Candy

If there’s a scene that best encapsulates the tragically abbreviated career of John Candy, it’s not necessarily from his time on the sketch-comedy series “SCTV” or from movies like “Stripes” or “Uncle Buck.” It’s a moment in the 1987 comedy-drama “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” when his reluctant roommate Neal Page (played by Steve Martin) has spent several minutes berating him for his relentless storytelling.

With a lump in his throat, Candy’s wounded character Del Griffith replies that he’s proud of who he is. “I like me,” he says. “My wife likes me. My customers like me. Because I’m the real article — what you see is what you get.”

That moment proves pivotal to two new projects that retrace Candy’s life and work some 31 years after the actor died from a heart attack at the age of 43. The actor would have turned 75 this month.

A biography, “John Candy: A Life in Comedy,” written by Paul Myers (released by House of Anansi Press on Tuesday), and a documentary, “John Candy: I Like Me,” directed by Colin Hanks (released Friday on Prime Video), both rely on Candy’s friends, family members and colleagues to help tell the story of his ascent, his success and the void left by his death.

In their own ways, both the book and the film show how Candy — while not without his demons — was beloved by audiences for his fundamental and authentic likability, and why he is still mourned today for the potential he never got to completely fulfill.

Explaining why it was still important to memorialize Candy all these years later, Ryan Reynolds, the “Deadpool” star and a producer of the documentary, said, “When it’s something people desperately miss, but they don’t know they miss it, it’s a beautiful and rare thing. John Candy is a person that they missed desperately.”

Since his death, Candy’s immediate survivors — his widow, Rosemary; daughter, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan; and son, Chris Candy — have weighed the pluses and minuses of sharing his life with audiences and the impact it might have on them (the three are co-executive producers on the film). “It’s a balancing act,” said Chris Candy. “You want to live your life and you also want to honor theirs.”

In recent years, Candy’s children said they were encouraged by documentaries like Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” about the children’s TV broadcaster Fred Rogers, as well as Hanks’ film “All Things Must Pass,” about the Tower Records retail chain.

Hanks, whose father, Tom, acted with Candy in films like “Splash” and “Volunteers,” said he struggled at first to find a compelling way to tell the story of Candy, who had a seemingly charmed and uncontroversial acting career, first in his native Toronto and then in Hollywood.

But Hanks said he was drawn into Candy’s story by a particular detail: the fact that Candy’s own father, Sidney, had died from heart disease at the age of 35, right before John turned 5. “It doesn’t take much to think about how traumatic that could be for anyone at any age,” Hanks said.

Myers, a musician and journalist who has written books about the band Barenaked Ladies and comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall, said he was drawn to Candy as a fellow Canadian and an embodiment of the national comedic spirit.

“If you’re Canadian like I am, you never stop thinking about John Candy,” Myers said. Growing up in the Toronto area, Myers said he and his siblings — including his brother Mike, the future “Shrek” and “Austin Powers” star — were avid fans of sketch comedy shows like “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and “Saturday Night Live.”

But “SCTV,” which launched stars like Candy, Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy, meant even more to them. “We watched it from Day 1 and we cheered a little bit harder for them because it was like they were shooting the show blocks away from our house,” Myers said.

Reynolds, who was born and raised in Vancouver, said that Candy’s essential Canadian spirit was crucial to his success as a comic actor.

“In comedy, Canadians typically don’t punch down,” Reynolds said. “It’s more of a self-effacing humor. Their favorite target is themselves. And John did that. On screen, I felt his willingness and joy in self-effacing humor that never really veered into self-loathing humor.”

Candy parlayed his repertoire of “SCTV” characters — satirical media personalities like Johnny LaRue and real-life celebrities like Orson Welles — into supporting parts in hit films like “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Brewster’s Millions” and “Spaceballs.”

His penchants for drinking and smoking were well-known and hardly out of the ordinary for that era; they rarely impeded Candy’s work and, in at least one notable instance, seem to have enhanced it: Both the documentary and the biography recount how Candy indulged in a late-night bender with Jack Nicholson before rising the next morning to shoot a scene in “Splash” where his character fumbles, flails and smokes his way through a round of racquetball.

“That’s his work ethic, right there,” said Candy-Sullivan. “He showed up and he did the scene.”

Candy graduated to lead roles in comedies like “Summer Rental,” “The Great Outdoors” and “Who’s Harry Crumb?,” and he found a kindred spirit in the writer and director John Hughes, who helped provide Candy with some of his most enduring roles in movies like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “Uncle Buck” and “Home Alone.”

But offscreen, Candy was contending with anxiety and he was sensitive to people’s judgments about his size — remarks which often came directly from TV interviewers who thought nothing of asking him point-blank whether Candy was planning to lose weight.

When he and his sister watched archival footage of these interviews in the documentary, Chris Candy said, “It was, for both of us, uncomfortable. I wasn’t familiar with what he was putting up with and how he would mentally jujitsu in and out of those conversations. He got more and more curt about it as time goes on, and you can see it in the interviews.”

But these psychic wounds didn’t make Candy a cruel or nasty person; he simply absorbed the hurt and redoubled his efforts to be a genial performer.

“If you’re looking for darkness in the story of John Candy, a lot of it’s just internalized pain,” Myers said. “His own coping mechanism was radical niceness to everybody — making human connections so that he would have community and feel like he’s making things better.”

In the early 1990s, Candy seemed to be working nonstop. He appeared in five different feature films in 1991 alone, a year that included duds like “Nothing But Trouble” as well as a small but potentially transformative role in Oliver Stone’s drama “JFK,” where he played the flamboyant attorney Dean Andrews Jr. He was preparing his own directorial debut, a TV film called “Hostage For a Day” in which he starred with George Wendt. Candy also became a co-owner and one-man pep squad for the Toronto Argonauts, the Canadian Football League team.

Eventually, the many demands and stresses in his life came to a head. Amid a grueling shoot for the western comedy “Wagons East” in Durango, Mexico, Candy died on March 4, 1994. He had a private funeral in the Los Angeles area, followed by a public memorial in Toronto that prompted a national outpouring of grief in Canada.

“He represented the best of us,” Myers said. “He was a humanity-centric person. He brought vulnerability and humility to his characters, which is not something you usually see in broad comedy.”

Candy’s films continue to play on television and streaming — both “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “Home Alone” have become year-end holiday staples. But for the people involved in chronicling Candy’s life, there is a creeping sense that the actor’s legacy will not tend to itself, and that the generations who did not grow up with Candy might need reminders of what made him worth remembering.

Hanks recalled a story from the making of “I Like Me” where he and some colleagues were dining at a restaurant where the hostess asked them what they were working on.

“We said we’re making a documentary,” Hanks said. “ ‘Oh, really?’ she goes. ‘Who’s it about?’ It’s about John Candy. She goes, ‘Oh, who’s that?’ No idea who it was. I said, well, have you seen ‘Home Alone’? Remember the polka guy that picks up the mom and takes her in the van? ‘Oh, I loved him. He’s great.’”

Part of his interest in making a film about Candy, Hanks said, is “wanting to showcase the man that people love and remind them why they loved them.”

But there is also the simple pleasure in introducing Candy’s work to people who haven’t seen it before. “If you’re lucky,” Hanks said, “you get to hopefully have them go, ‘God, I want to see those movies. I want to go watch ‘SCTV.’”

KANYE West has resorted to paying wife Bianca Censori to wear her head-turning outfits, a source close to the couple has told The U.S. Sun. 

Bianca, 30, is never shy and has continually shocked onlookers with her barely-there outfits.

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BUSINESS PROPOSITION

But when she stepped out in New York City at the weekend in a scarcely believable candy bra and thong set paired with silver stilettos, Bianca took her wild wardrobe to the next level.

An insider, however, has told The U.S. Sun said that the controversial rapper’s “obsession” with outfit ideas for his wife has forced him to fork out up to $400,000 to make it all happen. 

The sugary set ended up costing Kanye $100,000, per the source. 

The source claimed the idea was pitched earlier in the week and Bianca refused point-blank unless her husband paid up.

Ye, added the insider, is dressing her up in the most extravagant outfits to not only keep his “edgy persona” firmly in the public eye, but to make sure everyone thinks “she’s the sexiest woman alive.”

It’s not the first time Bianca’s body has doubled as a billboard.

Last week in Los Angeles, she strutted through the streets in a sheer nude bodysuit with no bra and furry white boots. 

The outfit left little to the imagination—and jaws on the floor.

“Bianca has figured out how to turn all this into her advantage,” the source told The U.S. Sun. “A lot of the outfits aren’t to her taste. But she tells him she will wear them – if she’s paid.”

PAY TO PLAY

Kanye was reportedly upset initially but is now happy to oblige.

He allegedly wanted to offer his wife of two years a yearly salary. 

But the Australian born beauty prefers to be paid on a “per look or event” basis.

“She’s essentially monetizing her image,” added the source who believes she has made almost $3 million since the arrangement started and was paid $120,000 to join her husband in a naked dress at the Grammys in February.

Bianca allegedly draws the line at anything political and some ideas have been turned down.

She doesn’t want to be tied to some of the distasteful social media posts which have effectively seen Kanye cancelled in most parts of the world.

There was an alleged attempt to wear something with a political message tied to his disgraced friend Sean “Diddy” Combs – but it was shut down immediately.

But the 30 year-old knows just how valuable she is to keeping him relevant and in the spotlight. 

“She knows she’s essential to his image,” the source continued. “She wants her slice of the cake. She’s being smart about it.”

The U.S. Sun revealed in April that Bianca was being approached by numerous fashion houses to work in ambassadorial roles, only for the advances to be knocked back by Kanye. 

And we also disclosed earlier this month that she officially launched her first U.S. company, Bianca Censori Inc.

The paperwork was filed in California, but Bianca registered her full name as a business entity in her hometown of Alphington, one of Melbourne’s wealthiest suburbs.

“She knows exactly what she’s doing,” a second insider says. “She’s turning every outfit into a paycheck. Kanye’s obsessed with styling her, but she’s the one calling the shots. 

“Bianca is a celebrity in her own right now. The truth is he needs her. Without her bold looks and presence, people wouldn’t pay nearly as much attention to him. 

“She is in control and making serious money doing it.”

The U.S. Sun contacted a representative for Kanye and Bianca.

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La Super-Rica is a California original, a culinary mecca in a taco shack setting devoted to chile, cheese, charred meat and masa. It’s true that there are other Santa Barbara taquerias with more inventive salsas (pistachio at Mony’s) or adventurous cuts of meat (beef head, cheek or lip tacos at Lilly’s, with eye and tripas on weekends). And, yes, you will be standing in the fast-moving line with other out-of-towners who may have read about the long-ago accolades from Julia Child or spotted a replica of the white-and-aqua stand in Katy Perry’s “This Is How We Do” video. Yet as an Angeleno with hometown access to some of the world’s best tacos from nearly every Mexican region, I rarely pass the Milpas Street exit off the 101 without joining the crowd. My late husband and this paper’s former restaurant critic, Jonathan Gold, was a Super-Rica partisan, and both of my now-grown children remain loyal to the restaurant founded in 1980 by Isidoro Gonzalez. But it’s not nostalgia that brings me back. I’m here for the tacos de rajas, strips of pasilla chiles, onions and cheese melded onto tortillas constantly being patted and pressed from the snow drift of masa behind Gonzalez as he takes your order; for the crisp-edged marinated pork adobado, either in a taco or in the Super-Rica Especial with pasillas and cheese; for the chorizo, sliced and crumbled into a bowl of queso; or for the tri-tip alambre with sauteed bell peppers, onion and bacon. It’s never easy to decide, especially with Gonzalez’s board of specials. But I never leave without Super-Rica’s soupy, smoky pinto beans with charred bits of chorizo, bacon and chile.