JOHN CANDY

An affectionate portrait of the late, great comic actor and writer.

John Candy was universally loved. Writes Dan Aykroyd in his foreword to pop culture maven Myers’ life, “In a world where publicists routinely shield their star clients’ dark sides from their adoring public, it is virtually impossible to find anyone with a bad word to say about him.” He’d hoped to be a gridiron hero until an injury made it impossible for him to play—and good thing for that busted knee, for, Myers reveals, Candy, a Canadian, tried to join the U.S. Marines at the height of the Vietnam War but was rejected because of the offending joint. Myers attributes Candy’s odd attempt to a dangerously negative body image, with Candy hoping that the Marines would whip him into shape. Candy’s struggles with weight are a leitmotif here, and while Myers takes pains not to body-shame, there are many painful episodes on that score, as when Carl Reiner, directing Candy in the film Summer Rental, “began to notice empty pizza boxes in Candy’s trailer, along with discarded candy wrappers and other signs of snacking.” Candy died of heart failure at 43, attributable to what actor Joe Flaherty called “his weight problems, the drinking, and cigarettes,” augmented by anxiety. Apart from his poor self-care, though, Candy brought a fresh comic sensibility to both television and film, giving dimensionality to characters such as Del Griffith in John Hughes’ Planes, Trains and Automobiles and a host of roles in the cult classic SCTV. As Myers notes, Candy was also moving toward more serious pieces at the time of his death, including taking the dramatic lead in A Confederacy of Dunces. What emerges again and again, along with Candy’s impeccable work ethic, was his generosity, as when, on one film set, he bought a Thanksgiving turkey for each of more than 200 cast and crew members.

For all its sad ending, fans of John Candy will delight in Myers’ comprehensive biography.