The John Candy Appreciation Thread

[Kar Ma]

The brilliance of John Candy's acting was his ability to play both comedic and dramatic moments (and within the same scene). I think a great actor, like Candy, needs to be able to play both.

Some entertainers today seem to be good at one or the other. Versitility and opportunity to use it was what made John Candy such a beloved actor and person.

He is one of the few who have gone before that I would have loved to work with. Did he ever do a spot on Sesame Street? I do not know the seasons as well as others in the forum.

Barf is one of my all time favorite movie characters. Mel Brooks is a freakin' genius.

 

[G-MAN]

Wagons East! I love that movie, and don't forget he was in Blues Brothers.

 

[Winslow Leach]

Didja know that John Candy was originally set to play the lead in Splash? He was already a well-established actor and comic, and the execs at Disney thought the idea of Candy falling in love with a mermaid would be comedic gold.

But director Ron Howard thought Candy would be better as the lead character's brother, and hired a virtually unknown actor named Phil Silverstein--I mean Tom Hanks--to play the lead. Of course, Candy was the bigger name at this point. Hanks had the sitcom Bosom Buddies and a small role in a slasher film (He Knows You're Alone). He also appeared as "Uncle Ned," the brother of Meredith Baxter's character on Family Ties a couple of times. So Howard was going out on a limb here, by selecting a TV actor for the lead, and giving Candy second billing, especially since Disney was launching its more "adult" wing, Touchstone Pictures, with Splash.

I particularly like Who's Harry Crumb? (1989), a comedy with Candy as a detective. He also had a funny cameo in Little Shop of Horrors as a wild disc jockey.

In the early 80s, Dick Ebersol, who was producing "Saturday Night Live" at the time after Lorne Michaels's departure, wanted Candy for the cast. Actually, he wanted both Candy and Catherine O'Hara, who were doing SCTV. Candy didn't want to leave SCTV, so he declined (but wound up hosting the show while Ebersol was still producer), but O'Hara thought she would give live TV a try. She lasted barely a week in New York, before realizing what a mistake she made. So she went back to Canada and back to SCTV.

Ebersol did, however, persuade Martin Short from SCTV to join the cast of SNL.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I love his movies and his cartoon, too!

 

[Winslow Leach]

I love his movies and his cartoon, too!

Oh yeah! I forgot he had a cartoon series...Camp Candy, wasn't it?

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Yeah! That's the one!

 

[Winslow Leach]

Yeah! That's the one!

Good show!

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Yeah! Used to watch it every morning before school!

 

[Winslow Leach]

My favorite John Candy movie is Only the Lonely (1991), a cute romantic comedy/drama, directed by Chris Columbus.

Candy plays a single Chicago cop who falls in love with a funeral home worker (Ally Sheedy). The only problem is, Candy has an overbearing, smothering Irish mother (played by the great Maureen O'Hara), who is very critical about who her son brings home. The cast also features Anthony Quinn.

The chemestry between Candy and O'Hara is fantastic. In fact, when Chris Columbus was casting the movie, he had O'Hara in mind for the mother, but he didn't know she had retired from film. Somehow Columbus got a script to O'Hara's brother, who was a producer. The brother sent the script to O'Hara, and she considered it worthy enough to come out of retirement for...as long as she liked her leading man.

Candy and O'Hara (a frequent co-star of John Wayne) met, and the two had an instant rapport, which pays off well on screen, with Candy struggling to get out from under the thumb of his domineering mama.

(Candy has just scored a date with Sheedy. He encounters some of the funeral workers on his way out)

Candy: I just got lucky in there with a girl!

(the funeral workers look shocked)

Candy: Not in that way...she does everybody in there...not in that way. But she probably did that guy there...uh, I gotta go!

 

[Drtooth]

Didja know that John Candy was originally set to play the lead in Splash? He was already a well-established actor and comic, and the execs at Disney thought the idea of Candy falling in love with a mermaid would be comedic gold.
.

He was also originally cast in Ghostbusters as well, but Rick Moranis got that part. Additionally, Richard Pryor was to get a role that was originally written for John Belushi when Dan Akroyd wrote the original script back in the early 80's before Belushi's death.

In fact, Pryor and Candy were both drawn into the storyboards before they were recast.