John Candy felt like that neighbor you always wanted a beer with — warm, loud, full of stories, and somehow always dependable when you needed a laugh. In John Candy: A Life in Comedy, journalist Paul Myers takes us on a caring, expansive stroll through Candy’s life: his early sketch work, his rise through SCTV, the Hollywood hits, and the things that weighed on him even as he made others break up laughing.
The biography leans into Candy’s dual nature: the comic genius and the man behind it all. Myers traces Candy’s beginnings in Toronto, performing with Second City, his brilliant friendships with actors like Dan Aykroyd and Martin Short, and the towering influence of John Hughes. We get the glitz—Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, The Great Outdoors—but also the real stuff: anxiety, body-image struggles, homesickness, and that generational grief of losing his father young. Candy’s humor, Myers shows, was never just entertainment—it was something earned.
What stands out in this biography is Myers’ attention to the people who surrounded Candy: family, collaborators, even casual acquaintances. Their recollections paint a picture of someone who could be generous, messy, vulnerable, deeply human. There’s no letting Candy off easy—his mistakes, his ambitions, the toll of fame—all of it is in the mix. But the tone is affectionate, never maudlin. Myers seems to understand that Candy’s brightness was more powerful precisely because he fought to keep it shining.
