John Candy’s Shock Death: How He ‘Predicted’ It at 43

John Candy was one of the most successful stars of his generation, winning millions of fans all over the world with his stellar acting and comedic timing.

But the acting legend’s vibrant life and career would be prematurely cut short. 

On March 4 1994 he was cruelly struck down by a massive heart attack aged just 43, leaving behind a young family and a world in mourning.

His breakout role came when he played Tom Hanks’ character’s womanizing brother in Splash in 1984, which garnered universal acclaim. 

Candy was already an Emmy Award winner and thanks to turns in blockbusters including Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Cool Runnings and Home Alone, he was a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood in the 1990s.

Candy also had a happy home life, he had been married to Rosemary Margaret Hobor since 1979 and was dad to two children  – although his hectic filming schedule kept him away from his loved ones much longer than he wanted.

But behind the scenes, Candy was fighting battles far from his giddy onscreen personas.

His own father – Sidney James Candy – died of complications of heart disease at age 35 in 1955 when the actor was just days after from his fifth birthday, leaving him with a sense he was doomed from an early age. 

‘He felt he had inherited in his genes a Damoclean sword,’ Carl Reiner, who directed Candy in 1985’s Summer Rental told People, ‘so it didn’t matter what he did.’ 

Candy has struggled with obesity throughout his life – at his heaviest and at the time of his death, he reportedly weighed more than 375lbs. 

He openly spoke about his battles with anxiety and panic attacks, using food, alcohol, and smoking as well as reported drug use, as a way to cope.

Candy first shot to fame via his work as a member of Toronto’s branch of improv comedy group The Second City in 1972. 

He then joined the cast on Toronto-based comedy-variety show Second City Television which was picked up by NBC in 1981 and became a huge hit.

The show won Emmy Awards in 1981 and 1982 for its writing.

Candy appeared in a number of comedies throughout his career, including Spaceballs.

He had a minor, yet important, role as the ‘Polka King of the Midwest’ in Home Alone. His character Gus Polinski helps reunite Kevin with his mother, making for a happy ending.

He starred alongside Macaulay Culkin in the 1989 film Uncle Buck before they were reunited on the set of the holiday film.

He won legions of fans for his role as shower curtain salesman Del Griffith in 1987 classic, Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

The film follows the story line of anxious and stern businessman Neale Page (Steve Martin) who is trying to get home to see his family in Chicago.

Stuck in an airport lounge in Kansas after an emergency landing, Page has to befriend Griffith who will let him stay the night in a rundown motel. 

Together the two of them, from wildly different social classes, have to overcome their intense dislike of each other and get Page home. 

At the time the film received critical acclaim, with Candy being nominated for Funniest Actor in a Motion Picture that year. 

As his star grew, the actor would routinely turn to fitness and a healthier lifestyle in a bid to get his weight down – before returning to his previous unhealthy habits, including a fondness for pierogi dumplings. 

He admitted to People in 1981 that he was affected by cruel jibes about his size, saying: ‘Sure, I’m sensitive about my weight. I don’t do fat jokes. I’m the one who has to look in the mirror and after a while it begins to eat at you.

‘I know what I have to do if I want to lose weight and stay healthy: eat a proper diet and exercise. All I’ve got to do is apply it.’ 

After starring in 1981’s The Stripes, in which he played a recruit hoping to lose weight, he refused to do any more roles ridiculing his size. 

While filming Rental in 1984 with Reiner, who ensured healthy food was prepared for him on set, Candy checked into weight loss clinic the Pritikin Institute in Santa Monica for a month.

He later threw himself into a healthy lifestyle with a personal trainer and lost 75lbs that summer.

However, he would soon slip back into his unhealthy diet amid a battle with anxiety.

Reiner said: ‘For a while he would eat nice but then he would say, “Let’s go have a bucket of shrimp.”‘

Candy previously revealed he was too anxious to watch his films because he was ‘too critical of himself’ and said he was ‘choked up’ and ‘intimidated’ when he appeared on The Tonight Show.

Producer Peter Kaminsky, said: ‘Eating, ingesting, smoking. For John, it was a way of swallowing that anxiety.’ 

After suffering from panic attacks after the age of 40, Candy began seeing a therapist who taught him coping mechanisms to manage his anxiety. 

In 2019 documentary Autopsy: John Candy, it was claimed Candy had been smoking ‘a pack of cigarettes a day’ from when he was ’17 or 18.’

Dr. Michael Hunter, a renowned forensic pathologist also claimed ‘I think it’s probable that John’s addiction to smoking was a factor in his death. But John appears to have a history of use of another drug that is also known to have a damaging impact on the heart — and that’s cocaine.’

It was previously claimed Candy had quit using cocaine after the death of John Belushi from a cocaine and heroin overdose in 1982 aged 33.

Candy officially quit smoking just a few months before his death. 

In December 1993 Candy would travel to Durango, Mexico to film Western comedy Wagons East – which would be his final movie. 

His Home Alone co-star and SCTV alum Catherine O’Hara recalled a phone call in which Candy spoke of an ominous feeling about travelling to Mexico.

He reportedly told her: ‘I don’t want to go down there’ as he felt ‘something bad is going to happen there.’

His final day was spent filming  – with the star wrapping his work at 10pm, with only two more scenes left to shoot before Candy could finally return home to California.

He also spoke to his beloved family, his son Chris, then aged just nine, recalled their final conversation to THR, saying: ‘I remember talking to him the night before he passed away and he said, “I love you and goodnight.” And I will always remember that.’

His daughter Jennifer, then 14, said: ‘So I was talking to him on the phone, and, I hate this, but I was slightly distant because I was studying. So I was like, “Yeah, OK, I love you. I will talk to you later. Have a great night.” Then I hang up, and I go back to studying.’

Candy enjoyed a Mexican spaghetti dinner with his crew before retiring for the night to the Camino del Perque hotel.

His final words to a night watchman at the hotel were reportedly: ‘I’m so tired. All I want to do is go home and be with my family.’

Candy took a shower at 11pm and went to bed. This was the final time anyone saw him alive.

The next day, his concerned bodyguard let himself into the room after failing to reach him by phone.

He found Candy ‘half in and half out of bed’, clad in a long red and black checked nightshirt.

Candy was pronounced dead at 9am due to a massive heart attack. His widow asked for no autopsy to be conducted.

His funeral was held on March 9 1994 at St. Martin of the Tours church, in Brentwood, California.

Dan Aykroyd delivered the eulogy, and mourners included Chevy Chase, Tom Hanks, Rick Moranis, Jim Belushi, Martin Short, George Wendt, Rhea Perlman, Bill Murray, and Ed Harris.

Candy was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery, in Culver City, California.

Wagons East, released five months after his death, was completed via script re-writes, a stand-in and special effects.

Both Wagons East and his final completed film Canadian Bacon (1995), are dedicated to the star.

More than three decades after his death, Candy’s memory lives on stronger than ever.

Documentary, John Candy: I Like Me, directed by his co-star Tom Hanks’ son Colin, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this month.

The film, made with the full backing of Candy’s widow Rosemary and children Jennifer, 45, and Chris, 40, charts Candy’s rise to fame and tragic death.

The documentary also features never-before-seen home videos, archives and family interviews.