Laughing on the Outside: The Life of John Candy

Joyce M. Wilson is the Editor-in-chief of the Canadian Book Review
Annual.

John Candy was widely viewed as a comic genius, a successful movie star
(Splash; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Uncle Buck; Cool Running), a
sometimes less-than-shrewd businessman, and an all-around generous guy.
In this readable unauthorized biography, Martin Knelman, former film
critic for The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, confirms those
facts, chronicling Candy’s early life in Toronto, his days with the
Second City troupe and on SCTV, his career in Hollywood, and his
association with Bruce McNall and the Toronto Argonauts.

But the portrait Knelman draws of the lovable Candy attempts to depict
a darker side of the man (“in death he was in danger of being
imprisoned by the myth of Saint John”) based on the actor’s alleged
occasional drug use and love of partying. It is not surprising, then,
that those who knew John best—his wife, Rose; family members; SCTV
colleagues; and closest friends—would not contribute to this book, so
that Knelman had to look to less-central—even secondary—figures in
John’s life for primary material. Although this approach invariably
diminishes the book’s overall value, Candy fans should nonetheless
enjoy its gossipy anecdotes and four-page filmography.