NEED TO KNOW
Catherine O’Hara and John Candy first met in 1974, when he convinced her to audition for Second City Toronto
The actress, whose death at 71 was announced on Jan. 30, remained close with Candy through his death in 1994 at 43
O’Hara delivered Candy’s eulogy in a smart but emotional tribute that was part of his Toronto memorial service
Catherine O’Hara had a beautiful way of remembering John Candy.
Fans are looking back at the emotional eulogy O’Hara, whose death at age 71 was announced on Jan. 30, delivered, honored Candy with at his Toronto memorial in March 1994, twenty years after the two first met.
O’Hara began by acknowledging that everyone had their own story about the beloved actor, from the bellhop who helped with his luggage at a hotel to the parents of his children’s friends and everyone in between.
“I have my own story,” she began. “In 1974, I auditioned for John Candy, director of the Second City Touring company, and he hired me. Yeah, John Candy thought, oh, it was funny. The main cast, he drove us all the way to Chicago to play their Second City stage, and I had a crush on him, of course, but he was deeply in love with Rose.”
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“So, I got to be his friend and I closed the Chicago bars with him just to be with him. We did SCTV together when we all tried to come up with opening credits that would somehow tell the audience exactly what we were trying with the show to say about TV. It was John who said, ‘Why don’t we just throw a bunch of TVs off a building?’ “
O’Hara continued to describe her late friend’s kindness and generosity, joking about how he’d negotiate contract provisions for castmates, with the promise he’d skip out on his own. In the contracts, it would read a term, and then have an addendum that read, “With the exception of John.”
“The last time I got to work with John was on Home Alone. He could give them one day, so they took him for 17 hours of improvising,” she recalled.
Catherine O’Hara and John Candy in “Home Alone”
20th Century Fox
“John gave himself so completely to every role, big or small, not just because we all came to expect it from him, but because he loved doing it. He really had fun, and when hate laughed, he’d throw his head back and put his hand to his heart and let out welps, punctuated by these exhilarated silences. No, not the Johnny LaRue laugh. No, not the William B. William laughs. The real John Candy laugh.”
O’Hara noted that she hadn’t realized Candy’s impact on her life until she stopped to think about it.
“I realize when I think of John, it’s not in terms of details. I think of John in terms of the big picture. That is why we so mourn our loss, but we treasure it as well. John’s life had meaning John had principles. He lived by them. He worked by them. He set a good example in so many ways. He was a protector. He cared if he felt you’ve been wronged in any way, he risked everything to make it right, to make you know you were worth something, too. In a business that indulges the weaker souls where the insecure lend other words with far too much meaning,” she said, powerfully.
“John was a humble, sensitive man full of faith, who seemed forever grateful for his gifts and his time on this Earth. His movies are a safe haven for those of us who get overwhelmed by the sadness and troubles of this world. For those of us who aren’t sure which movies are really okay to take our children to, or even just those of us who don’t see a lot of movies and don’t want to waste our time and running when we do.”
John Candy, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin and Eugene Levy in 1983
John Mahler/Toronto Star via Getty
O’Hara celebrated the fact that there were so many pieces of John left to the world, both in the work he left behind and in the family who loved him.
She concluded, “God bless dear John, our patron saint of laughter. God bless and keep his soul. I will miss him, but I hope and pray to leave this world too someday. And to have a place near God as near as any other soul, with the exception of John.”
Fans are now revisiting the clip as they mourn not only each of these talented individuals, but an era in Canadian, and later, international comedy, that changed the game.
Read the original article on People