John Candy’s Biographer Claims That He Would Have Won an Oscar Had He Lived

To this day, one of the most heartbreaking tragedies in the history of comedy is the death of John Candy. The Uncle Buck star was just 43 years old when he succumbed to a heart attack while filming the Western spoof Wagon’s East.

Making his passing all the sadder is the sense that Candy clearly had a lot more to contribute to the entertainment world — even beyond the last few minutes of Wagon’s East, which were unconvincingly stitched together using old takes and early ‘90s computer technology.

Candy’s life is now the subject of a new biography by Paul Myers (brother of Mike), who previously tackled the subject of iconic Canadian comedians in the book The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy. Myers’ John Candy: A Life in Comedy doesn’t come out until October, but the author recently chatted with People about the project, and suggested that Candy’s career would have reached new heights if he hadn’t passed away.

“He wasn’t just a great comedian, he was a gifted actor, who could have won an Oscar someday, had he lived,” Myers declared. He did, at least, get to present at the Academy Awards in 1988. Since it coincided with the WGA strike, and Candy was a member of the union, he couldn’t actually write any remarks, and instead outsourced the job to his eight-year-old daughter.

The Academy Awards don’t often reward comedic performances — otherwise Candy would have already become the first actor to ever win an Oscar for playing a character named “Barf” — so presumably Myers means that he would have given an Oscar-worthy dramatic performance. 

This doesn’t really seem like too much of a stretch to imagine, considering that so many of Candy’s best comedies also featured weighty scenes. Most obviously, there’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles; even before the heartbreaking ending, Candy has some pitch perfect dramatic moments.

Similarly, Uncle Buck just wouldn’t be the same without the fractious relationship between Buck and his eldest niece Tia.

And it’s not like Candy never made any serious movies. One of his earliest gigs was a supporting role in the underrated Canadian crime drama The Silent Partner, starring Elliott Gould and Christopher Plummer. 

He also had a small, but wonderfully memorable role in Oliver Stone’s JFK, playing New Orleans lawyer Dean Andrews Jr. According to Laughing on the Outside: The Life of John Candy by Martin Knelman, Candy was nervous about taking on a “dramatic role in a serious movie.” And those fears were nearly vindicated by Stone, who tried to cut Candy out of the movie altogether. Candy was “devastated” until Kevin Costner “argued vehemently” with Stone, and convinced him to leave Candy’s role in the final cut. Stone ended up sending the comedian a “handwritten letter of apology.”

The same year as JFK, Candy starred in Only the Lonely, which has just as much drama in it as it does comedy. Plus, it’s a remake of the 1951 film Marty, for which Ernest Borgnine won the Academy Award. But Candy wasn’t so much as nominated.

At least Candy’s lack of Oscar recognition retroactively makes his Orson Welles impression even more accurate.