John Candy | Mental Health & Personality | Life & Death

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the mental health and personality factors that may be at work in the life and death of john candy just a reminder of not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video so first i'll talk about the background of john candy and then i'll move to my analysis john candy was born in newmarket ontario canada on october 31 1950 halloween day he was raised roman catholic and would remain catholic his entire life his father died at age 35 when candy was only 5 years old his father died of a heart attack candy attended catholic high school in toronto where he was an offensive tackle on the football team he had hopes someday of being a professional football player a knee injury while playing high school football would eliminate that possibility he studied journalism at one college and transferred to another while there he took an interest in theater his first acting role was a play in 1971. in 1973 he guest starred on a television series which was made for children he would go on to have several minor and supporting roles in various television shows throughout the early and mid 1970s none of those really contributed too much to his fame his first major gain in popularity was because he became a member of the second city in toronto and appeared on second city television this was an improvisational theater many comedians and comedic actors would get their start on one of the second city operations including dan aykroyd eugene levy bill murray steve carell mike myers john belushi chris farley and amy poehler john candy married in 1979 he would have two children he worked on second city televisions for several years and was featured in a number of movies like the 1980 film the blues brothers and the 1981 movie stripes he hosted saturday night live just one time in 1983 candy was generally well regarded for his work on television but he wouldn't really achieve fame for his work in the movies until the 1984 movie splash was released after this it continued to be featured in a number of movies including armed and dangerous in 1986 and spaceballs in 1987. my favorite movies also in 1987 he starred in planes trains and automobiles which was one of his more successful films through the late 1980s and early 90s he continued to enjoy moderate success he had a cameo appearance in the 1990 film home alone and starred in only the lonely in 1991 a movie that did not perform well at the box office but it was actually not a bad movie two of his more successful movies from that time would have been rookie of the year and cool runnings both released in 1993. in march of 1994 john candy was filming the movie wagons east in durango mexico other people on the set noticed they looked tired he didn't seem to be feeling too well on march 4 1994 just a few hours after being in a scene in that movie john candy was found dead he was 43 years old no autopsy was performed but many run under the assumption that he died from a myocardial infarction a heart attack he had a number of risk factors including weighing somewhere around 275 pounds for much of his adult life a family history of heart disease as i mentioned his father died from a heart attack and candy also used substances now moving to my analysis john candy had a number of habits and conditions that may have contributed to a challenging life and ultimately to his death including binge eating and obesity he struggled with his weight for many years and endured a great deal of ridicule people were quite cruel to john candy people in the film industry and people on television they used his weight as an object of humor but he didn't find it funny at all it really hurt him deeply candy also used substances including a tremendous amount of alcohol he was described as a heavy drinker he started smoking at age 18 and would regularly smoke a pack of cigarettes each day he would occasionally use other drugs as well including cocaine he discontinued his use of illegal drugs long before his death but he had used them for so many years it seems reasonable to believe they had caused some damage in addition to weight and substance use problems candy faced a number of other challenges he did not handle criticisms about his weight very well as i mentioned he was described as insecure and sensitive on this topic he hired a personal trainer and would try to eat healthy foods but he would always slide back into bad habits so this cycle formed where he would attempt to overcome his challenges and he would have this setback and this would affect his mentality this would affect his resolve to continue on and try again so a lot of shame and guilt and this cycle that just keeps repeating we see this several times in his life candy was greatly affected by the death of john belushi in march of 1982. john belushi was a hero to john candy and the number of parallels between belushi's lifestyle and his own were not lost on candy luchi's death was a wake-up call this is when candy stopped using cocaine but it's also when he fell into a depressive state that was so intense he wouldn't leave his residence and would not answer the phone i find the impact of john belushi on john candy as interesting because belushi was also a role model for chris farley who died at the same age as belushi 33 years old john candy suffered from depression and severe anxiety by age 40 he was having panic attacks and sought the help of a mental health professional his weight increased from 275 to 330 pounds some of his anxiety may be attributable to his response to criticism again much of the criticism directed at candy was not reasonable it was based on his weight so again we see a lot of people being quite insensitive and on top of that candy was reacting to this criticism in a very negative way candy was also self-critical when he would watch his own movies he was his own worst critic he would see all his flaws he was judgmental of his own performance he would see all the opportunities where other people could make fun of him he would get intimidated and have to discontinue watching some believe that his substance use was a way to cope with this anxiety john candy discussed his anxiety openly in interviews which was encouraging to many other people who had anxiety all these factors obesity substance use anxiety depression the fact that he was unfairly criticized all these things came together to put him under tremendous stress despite these obstacles john candy was a productive and entertaining actor he was also a businessman specifically he owned a minority share in a canadian football team for a while he prioritized his family he loved animals he was always rescuing animals and he donated to many charities let's take a look at his potential personality profile when i conceptualize personality i often use the five factor model i remember the five factors to the acronym ocean openness to experience conscientiousness extroversion agreeableness and eroticism we see that john candy was high in openness to experience he was creative intellectually curious and adventurous although he was also traditional and that's associated with being a little bit lower on openness we see mid-range conscientiousness he was impulsive but he had a good work ethic so we see both high and low facets john candy appeared to be extroverted he was outgoing and friendly but he did not necessarily appear to have a lot of positive emotions it's hard to tell when somebody's using substances what their true emotions are in terms of positive or negative candy's level of agreeableness was high he was altruistic modest straightforward and trusting and we see his level of neuroticism was high he was vulnerable anxious depressed and had difficulty resisting temptation many premature celebrity deaths stem from overindulgence actors get too much money and too much fame too quickly candy seemed to have a slower progression in his career like there wasn't one moment where he just skyrocketed to fame and lost all control although he did indicate he got into drugs after joining the second city so that was a big shift for him in terms of his behavior being around those people and in that environment we see the introduction of illegal drugs into his life even still it seems as though his bad habits are more tied to anxiety and depression as opposed to a nosedive into hedonism i don't think he was overwhelmed by the celebrity lifestyle in the way that we usually see with these tragic stories i think it's more likely that his mental health factors were simply exacerbated by the stress that he was under anxiety is challenging enough on its own but when it's combined with the pressure to perform at a high level it becomes unbearable candy's way of dealing with the anxiety was through substance use and food consumption if somebody suffers from substance use problems for better or for worse there are a lot of celebrities they can identify with we see a lot of people in hollywood suffer from substance use problems for people who have anxiety and panic there really aren't that many celebrities who they could look at and say hey that person suffers from something that i can relate to john candy is one of the relatively few who openly discussed it candy fought against his anxiety he tried many times to stop using substances and to lose weight he did have a number of successes and he never completely gave up in the end however he had just too many setbacks he lost ground too many times his life and death are both a source of encouragement and a cautionary tale the last area i want to talk about are the anomalies that occurred in john candy's career some of them were just bad luck and others he contributed to some people look at john candy and think that even though he was famous he was really a much better actor than he was given credit for so how'd this happen why didn't he really get a massive break and go on to an incredibly high level of fame i think part of it could be explained by these anomalies i'll talk about here are a few examples john candy only hosted saturday night live one time on october 22 1983. the musical guest was men at work it was reported that he was considered many other times to be the host but they went with somebody else so john candy really didn't get the number of times as the host of saturday night live as did other people who were his contemporaries right so for his level of fame he should have hosted probably three four or five times during his career and instead we just see this one time he was also considered for the cast of snl but turned it down to stay on second city tv the next item would be what happened with the movie ghostbusters this movie was a massive success it helped the careers of everybody who started it candy was offered the role of lewis tully the nerd who became the key master even though candy was already well known this role would have really increased his popularity when candy read the script he didn't understand it he couldn't get his head around how to play the character he told the director that he could play the role as a german guy who had a bunch of german shepherd dogs the director passed because he didn't think this idea made any sense and rick moranis was selected for that part rick moranis did a great job in this role but i'm curious as to how john candy would have performed i think he would have really brought something original and interesting to that character as well the last career anomaly had to do with his final film wagons east this was the movie he was working on when he died as i mentioned it was completed after his death and released sometimes movies like this do okay even if they're not great because of the attention that the death of the celebrity brings to the film so the critics maybe take it easy a little bit and point out some of the strong features of the actor or actress who passed away and we see that people will go and see in the theater to support a beloved actor or actress who died this was not the case with wagons east it was a major flop at the box office it only earned 4.4 million dollars in addition it was not well received by the critics just to give a few examples of actors who died tragically and had their last film well regarded we see heath ledger in the dark knight the dark knight was a great movie paul walker in the fast and furious seven the movie wasn't too good but it was all right and i think it again attracted more attention because of paul walker's death and brandon lee and the crow the crow was an okay movie but again we see the attention because brandon lee died and i think in particular the fact that he was shot on the set and that's what caused his death that really led to a lot of attention john candy would get no such honor it's a shame that wagons east would be his final film and ignominious end to an otherwise great career despite this john candy brought joy to millions of moviegoers and television viewers over the course of many years he was i think one of the great comedic actors and there's a lot that can be learned from his life what can be done right to advance a career and areas to be avoided like addictive type behaviors those are my thoughts on john candy please put any opinions and thoughts in the comments section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be interesting thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

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Id: 72B36VcLCE0

Length: 15min 18sec (918 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021