‘SOBBING’

John Candy’s Son Recounts the Moment He Learned His Dad Died

Chris Candy was just 8 years old when his famous father passed away.

Chris Candy, son of legendary actor and comedian John Candy, was 8 years old when the school pastor stepped into his classroom. Having recently sung a “Weird Al” Yankovic song in the school’s talent show, he thought Father Donnie was going to compliment him on his performance. Instead, he “walked with me and my sister down to the rectory,” Candy recounts in an essay for the Toronto Star to coincide with the premiere of a new documentary, John Candy: I Like Me. “We saw our dad’s assistant, Bob Crane, sobbing. We turned the corner into the priest’s office, and my mom was there. She told us that our dad had died.” Chris served as an executive producer alongside his sister Jennifer on the new documentary, which “cracks open” the impact that losing his own father had on a young John Candy. “It was a strange, unique experience that taught me there is not only a genetic inheritance from our parents but a psychological one as well, and that to grow in this lifetime is a process with no end,” Candy wrote. The Planes, Trains, and Automobiles star died at 43 of a heart attack while filming Wagons East in Mexico in 1994. John Candy: I Like Me, which is directed by Colin Hanks—son of Tom Hanks, Candy’s co-star in Splash and Volunteers—hits Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 10.