The Canadian actor and comedian John Candy became a beloved figure in Hollywood. Sadly, he died of a heart attack in his sleep aged 43 in 1994. His two children, Chrir and Jennifer, are now all grown up. As a new documentary about him airs, his son has made a heart-wrenching claim about his father.
John Candy became a beloved actor, but sadly passed away in Mexico in March of 1994. The cause of death was said to have been a heart attack in his sleep.
Candy starred in some iconic comedies, including Splash, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Uncle Buck, as well as in the Canadian sketch comedy series Second City TV. Throughout his life, he struggled with his weight.
The press asked him questions about it, but although he might have felt it was something he didn’t want to be ‘remembered’ for, he felt that the public “wanted him big,” so he “stayed big.”
The fact that the press asked him numerous questions – some nastier than others – about his weight has now left his son, Chris Candy, appalled.
Together with his sister, Jennifer, and mother, as well as Rosemary Hobor, the widow of John, Chris has co-produced and participated in interviews for a new documentary about John Candy, John Candy: I Like Me, which premiered on Wednesday, October 8, in Brooklyn, New York.
Actor John Candy says journalists fat-shamed his father in heart-wrenching statement
In an interview, Chris shared heartbreaking feelings about how their father had to endure the horrifying treatment from the press, focusing on how much he weighed.
“I was kind of shocked to see how interviewers treat him,” Chris, now 41, said, per People. “That was just kind of heart-wrenching. And I also could see how he got more frustrated and he found ways to deal with that.”
“I learned through the process of this that he was so nervous about eating in front of people because of paparazzi,” Chris said. He said that fear led his dad to disordered eating patterns. “He developed a poor eating habit where he’d be like, ‘Alright, well I’m not going to eat all day. I’m going to eat at night.’ ”
The documentary about John Candy is directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. Like Chris, Hanks also expressed frustration that reporters focused on Candy’s weight, saying it was “unacceptable.”
“It’s heartbreaking,” Hanks said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “That, particularly, was so soul-crushing to me. To see, first off, how uncomfortable John was in an interview, and it was because, deep down, he knew, ‘They’re going to ask about my weight.'”
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