bear chasing me!
- [door bursts]
- NATALIE: As close friends
and colleagues share
heartwarming memories about
the legendary funnyman.
- He was probably the most
charming, talented actor
that I've ever worked with.
- I didn't know that you could
be a movie star
and just be a regular guy
at the same time.
- He was just always taking it
to the next level, all the time.
- He can do anything,
he's a real bona fide comedian.
- ♪
- NATALIE: This is "Behind
Closed Doors: John Candy."
Hello and welcome to
"Behind Closed Doors,"
I'm Natalie Morales.
John Candy is one of Hollywood's
most beloved comedic actors.
Best remembered for his clever
humor and the impressive range
he displayed on the big screen
as well as his over-the-top
personalities on the Canadian
sketch show, SCTV.
Whether it was laugh-out-loud
roles in hit films
like "Stripes" and "Splash,"
or the sympathetic characters
he brought to life in "Planes,
Trains & Automobiles"
and "Uncle Buck," it seems
that everyone knew and loved
John Candy.
Yet his first real brush
with Hollywood royalty
back in the spring of 1977
may never have even happened
if it weren't for a party that
Candy and his SCTV cast mates
threw in Los Angeles before
heading back to Toronto
to begin taping SCTV's
second season.
- JOE: So, we all came
to California, Bel-Air,
and lived in this house
for...at least a month.
We were writing shows,
just writing shows.
Finished the month's worth
of writing, did some good stuff,
and so we had
a party that night.
John, of course, took charge,
he got the, uh,
band to come in and play,
he hired the bartender
and the bar, all of that stuff,
John took care of, naturally,
'cause he was
"Johnny in Charge."
And people started showing up
for the party,
and I was surprised
at some of the people.
Chevy Chase showed up,
Laraine Newman came,
I was like, "Whoa, Jesus!"
Bill came--Bill Murray--
and then who else shows up?
Steven Spielberg.
- People kept saying to John,
"Steven Spielberg
really wants to meet you,"
and he thought,
"No, no chance,"
you know, "Everyone's
just drunk," you know...
- What the heck? Spielberg!
He apparently had seen
some of the shows and liked
the shows.
- Steven Spielberg did actually
really want to meet him.
- NATALIE: Spielberg,
the young director hot off
the massive success of "Jaws,"
is now face to face with Candy.
- TRACEY: The opening line
to Steven was,
"I liked your movie
about the fish,"
which is basically "Jaws,"
and, um, Steven talked to him,
and said that he'd like
to work with him at some point.
He didn't take it seriously,
but Steven was serious,
and he actually cast him
in "1941."
- [machine gun sound effects]
- That's beautiful.
- NATALIE: Although Candy's
role was small,
and the film
a commercial failure,
"1941" helps put the actor
on Hollywood's fast track,
appearing alongside stars
Dan Akroyd and Jon Belushi
in 1979.
- It's wonderful working
with live television performers,
because they know what
real pressure means.
- NATALIE: The three would come
together again
the following year in the smash
hit, "The Blues Brothers,"
and the momentum from that helps
fuel Candy's next few roles,
which would propel him
to stardom.
But to really understand
the man,
we have to start
at the beginning.
John Franklin Candy is born
on October 31st, 1950,
in New Market, Ontario,
Canada.
- I remember him telling me,
"You wanna know what sucks?
"It's having your birthday
on Halloween
and your name is Candy.
That's horrible."
[laughs] He didn't like that.
- NATALIE: Candy's father,
Sidney, a war veteran,
is a car salesman,
and his mother, Evangeline,
stays home to raise John
and his older brother, Jim.
- They were just a really happy
sort of family,
Catholic upbringing...
- NATALIE: But when John
is just five years old,
tragedy strikes:
his father, who is only 35,
dies suddenly of a heart attack.
- John's family were obviously
devastated.
As a child no one actually
explained to him
what happened,
so his dad kind of disappeared.
He didn't really know
why or how.
- NATALIE: After Sidney's death,
Evangeline moves the family
to a modest neighborhood
in East York, Ontario.
- John lived with his mother
and his aunt lived there
for a while as well,
and yes, they pretty well
brought him up, and--
and his brother, Jim.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Candy would later
say in interviews how painful
it was to grow up without
a father or role model,
but the young Candy
finds an escape.
- He watched a tremendous
amount of television.
- TRACEY: He inhaled the medium.
He quite famously said
no one ever said
he was going to be on TV,
but that if he didn't stop
watching it,
he would turn into one.
[laughs]
- He wanted to be as funny
as the people he saw
on television.
- NATALIE: Jackie Gleason,
George Burns, Lawrence Welk,
and Jonathan Winters are some
of the entertainment icons
Candy counts as influences.
As a teenager,
his passion also extends
to the big screen.
- I remember seeing "Bullitt"
with him. Steve McQueen.
And later on we watched, um,
"Midnight Cowboy,"
and then, well, we thought
that was so great and I think
we sat through it twice.
- He would just basically
watch movie after movie.
And often he would go home
and he would do impressions,
make his mom laugh and I think
maybe that was where
the comedy seed was sown,
he just loved
to make people laugh.
- NATALIE: From as early
as age ten,
Candy takes on the father's
role of the household,
working side jobs--including
selling fish and chips,
greeting cards and paint.
Though Candy gives much
of his earnings to his mother,
he saves a little to buy
hockey tickets,
even being in the stands
for the Toronto Maple Leaves'
Stanley Cup victory in 1967.
He also treats himself to a car.
- The car, he called it
the White Knight, you know,
and it was a...I think it was
a big Chevy.
- NATALIE: And that's when Candy
imparts to childhood friend
Jonathan O'Mara a valuable
driving strategy.
- John taught me road rage.
We're driving along the 401,
a big highway through Toronto,
and--and I, um--in his
White Knight,
and he'd let out this string
of [unintelligible]
when somebody cut him off.
You know, it's blankety-blank,
"You, effing-- [bleep]."
That kind of thing,
and more, and worse.
And I'd go, "John, jeez."
Then he goes, "Come on, O'Mara,"
and he says, um,
"You're gonna do this, I'm gonna
show you how to do it,"
and so I started my little rant,
and it was very--very mild.
And he's going, "Jo--O'mara,
that's terrible,
that's a D-.
You call yourself an Irish man?"
- NATALIE: In high school,
Candy's grades are just average,
while his real ambition is to
become a star football player.
Nicknamed "The Pink Panther"
in his high school yearbook,
as a junior,
Candy helps his team win
their first championship.
But his senior year
on the grid-iron
doesn't go as planned.
- That's when he had a bad
accident with his knee.
Blew his knee out.
- NATALIE: Deeply disappointed
with his football
dream shattered,
Candy decides on a whim to join
the United States Marines
in 1969, at the height
of the Vietnam War.
- [helicopter rotors whirring]
- JOE: I said, "Johnny,
you can't go down there,
you'll come back in a box."
And he said,
"Well, que sera, sera,
what will be, will be,"
but he was that fatalistic
about things.
- TRACEY: His uncle had
fought in the war,
his dad had fought in the war,
so maybe that was how he--
he should go.
- JOE: I don't think he even
considered the Canadian forces.
So he thought he'd go
to Paris Island,
which is where the boot
camp is, I believe,
and he'd get trimmed down
and his life would take
a turn for the better.
So he decided he was gonna go
down to the recruiting center
in Buffalo.
Oh, the recruiting sergeant
in Buffalo,
he ordered a medical for John,
and, uh, the result was
his knee was too bad,
they said, "Don't.
You wouldn't last, you wouldn't
last through basic training."
- NATALIE: Realizing he had
to plot his next move,
Candy, now 18, begins to tap
into something he dabbled with
in high school: performing.
After first studying journalism
at nearby Centennial College,
he switches his focus
to theater.
And it's during this time
he'll meet someone
who will change his life
forever: the future Mrs. Candy,
Rosemary Hobor.
- Rose Hobor was a, um,
law student.
And...they hit it off
straight away,
and they were pretty much
together from day one,
there on in, just in love.
- NATALIE: Though Candy
won't finish college,
he continues to pursue acting,
finding work in commercials
and on stage.
- John at the time was sort of
split between, uh,
some small theater stuff
that he was doing,
and the sporting goods
department of Eaton's,
where he was working.
- NATALIE: Fate steps in
when a performer named
Valri Bromfield
is on the lookout to fill a spot
in her children's theater troop.
- I was shopping for something
in a department store,
and I walked in and this guy
waited on me, and he was funny.
So I talked to him
and I laughed with him,
and I said, "We need a king,
we need a guy to play a king.
Do you wanna
come in and do it?"
And he said,
"Yeah, yeah, I wanna do it,"
and he did, he came,
he joined the company.
That's how I met John.
He was hilarious
and he changed up the company,
but he had that way about him,
people liked him,
he could get away with more,
there was nothing sinister
in his eyes or in his heart,
I mean, he was--that's the kind
of person he was.
- NATALIE: Bromfield introduces
her new funny friend
to her old pal from high school
and current performing partner,
Dan. Dan Akroyd.
- John and Danny and I
hung out together
in 505 Queen Street,
which was my apartment.
They would all come and have
part--drink there, I guess,
and hang out there,
and it would be open all night.
- DAVE: We would meet
at 1063 Avenue Road,
which was the house that
Marty Short and Eugene Levy
were renting.
They were mainly parties
for people to get together
and laugh and talk about
what they thought was funny,
what they observed on television
that was funny.
Marty Short sort of
romanticizes it
and says it's like
Paris in the 20s. Wasn't.
It was in Toronto in the 70s.
But it seemed like there were
a lot of people that kind of
came to Toronto to get into
showbusiness at the same time,
and had a kind of similar
sensibility about the work.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Which might explain
this cast of future all-stars,
many of Candy's contemporaries,
who performed in a 1972-73
Toronto production
of Stephen Schwartz's musical,
"Godspell."
- JAYNE: It's now called
The Legendary Cast of "Godspell"
in Toronto.
Victor Garber was Jesus.
It was with Eugene Levy,
Gilda Radner.
- Andrea Martin was in it,
uh, Marty Short.
- JAYNE: Paul Schaffer
was our band leader. [laughs]
- Myself, and Jayne Eastwood.
- JAYNE: We just became...
a gang, it was unbelievable.
- John was not in "Godspell,"
but John also hated "Godspell,"
which made me laugh,
because...
I didn't wanna be a musical
star, either,
but I wanted to be
in showbusiness
and that was the only gig
in town.
So, um, he thought we were
a bunch of precious idiots
dancing around singing about
Jesus in "Godspell,"
and he was right.
- NATALIE: At about the same
time, Bernie Sahlins,
who co-founded the legendary
comedy theater Second City
in Chicago, has an idea
to bring a satellite location
to Toronto.
- JOE: I was at Second City
in Chicago at the time,
and Bernie came around
and says,
"Anybody wanna volunteer
to go up and start a theater
in Toronto?"
And everybody looked puzzled.
[laughs] Not a lot
of enthusiasm for it.
And we didn't know anything
about Toronto,
nobody knew anything, [laughing]
nobody wanted to do it.
Except Brian Murray--
Brian Doyle Murray--and myself.
We said, "Yeah, yeah,
we'll go to Toronto
and open a theater, sure!"
- NATALIE: Sahlins,
Doyle Murray and Flaherty
are among those who head up
to the great white north
to hold auditions.
- So, who walks in the door
to audition?
Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy,
Gerry Salsberg, Jayne Eastwood,
Danny Akroyd, with his partner,
Valri Bromfield,
and there was one more person,
a young guy that Valri
dragged along,
and she wanted us to see him,
he's a young guy
named John Candy.
- John and I auditioned
the same week for Second City,
I'm pretty sure that's
where I met him.
So John had to improvise
with this other actor.
- So we had John and this guy,
and this guy, he...
was a motor mouth.
- And he just kept going
and talking and--
you know, if you keep talking,
it'll be funny.
- And John was there,
sitting--sitting in a chair
and listening to him, you know?
And he just, "Mm-hmm."
- VALRI: He had a way of
performing in the silence,
like, he would stand there
and look at you,
and I think you could be
working as hard as you can,
and the audience
is looking at him.
- Every once in a while,
the guy would
say, "Don't you think?"
And he'd go, "Oh, yeah, yeah."
And that's all he did.
After it was over, you know,
we--that guy was gone
and we said, uh,
"Boy, I really like John,
that young guy John."
- John's listening
was so compelling,
they just hired John right away.
He never said a word!
- He had a quality we saw,
you know?
We said, "Jeez, that guy,
he's gonna look good on stage."
- NATALIE: Candy makes such
an impression that he is chosen
for the Chicago main stage
Second City cast.
And it's in Chicago
where fate would step in
once again, leading Candy
to work with a group
of soon-to-be legendary
performers
who would help propel
the young actor's career
to exciting new heights.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Now that John Candy
has been chosen to join
the Chicago troop of the iconic
comedy institution, Second City,
in 1973 he moves south
of the border,
and begins to work alongside
other talented performers,
such as Bill Murray
and Betty Thomas.
But Candy has a large
learning curve ahead of him.
- He didn't shine,
he was new, he was raw,
and he didn't pick it up
right away, you know.
- NATALIE: Flaherty is curious
if Second City co-founder
Bernie Sahlins notices
the same thing.
- JOE: I said, "What do you
think about Johnny?"
And Bernie said, "Yeah,
sometimes he gets lost
up on stage,
he becomes invisible."
- NATALIE: And so Second City
upper brass relocates Candy
to their Toronto troop,
which in their new
and improved location,
includes future comedy legends
Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy,
and Dan Akroyd.
And how does the hometown
crowd react?
- ROBIN: Well, he was just
truly funny,
the audience adored him,
and he loved being on stage.
- DAVE: He created
what I used to call his room
on stage when he would do
improvs.
They were all mimed,
they're all invisible
to the audience,
but very real to him
and he played them as very real.
He would take a book
and he would go,
"This book is exactly
what you're looking for."
He'd open it up and he'd go,
"Here, read it."
And I'd take it and he'd go,
"It's in Latin." [laughs]
He had a childish delight
in the comedy that he was doing
and I loved that aspect of him.
And the audience loved it too.
- NATALIE: Soon,
Catherine O'Hara,
Andrea Martin, Thomas,
and of course, Flaherty,
would all join the Toronto crew
as Candy truly starts to shine.
- JOE:
He's really getting good.
John's learning his craft,
as they say,
improving as a performer.
- He was magnetic,
I mean, he just walked on
and you were just immediately
with him.
And he almost had to hold back
sometimes
to not overpower a scene.
Because he had such charisma
and such magnetism.
- JOE: He's just naturally
appealing.
You love that face, you know,
that cherubic face,
that round face.
- ROB: John used to say that
improv was like a tennis game.
Somebody lobs you the ball,
and then you lob it back.
The thing is to always--
to keep giving,
to keep adding to the scene,
to keep giving the other guy
a setup, and to be responsive
to what he gives you.
- JOE: We were improvising
a scene.
I think I was a hot dog vendor,
and, uh, I was making up
the hot dogs,
and John said something
and he turned his back to me
for something,
and I had the, uh,
hot dog in the bun,
and I just went-- [spits]
I just made that sound,
and John went-- [hisses]
Like that from the back
of the head.
I just did a-- [spit]
a sound, and he knew
it was the hot dog hitting him
in the back of the head.
Oh, we had all kind of fun.
- And it was always funniest
when he couldn't get the scene
going.
He would open up
a cupboard,
mime a bottle of whiskey,
get a glass down,
pour the drink, put it back,
close the door, you know,
killing time so he could
still be on stage
and trying to think of
where to go or what to do.
- DAVE: Here's a thing John
did, I learned this from him:
if a scene was going south,
admit it.
And I was out there
doing a scene with John
one night and it just tanked.
And so the stage manager,
Jeff, hit the lights,
and John whispers to me,
"Stay out," and I said, "What?"
That means, "Don't exit,
stay out."
And the lights came back up
and John picked the scene
right back up where
it was tanking,
and the audience went nuts.
- ROBIN: There wasn't anything
like Second City,
and then all of a sudden,
this whole new hip kind of thing
was happening.
- It became the place to go.
It was just extraordinary.
- NATALIE: The momentum leads
to cast members landing
various spots on Canadian
television.
Candy appears
on a quirky kids' show
called "Cucumber."
- "Cucumber" was basically a
show about a moose and a beaver
that lived together,
and there's one episode
where the weather
is just horrific.
- Is that a bird?
Is it a plane?! Is it--
- It's, uh, Weatherman.
Mind if I stay
until it stops raining?
- NATALIE: Candy also logs time
on the trippy CBC program
"Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins."
- JOHN STOCKER: Johnny was
really easy to work with.
"Johnny, do this."
"Okay."
"Do more of that."
"Okay."
And I think...that was part
of...his persona,
was, "You want me to do it
that way? I'll do it that way."
- NATALIE: In between TV gigs,
Candy is hired to help open
a Second City theater
in Pasadena, California,
which is short-lived.
When he's not working,
Candy,
who is still dating
his girlfriend, Rosemary,
enjoys entertaining at home.
- JAYNE: We'd be having these
feasts at John's place.
We had lobster dinners there
all the time,
but he wouldn't feed us
'til twelve o'clock at night!
And Joe Flaherty would be
furious, he'd be like,
"John! John, do you think we
can eat at seven o'clock today?"
John would be just like,
you know, with his cigars,
and he had this big, brown,
easy chair, just like--
[laughs] Just laughing.
He loved hosting.
- NATALIE: But everything
would change for this tight-knit
Toronto crew when in 1975,
Akroyd lands a major opportunity
in New York.
- JOE: Says, "There's this guy,
Lorne Michaels,
"he wants me to do this show,
'Saturday Night Live',
do you think I should do it?"
You know.
"Yeah, it's TV, why not?"
He says, "Okay, I'm gone."
- NATALIE:
Along with John Belushi,
a breakout star
from Second City Chicago,
Akroyd and Radner signed on
to be part
of "Saturday Night Live's"
now legendary first season.
- Everybody around that time
wanted to be in SNL.
Lorne Michaels was actually
coming to Toronto
to look for fresh talent.
- JOE: Bernie Sahlins
and Andrew thought,
"They're gonna come in and just
take all our good talent,
unless we offer them
their own TV show."
- NATALIE: And so Second City
producers scramble
to do just that.
- JUUL: Well, Global
were the first producers
in the show,
they had the facility,
but they were basically
a news station
and didn't--I don't think they'd
ever produced anything
but, like, cooking shows.
Nothing on this scale.
- NATALIE: Harold Ramis,
a Second City alum from Chicago
is tapped as the show's
head writer.
- JOE: I asked Bernie
if we could get Harold,
'cause I loved working
with Harold, he's...
and he's brilliant,
and he--he said yes,
he could come in,
and so Harold and I picked
the cast for, uh,
for the TV show.
I wanted to use John Candy
first.
He really found himself
as a performer.
- NATALIE: Co-starring
with Candy
are his Second City pals,
Flaherty, Thomas, Levy,
O'Hara, Martin and Ramis.
But now comes the hard part:
figuring out what this new show
actually is.
- JOE: Well, we had a meeting
one day, and I remember I said,
"Why don't we do a lot
of television parodies?"
And they said, "Okay, why don't
we be an imaginary television
station that produces its
own shows?"
And then Catherine says,
"Why don't we just do Canada?"
I said, "Why don't we just
make it a fictional place?"
I said, you know,
"Platz--Platzberg or Duckville,
or Melonville."
Melonville, I--somebody said,
"Alright, let's go
with Melonville."
So that was it,
that was the show.
- NATALIE: "Second City
Television" premieres
on September 21st, 1976,
airing only monthly
on smaller Canadian stations
for the first six episodes,
but it's a critical success,
and a new run is ordered.
By the fall of 1977,
SCTV is now a weekly show,
and gaining momentum.
- SCTV was wacky.
It was all these great
characters.
- JOE: Every city had
their own kinda grool guy
that would introduce movies
and they were always bad movies.
Just typical John,
great character!
[imitating lisp]
"I just talk like this
and my name's Dr. Tongue."
And it's--okay, that's perfect,
we've got Dr. Tongue.
- NATALIE: Candy and Flaherty
also earn laughs
playing the Farm Film
Report Guys.
- Howdy, farmers,
I'm Big Jimmy McBob.
- And I'm Billy Sol Hurok.
- I was Big Jim McBob,
and John was Billy Sol Hurok.
Like Siskel and Ebert, except
all they were interested in were
movies where things blow up.
- [explosion]
- [cheering]
- It blowed up good!
- Yeah, it blowed up real good!
- NATALIE: But perhaps Candy's
most memorable SCTV character
is the grandiose Johnny LaRue.
- Well, Johnny LaRue was pretty
much John Candy exaggerated.
He liked spending money,
everything was extravagant
with him.
- DAVE:
That came from reality.
There was a Johnny LaRue thing
where he wanted a crane;
John wanted a crane.
- That's my crane!
You can't take that!
Look, I'll get you the money,
I'll do it!
Look, just give me
ten more days!
That's all I need, ten days!
I--I got a show coming up!
- JAYNE: Every once in a while
I would do SCTV and John,
he was like...a star,
and is hysterical,
and you could give John
anything
and he would, like,
really go with it.
He was just always taking it
to the next level, all the time.
- NATALIE: SCTV is getting hot,
as Candy's lovable brand
of comedy begins to creep
into US households,
where it airs in syndication.
But behind the scenes,
tensions mount,
and Candy's tenure with
the beloved show
would soon come to a surprising
and abrupt halt.
- ♪
- NATALIE:
"Second City Television,"
now officially known as SCTV,
is gaining traction,
and John Candy is one
of its breakout stars.
But thanks to the low pay
and the long, stressful hours,
from early on the situation
had been far from ideal.
- DAVE: I didn't even know
this at the time,
but they were paying Eugene
and me more than John
and Andrea and Catherine,
because we were writing more.
I remember we were sitting
in our office on, uh,
Lombard Street,
when we got our checks,
and John's joking all like,
"What you get?"
And I just took my check
and fired it at him, you know,
like, "Look for yourself,"
and he opened it up
and it's like a hundred bucks
more than him,
and he was pissed off.
This was the beginning
of John's legendary feud
with Andrew Alexander,
and unfortunately,
I played a role in it.
- NATALIE: Alexander,
who runs Second City,
is signing the checks,
but head writer, Ramis,
apparently didn't do much
to help Candy's argument
for equal pay.
- Harold continued to kind of
lowball John's contribution
to the writing.
In interviews and--and some
stuff we did on stage,
Harold would say,
"Well, you know,
"John's ideas are coming written
on the back of a cocktail napkin
from the night before."
And what Harold was missing
in that was that
if you read the cocktail napkin,
there was a good idea there.
And one of the gags,
the visual gags that really
defined SCTV at the beginning
of the show,
was throwing the televisions
out of the windows
of the apartment building.
- MALE ANNOUNCER: Yes!
SCTV was on the air!
- [TVs crashing]
- DAVE: That was John's idea.
That came only from John.
- NATALIE: Though Candy
does get a raise,
salary disagreements continue.
The comedian and his boss
are also at odds
over something far less
predictable: food.
- DAVE: John saw himself
as kind of the father figure
for the crew,
and the rest of the cast,
and if there was cheapness,
he was offended
that it was insulting to them,
not to him.
- Monday we went overtime,
and Andrew ordered Swiss Chalet,
uh, a chicken chain up there
in Toronto,
and John was...irate.
"How dare you order
Swiss Chalet for the crew
and the guests?!"
- The Swiss Chalet meals
were fine,
everybody was fine with it,
but John thought it was cheap.
And when Andrew got
Swiss Chalet meals
for the entire show,
John got really mad,
and punched a hole in the wall
of his dressing room.
- He raised hell,
I'll never forget that.
He put a hole in the drywall.
- And I took him a...a magic
marker and drew
a frame around it to
make it like a piece of art,
and that stayed there
for the whole season.
We wouldn't let anyone fix it.
- VALRI: He was just
that kind of a guy,
he was very concerned with
how people were treated fairly
and whether they were
treated fairly.
- NATALIE: Despite SCTV's
momentum,
in early 1979,
Global doesn't renew the show,
which ultimately gets
resurrected once production
moves to Edmonton.
But Candy is ready
to branch out,
so he makes a bold move:
he quits STCV.
It's not just his professional
life that is changing.
That spring, after almost
a decade of dating,
Candy marries his long-time
love, Rosemary.
- JAYNE: God bless her,
the sweetest woman in the world,
she just put up
with a lot that John ha--
you know, dragged her into.
- Rose was just really
supportive.
She was always really supportive
of John and his art.
- JAYNE: She was not
a showbiz person,
she was a potter,
a brilliant potter.
And, uh, a really good balance
for John, I think.
- NATALIE: Big news
for the newlyweds comes quickly,
when they learn they're going
to become parents,
which is around the same time
Candy starts to land
small but memorable film roles.
- He was thrilled with the fact
that he was going
to be a father.
He was actually working
on "Blues Brothers" in 1980
and he had it hsndwritten onto
his contract that if Rose
went into labor, that he
would be able to leave set
immediately because he didn't
wanna miss a minute of it.
- NATALIE: In February of 1980,
the Candys welcome a daughter,
Jennifer.
Fatherhood seems to fit
the Canadian perfectly,
as Candy explains
on the Canadian news program
"That's Life" a few years later.
- MALE INTERVIEWER:
And you're a father.
- Yeah, that's great,
that's my daughter over there,
Jennifer...
which is the best thing
that ever happened to me.
- NATALIE: But before his film
career starts to take off,
Candy will land his next
television opportunity,
leading a show called
"Big City Comedy,"
which features Second City
alum, and is produced by,
of all folks,
the Osmond family.
- I got a call in Los Angeles
to come and do a pilot
in Salt Lake City.
At the Osmond facility,
where there was, uh,
no coffee, no drinks, uh,
no alcohol,
because it's the Mormon
facility.
- NATALIE: But just like he did
as SCTV, Candy figures out
a way to take care
of his own.
- John made it happen.
It was a party.
There was alcohol,
there were ashtrays backstage,
and there was coffee.
We couldn't do without it.
- NATALIE:
The pilot is picked up
and the production
moves to Canada.
- AUDRIE: John was very
in charge,
and the production values
were high, John kept them high.
There was a--a mambo number
which John, you know,
he did his-- [speaks gibberish]
And any time John smiled,
he just lit up.
He was the personality
of the show,
and his characters
always had like a...compassion.
That's why people could
relate to John,
just with his self-effacing
smile or his...his sweetness,
and his sharing
and his generosity,
you always knew
you could count on him.
He taught me how to
behave with people,
he taught me, you know,
"Just be yourself,"
with, uh, big stars,
"Just be yourself,
they'll love ya, come on!
Just be yourself!"
"Okay, John,
I see it works for you."
- NATALIE: "Big City Comedy"
lasts only one season,
but 1981 would see Candy
making great strides again
in Hollywood with
the soon-to-be
classic film, "Stripes."
- IVAN: I'd just finished
my, sort of first
directorial film,
it's called "Meatballs."
I suddenly thought, "Oh,
I have this great idea,
Cheech and Chong join the army."
Of course, uh,
I couldn't get Cheech and Chong,
I couldn't make a deal.
- NATALIE: For the lead roles,
Reitman taps "Meatballs" star
Bill Murray,
and Harold Ramis,
who he knows from
an off-Broadway show he produced
years earlier,
and which featured some
of the "Saturday Night Live"
players before SNL even existed.
The whole cast, basically, yeah.
- But Harold didn't get a job,
he was working for...NPR
or something, and...
I called him and I said,
"Look, I have this draft
"of this movie that I think
I'd love you to be in,
and I'd like you to re-write."
And so he did a fast draft,
with the original writers
as well,
and it became the movie
that you know right now.
- NATALIE: When it comes
to casting the role
of Dewey "Ox" Oxburger,
Reitman, who grew up in Canada,
wants Candy.
- REITMAN: I knew him
personally,
he was part of that whole
community in Toronto,
so I was a fan.
He wasn't Fatty Arbuckle,
you know,
which was the, kind of,
quintessential big man
of comedy that came out
of Hollywood from the 30s.
Uh, he brought a kind of
different kinda character to it.
And I thought, "Yeah,
he'd be wonderful, I..."
And he...he got on board
right away.
He had quite long hair
when he showed up,
and you see it when he arrives
at the bus depot.
- Well, I hope this
is the mass hall.
How's it going, Eisenhower?
- And he's quite obnoxiously
funny in that scene.
- [machine whirring]
- NATALIE: Also the scene
where they had
to have their hair shorn.
That had to be in one take,
right?
Was there extra
stress with that?
- We all knew that there
was only one take on this.
- Yeah, how is it that Bill
and Harold were able to walk out
with a lot of hair
on their heads still?
- REITMAN: You know,
I think it was a mistake.
It was a mistake of mine
as a director, I thought,
"Cheez, I can't let my two
stars be practically bald headed
through the whole film,
so we'll go a little easier."
And of course, Candy had
every--I said, "Take it off."
And I think he was pissed,
actually, that they all sort of
got just a medium cut.
- NATALIE: Although Candy's role
is a supporting one,
he shines easily.
- I was always trying
to find some way, uh,
to keep his character
front and center,
because my instinct was
that it was gonna be good,
it was gonna be a factor
for the film.
- There was one scene
that John Candy
did not particularly like.
I think you know which one
I'm talking about.
- Well, we did this
mud wrestling thing,
and mud wrestling was
all the rage about the time
that we wrote that screenplay.
- DAVE: They wanted John
to take his shirt off,
John was pretty heavy
at this time,
John didn't want
to take his shirt off,
and I know why.
- He was somewhat embarrassed
by his size and by the fact
that he was gonna be
in long underwear,
so he had nothing to hide,
there was no way for him
to hide.
- JOE: It was a very unfair
thing for Harold to do.
Harold had done a bunch
of jokes on John's weight
in SCTV.
We would do fat jokes,
and he'd play along with 'em,
you know, but this one was
kind of going too far.
Yeah, he said, "They were just
using me as a fat joke."
Did not like it at all.
- I remember talking to him,
you know, between takes,
and just like, "Goddammit,"
he just couldn't wait
for that scene to be over,
you know,
it was humiliating
and embarrassing to him.
And he committed to the scene
and he gave it his all.
You know what?
Would the movie had been fine
without that scene? Yeah.
Absolutely.
- NATALIE: "Stripes" is one
of the top five grossing films
in the US in 1981,
and the smash hit gives Candy
a taste of real fame.
- He was actually
in Amsterdam not so long after,
and he was recognized
and he realized all of a sudden
that actually people were
starting to recognize him
as--as a film star.
- NATALIE: That same summer,
SCTV fans are thrilled to see
Candy rejoin his old pals
on the small screen,
as SCTV's new season airs
on NBC in the United States.
- What I love about it is
it's funny, it's not dirty,
it's really good satire
and really good humor.
- NATALIE: In between one
hilarious impression
after another,
Candy, along with Eugene Levy,
ups SCTV's game even further.
- Gene had the idea,
"Let's do Lutonians,
two Lutonian brothers that
play nothing but polkas,"
and Schmenge was a name that
John had come up with earlier.
- Hello, I'm Yosh Schmenge.
- And I'm Stan Schmenge.
- And we're the Happy Wanderers.
- JOE: And that's how
that started,
and it was pretty dead funny,
you know.
- NATALIE: SCTV is now
a late-night TV staple
and critical darling,
as Candy and his colleagues
will go on to win two
consecutive Emmys
in 1982 and 1983.
John Candy is now an
international film
and television star,
but the shocking death
of a close friend
will soon send him reeling.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Hot off the success
of the hit comedy, "Stripes,"
and in the midst of an
impressive SCTV run on NBC,
John Candy seems destined
for stardom.
But on March 5th, 1982,
tragedy strikes close to home.
- The preliminary investigation
of comedian John Belushi's death
reportedly points to an
accidental overdose of cocaine
by intravenous injection.
- The Los Angeles Times
quoted a source and said
the comedian had cocaine
in his blood,
which could possibly have led
to lung failure
or to a heart attack.
- When John Belushi died,
it really affected John Candy.
He was a friend of John's
and he loved him.
- John knew and respected
Belushi, and he was quite shaken
by his death.
- I was the one who told
John, and when I told John,
John broke down into tears.
And he said, "Oh, God, no,
it's starting."
And what he meant by that was
that our carefree
young generation that had been
the kind of gorillas of comedy,
were now dying off,
and John felt that, you know,
the grim reaper
was coming for him.
So, he was crying for Belushi,
but he was crying for himself
at the same time.
And it broke my heart
to see that, 'cause I knew
how profoundly
that affected him.
- TRACEY: I think he took it
as a bit of a warning
to everybody within
that group,
that they needed to look after
themselves and get healthier.
- NATALIE: Severely shaken
from the loss of a friend,
and anxious about
his own health,
Candy resolves to lose weight
and lead a cleaner lifestyle.
- He tried really hard
to sort of get healthy.
- NATALIE: Meanwhile,
Candy's film career thrives,
first with a memorable cameo
as a security guard
in "National Lampoon's
Vacation."
- Sorry, folks, park's closed.
The moose out front
should've told you.
- NATALIE: And then with
a significant role
in the mermaid classic,
"Splash,"
alongside a young Tom Hanks.
- All my life I've been
waiting for someone,
and when I find her,
she's...she's a fish.
- Nobody said love's perfect.
- The young lover's brother
is the devilish John Candy.
Whenever Candy appears,
laughs stream from the screen.
- They just were
a great team,
and that movie took off.
- NATALIE: "Splash" rakes in
almost 70 million dollars
at the box office,
and also reunites Candy
with his former SCTV pal,
Eugene Levy,
after Candy leaves the show
for good in 1983.
But just before "Splash,"
Candy has an opportunity
to costar in what will become
an even bigger film.
A little something called,
"Ghostbusters."
- We wrote a part specifically
for him, and it was Louis Tully,
who lived down the hall
from Dana Barrett,
the Sigourney Weaver role.
But I sent it to him
and he said,
"Look, I don't know
how to play this guy,
"maybe I could, uh,
play him with a German accent
with big German shepherds
in my apartment,"
and I said, "Well, I don't think
you can have dogs, you know,
"we've got this thing where
the dogs are on the roof
"and it's gonna get really
confusing to the people,
"and I don't think you should
be German,
you gotta be an American."
[laughs]
I could tell he didn't get it,
even though we actually
tailored it thinking of him
as we were writing the lines.
So he basically passed.
- NATALIE: Thanks to the success
of "Splash,"
Candy has arrived,
scoring major roles
in high-profile films
like "Brewster's Millions"
with Richard Pryor,
and "Summer Rental,"
which Candy is particularly
attracted to
because it's directed
by comedy legend Carl Reiner.
- Talk to me a little bit
about John Candy.
- He's a--an ultimate comic,
he's a comic who can
do anything,
and he was honed in
improvisational comedy,
in, you know, SCTV,
Second City.
- INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
- He's a real bona fide
comedian.
- TRACEY: Carl Reiner really
gave John Candy
the directing bug.
He was the first director
that showed him the scenes
and would ask for his opinion,
and they just loved
working together.
- NATALIE: During shooting,
Reiner's concerned
about Candy's weight.
- TRACEY: Carl worried
about John, uh,
he wanted him to, uh,
be healthy, so he basically
brought a pritikin chef
onto set to look after John.
John did the pritikin diet
several times,
and he actually did that just
before he shot
"Brewster's Millions,"
and you can actually see
how much weight he lost
in that film.
Yeah, he went back and to
from that diet a few times,
and he did try to look
after himself, um,
but he did struggle
with his weight.
- He is a...a handsome man
trapped in a larger frame
than is necessary.
- INTERVIEWER: [laughs]
- He really is,
he's got soulful eyes,
women find him sexy,
Playgirl Magazine voted him
as one of the ten sexiest
women--
- INTERVIEWER: I saw that.
- --men, rather.
And, uh, I see it,
I saw it before they did,
I said to my wife,
"This guy's very sexy."
- NATALIE: Candy's wife in
"Summer Rental," Karen Austin,
gets to experience that
sex appeal first-hand. Sort of.
- KAREN: He had not done
a love scene before,
and he was a little nervous
about that,
and I was nervous about that
'cause love scenes are not easy.
I would say he was--
it was probably the easiest
love scene I ever did 'cause
I felt like John
was just adorable.
We laughed all the way
through it.
He had a really tender soul,
and I think that's what gave him
so much empathy for other people
and why he cared about
how the crew was,
and he cared about
the other actors.
- NATALIE: With Candy and Austin
playing parents,
they often discuss his
experiences as a family man.
After all, being a father is
the role Candy is most proud of.
- KAREN: I think he talked about
Rosemary as his bride.
When we did the movie,
Jennifer was, I think,
four years old,
and his son was just a baby,
and he loved his wife
and his children so much.
- NATALIE: Which some say
is the real reason Candy's now
working on overdrive,
appearing in five movies
in 1985 alone.
- Our feeling was he wanted
to make enough money
to sock aside for his family,
so that they'd be fairly
comfortable after he left.
- DAVE: There was a clock
going in John's head,
John's dad died of a heart
attack when he was 35,
and John really worried
that--genetically--that he
was on that same clock.
- JAYNE: I think that might've
plagued John a lot.
I think he felt it was like this
hammer that was coming down.
- NATALIE: The paychecks
are rolling in,
but it doesn't always
translate to success.
"Summer Rental" performed
only modestly at the box office,
and is followed by two
disappointments,
"Volunteers," which sees
a Candy-Hanks reunion,
and "Armed and Dangerous,"
opposite his old buddy, Levy.
But 1987 will turn the tide,
when Candy signs on
to be part of Mel Brooks's
Star Wars-inspired parody,
"Space Balls."
His character's name...
- Hi.
- Who are you?!
- Barf!
- What are you?
- I'm a mog.
Half man, half dog.
I'm my own best friend.
- Mel had written something
that was...a parody
of Chewbacca that was
funny and goofy,
and could get away saying
all sorts of funny lines.
- NATALIE: But there's a problem
with figuring out
how to transform Candy
into the intergalactic half-pup.
- Mel Brooks was very reticent
to cover John's face.
He said, "Hey, we paid
a lot of money for this guy,
we want him recognizable."
So we tried different wigs,
uh, some facial hair,
like whiskers on dogs.
I don't know how many trials
of different dog makeup
applications we tried,
none of it was acceptable.
Mel wanted it to fit into
the satirical,
kind of schlock
of the rest of the movie.
It took me a long time
to figure it out.
- NATALIE: Barf ends up
stealing many of his scenes,
as "Space Balls" brings in
38 million dollars
at the box office,
and goes on to become
a much-quoted classic.
But it hasn't been easy
for Candy to consistently
find projects that are
financially
or critically successful.
- MALE INTERVIEWER: Do you
take the misses personally?
- Uh, yeah, yeah.
You do, 'cause you wanna go in
and do the best you can,
and, uh...you hope everyone
else is doing the same,
and feeling the same,
but there are some that just
kinda walk through it.
- People don't realize,
you don't pick a movie
having seen it.
[chuckles] Okay?
You pick the movie based
on a script,
the way you read the script,
you might've pictured
an amazing thing,
that's not necessarily
how the director or the--uh,
studio or producers
made that movie.
- I spent 20 years thinking
that you trust people
and that they know what they're
doing, and, uh, you know,
producers and directors
are going, "Gosh, he's great,"
and when you work with some
people and you go-- [groans]
- INTERVIEWER: [laughing]
"Let me outta here!"
- "They've been faking it
all these years!"
- JON: Like everyone,
he's had plenty
of his unsuccessful movies,
but you can point to something
really funny he did
in each of those movies.
And there's something
about him that he always
found that extraordinarily
funny thing.
- NATALIE: Candy is about
to harness that skill
and watch it pay dividends
when he teams up with
the writer, director,
and close confidante
who will make some of the most
beloved films
of John Candy's career.
- ♪
- Welcome back.
After first making a name
for himself
as a Second City performer
in Toronto,
and then as a breakout SCTV
star in both Canada and the US,
John Candy graduated
to Hollywood in the early 1980s,
with memorable supporting roles
in some major hit films.
Candy had also become a leading
man in various comedies,
and by 1986, was living
in Tinsel Town
with his wife Rose
and their two young children,
Jennifer and Chris.
Fate stepped in
when a script called
"Planes, Trains,
& Automobiles"
crossed Candy's desk.
It was written by John Hughes,
who was hot off the success
of films like
"The Breakfast Club"
and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."
With "Planes, Trains
& Automobiles,"
Candy and Hughes would soon
embark on their first
official collaboration
and a life-long friendship.
- TRACEY: John Hughes and
John Candy were best friends.
When they finally ended up
working together,
they just clicked.
- I worked for John Hughes
on a bunch of movies
in the 80s,
and I think "Planes,
Trains & Automobiles--"
that is the movie where I think
that special nature
of...John Hughes's relationship
with John Candy, like,
really, really developed.
- What was your first
reaction when you got
the script and you looked at it
for the first time?
- Oh, I loved it. I couldn't
believe John Hughes had written
this for me and I was wondering
how he got in my head, uh,
the dialogue, everything
was just so perfect,
it was so funny.
- NATALIE: Candy plays
Del Harris,
and Steve Martin is cast
opposite him as Neal Page.
- TRACEY: Neal Page
is a marketing executive
and he wants to get home
to his family for Thanksgiving.
Along the way,
the weather has different ideas,
and he actually meets
a shower curtain salesman
called Del Griffith,
who basically plagues him
on his whole journey
from the airport onwards.
- JOHN: It's your worst
nightmare,
traveling with somebody
who won't shut up.
But he's really not
a bad sort,
he's really a good soul,
I think he's, uh, uh...
a road warrior of sorts.
He knows the turf,
he knows the area,
and Steve's character has
never traveled outside
of the limousine or the--
to the airport
and the first class lounge.
- TRACEY: John Hughes
loved to improvise,
so Steve Martin and John Candy
would improvise a scene
and they would wait for
John Hughes to shout, "Cut."
And he wouldn't,
so they would continue,
to the point where John Hughes
actually used up
twice the industry average
of film for that movie.
- And that whole thing
in the bed
with the hand in between
two pillows,
a lot of that was improvised.
- Those aren't pillows!
- [screaming]
- They would work through
things like, for instance,
the big scene, um,
at the end,
where Neal goes back
to the train station and,
you know, figures out that
Del doesn't have a home.
- NEAL: You said you were
going home,
what are you doing here?
- DEL: I, uh...
I don't have a home.
Marie's been dead
for eight years.
- They did...18, 19 takes
of that,
and it got progressively
more and more emotional,
more and more serious.
- And John Candy, you know,
you really get to see
the warmth that's at the heart
of his character.
The power of that whole ending
is that he's just a man
who wants to have a close
friend, and the loveliness
and the emotionality that
comes through him
in that part, it's terrific.
- A lot of critics are saying
this is really the best vehicle,
the best performance so far,
how do you feel about that?
- Well, I think it's, uh...
one of the first opportunities
I've had to run a character
from A to--to, uh, to Z.
- He was empathetic in it,
and, uh, you felt for him,
and that really demonstrated
his acting skills.
- JOHN: There's a little bit
of everything in this picture,
uh, it runs the full range
of emotions, it's a--
one of the best experiences
I've had working on a film,
and I'm really proud of it,
I feel good about this movie.
- DAVE: He's probably the first
big director that looked at John
and said, "You're a star."
And he actually treated him
like a star.
And John loved that,
John loved John Hughes for that.
- I have a lot of respect
for John Hughes,
and it was just, uh,
a dream, really, for me.
- NATALIE: "Planes, Trains
& Automobiles" is a critical
and box office success,
and marks just the beginning
of Candy and Hughes's
many collaborations.
- John Hughes just started
writing for John Candy.
- They would talk day and night
on the phone,
they would roll ideas
of each other, uh,
they were kindred spirits,
really.
And it got to a stage where
John Candy trusted John Hughes
so much that as soon as
John Hughes said,
"I have a part for you,"
he would just say,
"Tell me where and when."
- NATALIE: Which is exactly
what happens once Hughes
writes 1988's
"The Great Outdoors."
- [horn blowing]
- Yeah!
- [barking, growling]
- Whoa!
- NATALIE: Howard Deutch,
who worked with Hughes
on "Pretty in Pink"
and "Some Kind of Wonderful,"
takes the directorial reigns.
- HOWARD: When John Candy and I
talked about it,
he had this--decided he wanted
to grow a very big beard, uh,
'cause it was the woods
and it was the outdoors,
and he said that would be
his character.
- John showed up...
with a beard.
And he grows a really
handsome beard, you know?
And he's good looking
with a beard.
- So, Universal saw the beard
and said,
"You have to get him
to shave the beard,
'cause we can't see his face."
- "We don't want anybody
to not recognize him."
- So I said, "John, I think
that--you know, everybody's
talking about maybe you should
shave the beard."
He said, "This movie will always
be a black spot on my soul
if you make me shave my beard."
- They made him shave, and he
was really not very happy
about that.
- NATALIE: At least,
Candy gets to reunite
with his old Toronto buddy,
Dan Akroyd.
- And it's a whole week
you'll be here. [laughs] Okay.
- He and Dan played
brother in laws,
and there was this kind
of tension between them
the whole time,
in terms of character.
- [nervous laughter]
- But after we were shooting,
they would always be together,
hanging out, laughing,
talking about their Canadian...
relationship and what went on
when they were younger.
- NATALIE: A less welcome
co-star, a 1500-pound
Hollywood legend known as
Bart the Bear.
- A bald-headed bear!
- [growls]
- [screams]
- Said, "I don't have to do
anything with the bear, right?"
I said, "No, there's plenty, you
gotta do a lot with the bear."
He said, "But I don't have
to get close to the bear."
I said, "No, I think we need
to get close to the bear."
- Okay, okay, you got it?
Good, good, okay.
Alright, yeah, you let me know
when you're ready to come out,
we--we can put it on, okay?
- John was terrified
of that bear.
- [bear grunting]
- Whoa!
- [bear grunting]
- Big bear!
- TRACEY: There was no
CGI back in those days,
so when you see him running
in "The Great Outdoors,"
he literally is running
for his life.
- [yelps]
- He was extremely worried
about that.
I--I don't blame him,
it's a real bear.
- ♪
- Whew! Ooh.
- Hey, he's back, everybody!
- Ooh! Ooh.
- Chet.
- Big. Bear!
- Big bear. [laughs]
- HOWARD: With all that,
I should convey that he was
probably the most charming,
loving, talented, uh,
actor, right up there for me
that I've ever worked with.
He loved people,
he loved kids,
he would always stop and sign
as many autographs as he could.
He was miserable-- [laughs]
the whole movie,
but some people came to visit
him one day,
and I remember him saying,
"Hey--" they said,
"How are you?" and he said,
"I get to dance, I get to sing,
I get to do all this,
I'm a lucky guy."
And that's how he was.
- NATALIE: Hughes writes
another role for Candy,
and this time, he is
back in the director's chair.
- BUCK: Hey.
How you doing?
- Who are you?!
- I'm your uncle Buck.
- Do I have an uncle?
- "Uncle Buck" I think was
one of the great ones.
- TRACEY: Uncle Buck was
just a perfect character
for John, and he played it
beautifully.
- How'd you like to spend
the next several nights
wondering if your crazy,
out-of-work bum uncle
will shave your head
while you sleep?
- INTERVIEWER: Who's Uncle Buck?
What's he like?
- He's an airdwell uncle,
little bit of a gambler,
little bit of, uh, living
on the streets.
He gets a call in the middle
of the night to come look
after his nieces and nephew,
who are living
in the suburbs of Chicago,
and, uh, I don't think
he's ever been out there before,
so he's really the last choice.
- Hey, I, uh, stopped
smoking cigarettes.
- Oh, good.
- BUCK: Isn't that something?
[laughs] I'm on to cigars now.
Yeah, I'm onto a five-year
plan, eliminated the cigarettes,
then I go to cigars,
then I go to pipes,
then I go to chewing tobacco,
and I'm onto that nicotine gum.
[chuckles]
- NATALIE: In one of the most
memorable moments
from the movie,
Candy goes toe to toe
with a very young,
pre-"Home Alone"
Macaulay Culkin.
- Where do you live?
- In the city.
- Do you have a house?
- Apartment.
- Own or rent?
- Rent.
- What do you do for a living?
- Lots of things.
- MILES: Where's your office?
- Don't have one.
- How come?
- BUCK: I don't need one.
- Where's your wife?
- Don't have one.
- MILES: How come?
- It's a long story.
- Do you have kids?
- No, I don't.
- MILES: How come?
- It's an even longer story.
- Are you my dad's brother?
- What's your record
for consecutive questions asked?
- 38.
- I'm your dad's
brother, alright.
- John helped him a lot
through his dialogue,
it was far too much
and far too rapid-fire,
I think, for a kid that age
to get through it,
as good as Mac was.
- Just for you.
- Oh, my God.
He put onions in the eggs.
- He was just great with him.
It helped Macaulay to really
be comfortable,
but he was always
so giving with the other actors.
- What you blow all that
makeup for?
We're just going bowling.
- I'm not going bowling.
- Come on, it's a great sport,
and it's virtually impossible
to get pregnant while doing it.
- John Candy was the way I think
you'd probably expect him to be.
For me, he was kind,
he was easy to be around,
he was funny.
- Have you ever
heard of a tune-up? [laughs]
- [laughs] You ever hear
of a ritual killing? [laughs]
- My character, Tia,
is this angry teenager.
- I'm stunned
that I'm related to you.
- One of the things that's,
I think, so lovely,
is that you think you're alone
and you're really not.
- I'm sorry.
- Hey. Hey, come on.
Nothing to be sorry about.
I'm just kinda glad I get
the chance to know you again.
- JEAN: John Hughes wrote
this amazing, flawless--
in my opinion--script,
and what I saw was
a relationship of two guys
who would just
riff off of each other
and it was almost
like they were partners.
- John Hughes, are you and him
joined at the hip now?
- John's writing, uh,
through all of his pictures,
has always had, uh,
an undercurrent,
another story being told
underneath, very subtly,
and it's a...it's quite
enjoyable working
on a project of his.
- If you think about...through
the history of Hollywood,
about special relationships
with actors and directors,
you know, like a Marty Scorsese
and a Robert DeNiro, say,
the relationship that John Candy
had with John Hughes
was very much that kind
of a relationship,
and easily the two funniest
people I've ever met in my life,
who were utterly comfortable,
and trusting in terms of
their creative sensibilities.
- NATALIE: "Uncle Buck" earns
positive reviews for both
Candy and Hughes, helping to
cement their legacy together.
But it's an entirely different
side of Candy
that will soon be tested,
when he takes on
the most dramatic role
of his career
in a political thriller which
will ignite real controversy.
- ♪
- NATALIE: It's the end
of the 1980s and John Candy
was on a hot streak thanks
to fruitful collaborations
with his close friend
and now Hollywood powerhouse,
John Hughes.
"Planes, Trains & Automobiles"
and "Uncle Buck,"
both written and directed
by Hughes,
showcased a more heartfelt and
tender side to Candy's acting,
earning him accolades with
both fans and critics alike.
But in the midst of this
creative
and highly successful period,
Candy was looking to gain
more control of his projects,
and so he formed his own
production company, Frostbacks,
which co-produced the slap-stick
detective farse,
"Who's Harry Crumb?"
- VALRI: Harry Crumb
was his film,
and you could tell 'cause
he worked so hard.
He worked so hard on that,
meaning he set himself up
for so much difficult stuff.
- BEN: On "Harry Crumb,"
which was all disguises,
there was, uh, bald caps
and other time-consuming, uh,
makeups.
We had such a good time.
It was so pleasing
to work with him.
- NATALIE: Although
the film is a flop,
Candy revels in donning
all those disguises,
while his production company's
next project will see Candy
taking on an altogether
new form, as a cartoon.
"Camp Candy" premieres on NBC
in the fall of 1989,
and the animated star
finds himself
in pre-teen prime time.
- We were on at 8:30 in the
morning opposite "Gummy Bears"
and..."Muppet Babies." [laughs]
- He was the camp counselor
and I was the camp nurse,
and the kids would, you know,
run in and say,
"Oh, there's this turtle
that's stuck on the bridge"
and he'd go "Oh, we gotta go
help the turtle,"
and then I said,
"Don't let the turtle bite you."
Lots of kid stuff,
very gentle and sweet
and harmless and a little bit
of a lesson,
a little Mr. Rogers in him,
you know?
- It's not a very violent show,
it...there's some nice
experiences going on within it,
it's a lot of fun,
we're talking about
the environment
and communication
with each other and...
- VALRI: He wanted to teach kids
about feeling included
and not being sad and not
being lonely,
he was very sensitive.
And that may have come
from his life, I don't know.
- NATALIE: With Candy voicing
the main character,
the show would run
for three seasons.
The turn of the decade sees
Candy jumping back
onto the big screen,
for a small role
in another John Hughes venture
called "Home Alone."
Chris Columbus directs,
while Candy's "Uncle Buck"
co-star, Macaulay Culkin,
becomes a household name.
- [screams]
- NATALIE: "Home Alone" goes on
to gross a whopping
286 million dollars at
the North American box office,
making it at the time
the highest-grossing
live action comedy film ever.
In 1991, Candy re-teams
with Columbus and Hughes
for "Only the Lonely,"
starring Maureen O'Hara
as Candy's mother,
and Ally Sheedy as his
lover interest.
- Candy as a romantic lead?
- Well, I don't know if you'd
consider him a romantic lead.
You know, John Candy plays
every man in this movie,
and he's just a regular guy
like all of us,
and he actually finds love.
- NATALIE:
But it's another film,
Oliver Stone's
controversial "JFK,"
that truly puts Candy's
acting skills to the test.
- Action!
- OLIVER: Kevin Costner
was a centerpiece,
but I wanted to surround him
with as many well-known faces,
so I had people like
Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau,
Tommy Lee Jones and Joe Pesci
and Kevin Bacon,
Donald Sutherland and so forth,
and there was a role
for a southern lawyer
from New Orleans who was
quite a character.
- NATALIE: Candy reads
for the role of Dean Andrews,
an attorney many believed to be
a player
in one of the conspiracy
theories surrounding
the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy.
- The thing that really
amazed me was,
he came to the door,
picked me up,
gave me a big hug,
but...it was the first time
I've ever seen him nervous.
- OLIVER: So I guess he hadn't
done much drama,
and so this was like,
out of his league.
I've read of his work on
"Planes, Trains & Automobiles"
and various things, but, uh,
I approached him because
I thought he was
perfect for the role,
and he actually was scared of
it, but he took it,
and I admire him for that.
- BILL: We had always talked
about him doing, like,
a serious dramatic role
and I think it was something
that--inside him that he always
really wanted to do.
And then he just crushed it.
- OLIVER: Candy played him
very well,
we did a few other scenes
where he had--he was sweating,
you know, 'cause the character
was supposed to sweat.
He was quite nervous
and, uh, I encouraged him,
and he delivered.
- NATALIE: With the help
of a dialect coach,
Candy's "Nawlins" accent
is perfect,
as he disappears
into the character.
- [Cajun accent] If I give you
the name of the big enchilada...
then it's "Bon voyage, Deano."
I mean, like, permanent,
I mean like a bullet in my head,
you dig?
- KEN: He had the character
down good,
talking this jazzy type.
It wasn't John Candy,
this was an actor.
This was a very good actor.
And it was the first time
I--I really, "Wow.
He's got some chops."
- NATALIE: Although Stone
comes under fire for his take
on history...
- There's only so many
known facts,
and I had to speculate
the rest of the way,
so I'm being--I think--
criticized unfairly
for...speculating.
- NATALIE: "JFK" and Candy's
dramatic turn are lauded
by critics worldwide.
The epic film is nominated
for eight Academy Awards,
and wins for both editing
and cinematography.
Outside of Hollywood,
another unexpected opportunity
falls in Candy's lap,
thanks to the die-hard
hockey fan's friendship
with the Los Angeles Kings owner
and Canadian entrepreneur,
Bruce McNall.
McNall is looking for
investors to join him
in buying the Toronto Argonauts,
a football team
north of the border.
- TRACEY: Bruce McNall
started to sort of really
engage with all
the celebrity fans,
Wayne Gregsky, who is obviously
a very famous hockey player,
was looking to go in
on this deal with Bruce,
and he said to John,
"Do you think I should do it?"
And John said,
"Oh, my gosh, yes, you know,
can I...can I come in
on it too?"
- The key is, it's fun.
It's a lot of fun.
Yeah, there's risk,
but what the hell?
You know, that's life.
- MARTIN: Candy really responded
to--when he was in LA--
Wayne Gregsky being
acquired by the Kings,
because of course,
Wayne Gregsky was Canadian.
So, that was just
a huge boost for...for Candy,
and, uh, he was just very
excited about it,
and, uh, he, as much as
possible, hung out with Gregsky.
So eventually, Candy,
Gregsky and McNall
bought the Toronto Argos.
- NATALIE: Candy puts up
one million dollars
of his own money,
and is ecstatic to be part
of a sport he's loved
since childhood.
The new co-owner enlists
his Hollywood friends
to help him promote the team.
- TRACEY: He would get up
at 4:00 in the morning,
do radio shows, do promotion,
do adverts...
- Have you bought your season's
tickets yet
for the Toronto Argonauts?
No? Well, you should.
- He probably worked harder
than anybody at that time,
and he loved those team members.
- NATALIE: And whenever Candy
appears on the field
during Argonauts' games,
the crowd goes wild.
- He flew all of us up to the--
to his guest box.
Akroyd was there,
Jim Belushi was there,
and John is down on the field
with 50,000 people
at the Dome Stadium in Toronto
being cheered by the city,
walking with Wayne Gregsky
and Bruce McNall, waving,
and Danny looks at me and goes,
"He did it."
I said,
"What are you talking about?"
"He's Johnny Toronto,
he made it happen, look at him!"
We were all laughing
our asses off in that booth,
because it's true,
it's like he believed it
before it happened
and he made it happen,
he became Johnny Toronto.
- A very exciting thing
for John Candy was...
when the team won
the Grey Cup in 1991.
- NATALIE: But by the end
of 1993,
after two losing seasons,
things fall apart.
- Bruce and Wayne
were losing a lot of money
with the Toronto Argos.
John was capped,
so he would only lose
a certain amount,
but for Bruce and Wayne,
they were losing an awful
lot of money,
and they basically decided
that they were gonna have
to sell the team.
They didn't tell John this
initially,
they looked for a buyer,
and when John found out,
he was pretty devastated.
- NATALIE: But before Candy's
run as a football co-owner
would end, a sports movie
comes along
that will put his name
back up in lights,
followed by another role
that would be his last.
- ♪
- NATALIE: Although John Candy
is still basking
in the excitement
of being an owner
of the Toronto Argonauts
football team,
it's time for the actor
to return to his day job.
- TRACEY: John had to go back
and earn some money,
so he started doing
some films again.
- NATALIE: Meanwhile, a Disney
movie about Jamaica's
first bobsled team
is in pre-production,
and its director is sure
about one thing.
- We had to cast a coach,
and I'm like,
"Oh, my God, who is a great
ex-coach who'd be
an Olympic gold medalist?"
And Jeffrey Katzenberg said,
"It should be John Candy."
I said, "No, that tone
is all wrong, it's just,
Candy is like my hero,
but that..."
and he's like, "No, no, no,
it's gonna be John Candy."
"Yes, Mr. Katzenberg,
it's a great idea,
Mr. Katzenberg."
- NATALIE: And so Candy
is cast as the team's coach,
and the script,
which was initially more
of a serious sports film,
is rewritten.
"Cool Runnings" is born.
- RAWLE: I was nervous to meet
him 'cause
a lot of times when you meet
celebrities in reality,
you're like, "Ugh,
this guy's kind of a jerk."
But John Candy was--
he superseded my expectations
of...what a movie star
is all about,
I didn't know you could be
a movie star and just be
a regular guy at the same time,
it was like, "Wow."
- NATALIE: As coach Irv Blitzer,
Candy embodies that regular guy
with ease.
- JON: He's got these
extraordinary moments,
there's real stuff in there,
and without an actor like John--
forget comedian like John,
but actor like John--
I don't know that we would've
pulled that off.
- What I liked about him is--
which I didn't realize,
is a lot of actors don't stick
around when it's your, uh...
when you're on camera
and they're off-camera,
and they would just be
in their trailer somewhere,
but John Candy was there a lot,
and he would give us
the lines off-camera,
which, uh--
[chuckles]
A lot of stars don't do that.
- NATALIE: But there's another
reason why Candy
is so accessible.
- At first, I thought, "Wow,
what a contribution that is."
And at some point,
he said,
"I don't have to walk
all the way back to my trailer.
I'd rather stay here than walk
those 200 yards and back again."
Especially at that altitude
in Calgary,
or when it was boiling hot
in Jamaica.
- NATALIE: For most of his
adult life, Candy has struggled
with keeping his weight
in check.
- INTERVIEWER: Does anybody
ever pressure you about
your weight and say,
"Why don't you slim down?"
Have you ever considered--
- No. No, not really.
I think it bothers other people
more than it does me.
- You couldn't bring it up
to him,
you couldn't talk
about his weight.
He was so hypersensitive
about it,
and he got so offended
if you did.
- But, uh,
it--doesn't bother you?
- INTERVIEWER:
It doesn't bother me.
- Oh, I was wondering,
'cause you brought it up,
so I was just wondering
if it was bothering you.
- You can't separate John's
persona and his characters
from his weight, I mean,
"Oh, it's very sensitive."
No, it's not.
That's who John was.
That's who John always was,
and it had a lot to do
with forming who John was.
- NATALIE: Although
"Cool Runnings"
and Candy's performance
are well received,
during this time,
Candy is also having issues
with anxiety and panic attacks.
- We went to, uh,
a Calgary Flames hockey game.
We leave early so he can beat
the crowds.
But you can't beat
all the crowds.
And as we're walking out,
he gets stopped,
and then the next person,
and then the next person.
And he couldn't say no
to anyone for a picture
or an autograph,
but he needed to leave.
And suddenly, you could see
this...anxiety and stress,
because half of him is
desperate to get out of there,
and the claustrophobia
was setting in,
and the other half was the
inability to say no to someone.
- DAVE: John bent over backwards
to be nice to people,
and people took advantage
of that.
And John would let them take
advantage of it because
he was just such a sweet,
gracious guy.
But it would get to him.
But where it'd get to him
was with his drinking.
John was a jolly drinker,
and he would drink
rum and cokes.
But like clockwork,
at about midnight,
he would switch to Courvoisier.
And then his personality
would change.
- [fingers snap]
- And then, John...
wouldn't take [bleep]
from anybody.
He'd kinda get tired
and kinda maudlin,
but he wouldn't go to sleep.
- ♪
- DAVE: "Victory at Sea"
was a documentary about WWII,
and there was like,
I don't know, 50 of 'em.
John had them all.
- MALE NARRATOR:
July 16th, 1945.
The desert of New Mexico.
- DAVE: And John would put in
"Victory at Sea"
and we would watch that
at his house and have snacks,
you know, late at night,
and then
I'd see the sun come up.
I saw the sun come up with him
so many times, you know?
I loved him so much,
but he was really complicated,
you know?
- NATALIE: Back on the work
front,
Candy and his production
company begin shooting
a Canadian TV movie
called "Hostage for a Day,"
but this time, Candy's
behind the camera,
in his directorial debut.
- ROBIN: John was directing
this film in Toronto,
and hired all of his friends,
so I got this great part
as the wife of George Wendt.
And he was sort of giving
back to all these people.
- Robin Duke, Don Lake.
John Hemphill, John Vernon,
I mean, the cast is just great--
Currie Graham--
really good people.
- MALE REPORTER:
Is there anybody else?
- Well, there is a list,
if you wouldn't mind. [laughs]
- He came up with a group
of people who loved him,
that was--that was joyous.
He always was...kind of
within his tribe, you know?
- Why I chose Second City
actors is--
and improvisational actors--
is because our tendency
is to work for the betterment
of the scene.
And, it's not, uh,
"I can do this,
and I will do this
and I will do this,"
it's more, "We,"
it's--it's--collective.
- He was directing you
as an actor,
so he understood that,
so he gave you
really strong acting notes
to make it truthful,
make it believable.
You know, John--as much as he
wanted to make people laugh,
he wanted to laugh,
you know?
He just wanted to keep
the party going
and be laughing.
- NATALIE: Candy keeps
the laughs going
in Michael Moore's political
comedy, "Canadian Bacon,"
which won't be released
until 1995.
But his next role
sends him south of the border,
starring in the western
comedy, "Wagons East."
- John was cast on
"Wagons East,"
and he was co-starring
with Richard Lewis
and Richard Picardo.
- It's a chance to get paid,
and be on a horse for a second.
I loved the script, and, uh,
John Candy was a friend,
and, uh, to be with John,
I wouldn't pass it up
for anything, you know?
He's just so brilliant,
he really nails this
wonderful character.
- TRACEY: He didn't actually
want to go to Mexico,
he had a weird feeling
about it,
and he wasn't having
the best time there, either,
I think he was in pain
with his hips.
- John was at his highest
weight about that time.
I saw the horse that he--
they put him on,
because I thought they were
gonna put me on it, they didn't.
That horse was massive.
Had to be.
- TRACEY: I think John
did struggle with his weight
at that stage,
but it's difficult,
when you're in so much pain,
to actually exercise
and try and get that weight off,
and also because
he worked so hard,
he didn't actually sleep
that much,
and your body needs to run
on something, it needs fuel,
so, you know, I think it was
just a case of--of--
he was just getting by,
really.
- He couldn't wait to get out
of there, he hated the movie,
and just thought it was...POS.
And, uh, and couldn't wait
to get back.
- I remember he was really
sad and upset,
about the living conditions
of the Mexicans down in Mexico,
where they were shooting it.
He said it was terrible
and he felt terrible
that they had to live that way,
he'd never seen
anything like that.
- But he was really professional
and he would just act
his heart out.
So they were about three
or four days
before the end of shooting,
and, uh, they finished
filming on the 3rd of March
and he was really tired.
Sound guy said, "Can we just
do a retake of one thing?"
And he said, "Oh, please,
can we do it tomorrow?
I'm really--I really am tired."
That was fine, you know, "Sure."
And John went back to his room,
called his co-stars,
told them how happy he was
with the filming that day,
made a spaghetti meal
for his assistants, went to bed.
He was always on time and he was
not on set that morning.
So when they couldn't get
a hold of him, uh,
Frankie Hernandez,
who was his driver,
broke into the apartment,
and unfortunately,
they found John had passed away.
- Actor John Candy died today.
He had a heart attack while
working on location in Mexico.
He was just 43 years old.
- NATALIE:
Word of Candy's death gets out.
And close friends and family
are stunned.
- Catherine called me
the next day,
the day after he died.
I was on a sitcom at that time.
And she's crying and she said,
"John died last night,"
I said, "Oh, God, no!"
- Candy died in his sleep
soon after finishing a scene
from a new movie,
"Wagons East."
- DAVE: I called Rose
right away.
And, somebody picks up
the phone at the house,
and is just, "Hello?
Who's calling?"
And you--when you hear that
funereal tone of the person
taking the calls,
you knew it was true.
- VALRI: Dave and I were doing,
uh..."Grace Under Fire."
And so that morning,
Dave and I were just crying
the whole time,
and we had to...we had to stop,
we were shooting that day
and that night,
and it was just so sad,
and it took us so long
to get used to that because
I hated that he was alone.
Ugh. Hated that.
It was just so sad,
but at least I had Dave with me,
at least the two of us
were crying together, you know?
- DAVE: Danny drove down
with Donna,
and we all just hugged
and talked and just...
We couldn't believe it because
it was like...
he had always...thought
that he was gonna die at 35
like his dad and then when he
beat 35--we passed 35,
we thought, "He made it!
He's gonna be like Raymond Burr,
one of those big guys that's
gonna live long," you know?
- I was driving and heard it
on the news.
And of course,
it was a surprise,
you're not expecting this,
but you're not shocked.
You're not feeling like,
"Oh, that's impossible,
how could that possibly
have happened?"
Everyone was expecting that
at some point to happen.
Even though when it happens,
you're still surprised
by that moment,
but it was gonna happen.
- It's a very sad situation,
uh, just happened.
I saw Rose yesterday, uh,
and, uh, it's--it's just...
um, it's a shock,
but it's not that surprising,
uh, for various
genetic reasons, etc.
- When you heard the news
that he passed away at 43,
do you remember that moment?
- Yeah, I mean, it's...
it's just so unfair, uh,
that the world sort of loses
this, um, extraordinary talent,
um, and a talent
that people ended up loving
in a...in a real big way.
- NATALIE: "Wagons East" wraps,
and cast and crew get through it
with a heavy heart.
- You know, we love John,
you know? And people love him,
and you know, the actors,
together with the crew,
we just sucked it up, you know,
we weren't gonna let down,
in fact, you know,
we gave it 300% more
than we could, you know.
And, uh, I'm really proud
to have known John,
and his work lives on.
- NATALIE: Audiences
have always loved Candy,
and the relatable every-man
he brought to so many
of his roles.
Yet, ironically,
after his death,
he will be given a send-off
that will be fit for royalty.
- ♪
- NATALIE: On March 9th, 1994,
John Candy's funeral is held
at Saint Martin of Tours Church,
in the Brentwood section
of Los Angeles.
- Going to the church
was beautiful.
So sad, because we were just--
we knew we were gonna miss him
for the rest of our lives.
- NATALIE: More than 200
mourners, mostly close friends
and family, paid their last
respects to the fallen star,
including Candy's long-time
Toronto pal, Dan Akroyd.
- DAVE: Danny's eulogy
for John is one of the most
magnificent speeches
that I have ever heard
or read in my life.
Uh, it was...wonderfully
uplifting and spiritual,
and...gave a real homage
to John.
And...I remember,
I sat beside Jim Belushi,
and Jim held my hand,
squeezing it
for the whole thing,
to the point where it was
getting kinda awkward, you know?
I was like, "Come on, Jim,
you know, we're not lovers,
you can let go
of my damn hand."
But on the way down
to the cemetery,
when I was in the limo
with Danny and Andrea Alexander
and somebody else,
and while on the 405 we see
there's no cars on the 405.
"What the hell is this
all about?"
And then we saw cops had...
closed the ramps,
and as the funeral procession
went by, they were saluting.
And...Danny and I started
laughing 'cause we realized,
"He shut down the 405.
He would love this!"
They shut down the 405 for him,
all the way from Sunset
down to that cemetery.
So we were all kinda
touched by that.
One thing Danny said to me
when we were driving
in the car, he said,
"You know, if you add up
all the hours that John
"was awake when we were asleep,
he probably lived to about 80."
And we laughed at that,
you know.
- NATALIE: The following week,
a memorial service
is held in Toronto,
Candy's hometown.
Approximately 700 people
pack St. Basil's Church,
with many waiting on line
in the bitter cold
and blustering snow.
- It was a...national
mourning, when he died.
- JONATHAN:
It was open to the public,
and the place was packed,
of course.
- ROBIN:
Because he was Johnny Toronto,
everybody knew John Candy,
everybody has a story about
John, he was just a presence
in this town.
- JAYNE: Catherine O'Hara
did probably the best speech
I've ever heard anybody do
in my entire life.
- John was a humble,
sensitive man,
full of faith,
who seemed forever grateful
for his gifts and his time
on this Earth.
- ROB:
She totally nailed it.
It was just the right mix
of--of--of lightness
and heaviness,
and real love for John.
- NATALIE: And the love
doesn't end there.
Far from it, in fact.
To honor their hometown hero,
Candy's name is proudly added
to the Toronto Walk of Fame.
Second City Toronto, where his
comedy career really began,
names the Block Box Theater
after Candy.
His high school pays him
tribute.
- JONATHAN: They named a wing--
the arts wing after him,
The John Candy Wing,
and they had a little display
case and, uh,
they had things in there
about him.
- NATALIE: And in a rare
accomplishment,
Candy's smiling face lands
on a Canadian postage stamp.
But his legacy is felt
everywhere.
- I think it was a shock
to everybody, you know,
in the world, practically,
you know, he was known.
Even probably in Japan
or Russia, you know,
he made his impact.
- NATALIE: More than 25 years
after Candy's death,
that impact is undeniable.
What were your overall
impressions of John Candy
as a performer?
- Just a big, lovable guy,
you know?
Really funny, naturally,
he was always...
a very lively and, uh,
very warm person.
- Ha!
- Oh!
- [laughing]
- Kids will love that.
- JOE: He was funny,
just funny,
he had a good sense
of humor,
and John was great
to work with,
everybody liked
working with him.
- ♪
- NATALIE: And for friends
and colleagues,
the loss still hurts.
- What happened?
Such a huge life,
such a big spirit.
Where does it go? You know?
It's, like, so...unbelievable.
- ROB: Oh, I was devastated.
I'm still devastated.
I can't watch a John Candy
film now. I can't.
I know I'm robbing myself
of--of--all this great comedy,
but it just makes me sad.
- MARTIN: Charlie Chaplin,
Buster Keaton, Woody Allen,
he was up there with the biggest
comedy stars ever.
- ♪
- JAYNE: I think what makes
John a great stage performer
and a film performer,
is not only his humor,
but his humanity.
- ROBIN: He was loved.
Loved by one and all.
He would make everybody
feel good.
- JAYNE: And he would
talk to anybody.
There wasn't a fan in the world
who got rejected by John,
and he had plenty of them.
- It's the Canadian in me, so.
- INTERVIEWER: [laughs] Eh?
- Eh?
- "Hey, nice to meet you,
da-da-da," signing autographs,
and, uh, yeah, he just had time,
he was unbelievably generous
with his time.
- I've never seen anybody
who was so comfortably funny
and could put people at ease.
And for a man that was, like,
a big man,
and...in many ways kind of
really imposing in the room,
it was--it was kind of amazing.
- ROBIN: I think that's
just his heart, his kindness,
you know, that was his gift.
- He was just...in love
with life,
and performance, and acting,
and laughing,
and making people laugh.
- Not crude, not gross,
just...full of--of--of... of
celebration.
And when John Candy laughed
at something you did?
Oh, it was just
a great feeling.
- He just wanted to make
people feel good.
Simple as that.
And he, he accomplished it.
- He had more to give.
He left a big hole.
- If John candy was alive now,
he would've won an Oscar by now.
He would be considered
an extremely diverse actor,
because he only scratched
the surface of--as far as
all his serious roles.
- AUDRIE: God, I wish
he could've gone forever,
because he would've done
such good work.
Who didn't love John
in any role?
Name one role that John
wasn't loved in.
You can't. You can't.
I loved him
in everything he did.
- DAVE: I was really privileged
to have known him
for as long as I did
and to see him realize
all the--in his short career--
he realized his dreams
in a way that a lot of people
don't ever do, you know?
And that's a wonderful thing.
If you can say that that's
what you did with your life,
that you realized the dreams
and ambitions you had
when you started out,
what else do you need?
I mean,
that's pretty remarkable.
- ♪