For Daryl Hannah, working with John Candy on the 1984 film Splash was a life-changing experience.
“What a great man,” she told People on March 15 of her rapport with the late star. “He was just so lovely.”
The pair worked together on the comedy film, which was directed by Ron Howard and starred Tom Hanks and Eugene Levy. Daryl, 63, portrayed a mermaid named Madison, which required her to wear a mermaid tail.
Throughout filming, John would “come by and drop little french fries” in Daryl’s mouth as the mermaid tail limited her mobility on set. The Steel Magnolias actress remembered the comedian as “such a beam of warmth and light and humor, just wonderful,” adding, “I just loved him.”
Daryl loved working with John so much that she had another project in the works with him.
“Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel were writing the script,” she said of the film, which was “sort of a love story.” Had the project come to fruition, John would’ve been Daryl’s “romantic lead.”
John died on March 4, 1994, at age 43, after suffering a heart attack. Years after his tragic passing, Daryl has not forgotten all of the memories made on the Splash set.
“I just absolutely adored him,” Daryl told Empire in May 2016. “He was just so full of heart and soul, and so hilarious. Tears-coming-out-of-your-eyes, pee-your-pants hilarious.”
“I used to sit on his lap all the time and he would talk for me and I’d mime what he was saying like a ventriloquist doll,” she added. “He’d answer questions for me in interviews.”
The Uncle Buck actor’s family, friends and costars remembered him on the 30th anniversary of his death this year.
“He was the best dad,” John’s daughter, Jennifer Candy-Sullivan, told Today.com. “He’d say, ‘Don’t worry what people think about you. Just be your authentic self.’”
“The other thing about my dad, is that he was the ultimate family guy,” she added. “That’s the reason he didn’t want to do Saturday Night Live. He knew the lifestyle wasn’t going to be healthy for him. He was smart in that way.”
In addition to Jennifer, John was also a dad to son Chris Candy, whom he welcomed with wife Rosemary Margaret Hobor. Chris shared his own tribute to his late father on his Instagram account on the 30th anniversary of his death, writing, “All my love to my father today. #johncandy.”
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