Out of all the actors that have come and gone, not many comedic actors are as sorely missed as John Candy, who was born on this day in 1951 and would have turned 60 today.

John Candy

John Candy was undoubtedly one of the most well-known and well-respected comedic actors of the 80s and 90s, together with actors like Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd. In some ways, the five of them represent the best laughs that I had during that decade, the best movies and the most enjoyable time spent in front of the television. While the other four are still making movies and television, John Candy is sadly no longer with us. Who knows what sorts of things he would have been making had he lived to an older age?

When I mention John Candy to people, it seems that he’s best remembered for two very specific roles; Barf on Spaceballs and Del Griffith on Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Both roles are iconic and can well be considered to be his breakout roles. Less well known is the fact that he was meant to be Louis Tully on Ghostbusters, a role that later went to fellow Toronto-born Canadian 80s comedian actor Rick Moranis - who famously played Dark Helmet Man on Spaceballs.

John Candy’s comedic career began to wane in the early 90s as movies like Nothing But Trouble and Delirious failed to reproduce the successes he’d had in the 80s. In an attempt to reinvent himself, he began searching for more dramatic and meaningful roles than the “jolly fat man”-roles that he had taken in years past. His role as Dean Andrews, a shady Southern lawyer in Oliver Stone‘s JFK was one of those roles, as was his role as Danny Muldoon, a Chicago cop with an overbearing mother in Only the Lonely.

His last full-length movie would be Canadian Bacon, the only non-documentary by director Michael Moore. He died at the young age of 43 on March 4th, 1994, suffering a heart attack in his sleep.