John Candy made broad comic characters feel worth knowing. We value his timing and the vulnerability beneath their good nature, though too many parts relied on his physical presence when they needed to give him something better to do.
Fi1m perspective
John Candy is often the affable man in a broad comedy, and he gives that familiar figure particular care. His timing lets the good nature survive the jokes. We warmed to Gus Polinski in Home Alone (1990), because Candy's polka-band persona makes the friendliness funny without making it foolish. It is a small part, and a useful measure of what he does well.
The supporting parts in The Blues Brothers (1980) and Splash (1984) helped establish him in film comedy. John Hughes then gave him Del Griffith in Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) and Buck Russell in Uncle Buck (1989). Beside Steve Martin in the former, his warmth and timing had room to carry a central character. Hughes's comedies also gave the vulnerability in his acting a more substantial place than the familiar comic-sidekick casting allowed.
That matters in Home Alone, where Chris Columbus encourages the sentiment more than it needs. Candy's cameo draws on his SCTV polka-band persona, bringing a sketch performer's quick definition of a character to a family comedy. We recommend the film for its laughter, with Macaulay Culkin doing the central work; Candy is one of its smaller pleasures. He does not need a leading role to make an impression.
In Oliver Stone's JFK (1991), his role as Dean Andrews, a New Orleans lawyer, puts that comic familiarity to a different use. The part required dialect work and preparation, and gives us grounds to question the narrow casting elsewhere. We recommend the film for its astute casting and forceful editing, though its confidence exceeds its evidence. It is worth seeing him in a film that asks for something beyond comic reassurance.
The limitation is repetition: too many parts return to the same affable man and make the same use of his size. That is a criticism of the casting as well as the actor, but it still narrows what we get to watch. We would not use his warmth as an excuse for every film around him. Start with the Hughes films if a memorable cameo leaves too little time in his company.
Biography
John Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He began his career with the Toronto branch of The Second City and its television spin-off SCTV, before moving into feature films.
He appeared in The Blues Brothers (1980), Splash (1984), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Uncle Buck (1989), Home Alone (1990) as Gus Polinski, JFK (1991) as Dean Andrews, and Cool Runnings (1993). Candy died of a heart attack on 4 March 1994 while filming in Mexico.
