John Candy believed he was living "on borrowed time."
On March 4, 1994, the comedic star was found dead of a heart attack while filming "Wagons East!" in Durango, Mexico. He was 43. The late actor is now the subject of a new documentary directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, titled "John Candy: I Like Me." It features numerous interviews with those who knew and loved Candy, including Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin and Catherine O’Hara. Candy’s children, Jennifer Candy and Chris Candy, serve as producers.
"The documentary highlights how he did think he was on borrowed time," Chris, 41, told Fox News Digital.
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"I remember Carl Reiner referred to it as a sort of Damocles swinging over his head. But I think for Jen and me, looking back [on] the work and the help that we’ve had for ourselves . . . it takes a lot of growing up to realize, ‘I can change things. I can grow. I can thrive. I don’t have to feel like I’m cornered.’ But it takes a lot of work."
"One of the main things that I really appreciate and take away from this film is that he really was trying to turn the boat around toward the end of his life," said Chris. "He was taking better care of himself. But it takes a long time to really do that effective work. And of course, we wish we had gotten more of that time. But the fact that the effort was there, the attempt was there on a real level, was, I think, the main goal of what we wanted to get out about our dad."
The documentary revealed that at the time of his death, Candy’s crippling anxiety was at its worst. He suffered an anxiety attack on the way to the set of "Wagons East!" but kept it to himself. Soon after, he died in his sleep.
"When I heard how they found him — that he had sat up on the side of the bed, opened the Bible and was reading from it before passing away — I remember thinking how he was trying to find home," recalled his close friend Don Lake in the film.
Chris told Fox News Digital that his father quietly struggled with his growing anxiety in his final years.
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"He never talked about it, but we knew it was happening," said Chris. "The anxiety was manifested in him so strongly. … My mom and he went to see a couples therapist, and then they went into their own therapy. And then it was like the kids needed to get into it. But this was part of self-care, like going to the doctor. And there are so many different methodologies for this type of work."
"But I also have to say, it doesn’t need to be therapy," he shared. "It’s just the concept of being open. It could be your best friend. It could be your partner. That’s another thing we wanted to get across. Jennifer and I got started a little earlier, and thankfully we did because I think it helped both of us become who we are."
Candy was haunted by a painful past. He was five years old when his father, Sidney Candy, died suddenly of a heart attack at age 35, days before the actor’s birthday. The film noted that there’s a family history of heart disease.
While Candy turned to performing to cope with the loss, the thought of death never left him. The film revealed that when his pal John Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982 at age 33, Candy was visibly shaken and frightened.
As his fame grew, so did the scrutiny around his weight. Jennifer, 45, told Fox News Digital that the film also aimed to show her father’s journey to self-acceptance.
"Like Del Griffith, he knows he’s imperfect," she said, referring to her father’s character in the 1987 film "Planes, Trains & Automobiles."
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Chris said that during production, he became a detective in his father’s life story. He was eight years old when the patriarch died.
"I think what was the most surprising . . . was realizing the connective tissue between me and my father," he said. "This idea of genes and inheritance and psychological inheritance and how there are so many things that he grappled with, how many things or behaviors of his that I feel on a day-to-day basis that I wasn’t aware that he felt."
"We joke about it, but I am notoriously 15 minutes late for things, or I’m very casual with time," he chuckled. "He had that same trait in his 20s and 30s. His friends called him ‘No-Show.’ My friends call it ‘Candy Time.’ That’s a small thing, but he wasn’t there to teach me to be that casual with time. It was moments like that where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, there’s so much that we have in common.’ And he wasn’t around to tell me to be that way."
In the documentary, Candy was depicted as a gentle giant — a hardworking, devoted family man who prioritized the needs of others over his own. Friends wondered if Candy knew his time would be short.
"I seem to recall him saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to make it past 35,’" Eugene Levy said in the film.
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Jennifer said she wasn’t surprised that Candy was considered Hollywood’s nice guy.
"I think that has to do a lot with his upbringing and his family," she explained. "The people he surrounded himself with were also very important. And being Canadian, people do joke about that.
"My dad’s family growing up had their flaws, but they were also, at the core, good people. They cared for each other and watched each other’s backs. Those core values stuck with our dad. He and our mom had very similar values. My mom also kept him grounded. And I think the way you treat people, it’s really important. You get farther that way in life."
As Candy later struggled with his mental health, friends were concerned about his worsening physical health. Candy was self-conscious about his weight, which was reported to be more than 300 pounds at one point. His widow, Rosemary Candy, described in the film how he tried to lose weight, only to be told by Hollywood executives to pack on the pounds for roles. She worried about how the stress of a grueling Hollywood schedule was impacting her husband’s heart.
Pals admitted that Candy often resisted advice. He still attempted to overcome his smoking, drinking, and overeating.
"I remember John going through doctors like cigarettes," friend Dave Thomas said in the film. "A doctor would tell him, ‘You’ve got to lose weight, you’ve got to stop drinking.’ John didn’t want to hear that."
Candy’s children didn’t just cry sad tears while making this film — there were plenty of joyful ones, too. For them, they witnessed a life cut short, but well lived.
Even Murray, 75, admitted, "I wish I had some more bad things to say about him, but that’s the problem when you talk about John. He was good to people."
One of Jennifer’s favorite moments was learning how Candy spent a night out with Jack Nicholson and then shot his racquetball scene in the 1984 film "Splash" while hungover.
"You can see in the film how he survived it — not very well," she chuckled. "And the fact that our dad said it only took three takes for him to get knocked on the head with a racquetball. Did he learn his lesson? Yeah. But if we were asked to party with Jack Nicholson, we’d probably say yes."