John Candy's Son Reveals 'Heartwrenching' Details of Dad's Obesity Battle
Chris Candy, the son of legendary comedian and film star John Candy, revealed a “heartwrenching” fact about his father’s obesity struggle, which he only realized while making the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me.
Chris Candy Revealed 'Heartwrenching' Detail of Father's Life
Chris, 41, appeared alongside the documentary’s director, Colin Hanks, producer Ryan Reynolds, and host Hugh Jackman at a special screening held in Brooklyn on Oct. 8. When Jackman asked Chris to name “one piece of the puzzle” that the documentary filled in about his late father’s life, Chris responded: “I was kind of shocked to see how interviewers treat him. That was just kind of heartwrenching. And I also could see how he got more frustrated and he found ways to deal with that.
'I Feel So Bad For Him'
“I learned through the process of this that he was so nervous about eating in front of people because of paparazzi,” Chris continued, adding that this fear led to his father adopting irregular, unhealthy patterns of eating. “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.’
“When I hear stories like that I just felt so bad for him because it's like, ‘How cornered are you?’” Chris said. “And you really want in those moments, as his son or as his friend, to be able to grab him by his shoulders and say, ‘Why the f--k do you have to do this? Just who cares? Have a sandwich and get mad about it.’”
John Candy Died of a Heart Attack
John died at 44 in 1994, when Chris was just 11, after suffering a heart attack in Durango, Mexico while filming the comedy Wagons East alongside Richard Lewis, John C. McGinley, and Robert Picardo. Picardo recalled receiving a phone call from the late star hours before he was found dead, thanking him and Lewis for a great shoot. “He was like a little kid who had had a great day at camp,'' Picardo told People in 1994. ''He wanted to thank us.'”