John Candy Struggled with ‘Crippling Chronic Anxiety’ Documentary Reveals

As his career soared, the pressure of being John Candy really started to weigh heavily on him. 

By 1991, Candy was a successful movie star and co-owner of a Canadian Football League team. On the outside, he was on top of the world. In reality, he was fighting invisible battles.

“We talked a lot about his psychological health and the pressures that he had and was trying to learn what caused that in his life,” friend Kelvin Pruenster said in the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me.

In the documentary, friends and family candidly spoke about the struggles Candy went through in the final years of his life. In airports and on movie sets, he suffered panic attacks. 

“He started to have crippling chronic anxiety. He would have it for the whole day,” Pruenster said, adding that uneasiness sometimes kept the actor from sleeping. “He really suffered and needed to find out what it was about, and did not want to go the medication route. He wanted to understand what was happening to him.” 

In airports, he suffered panic attacks as fans mobbed him for pictures and autographs. 

“He was in therapy. He would share with me what he learned about the root of anxiety and what causes it,” Pruenster said. “People don’t talk about it, but so many people suffer from it.”

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Candy’s son, Christopher, went into treatment for himself as a direct result of his father’s struggles.

“I grew up with someone who was already a successful actor, who had made it. The thing that was so big and such a big secret was that he didn’t believe in himself,” his son says in the doc, later adding, “People keep their therapy private, or they used to, at least, and now a lot of people talk about it, but I’m very honored to say that my father is the reason that I’ve been in treatment. I’ve been able to work on myself because he went into therapy.” 

Steve Martin, who starred opposite Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, said he worried about his pal’s health. Rose Candy, the Uncle Buck star’s wife, said she often worried about the stress on his heart, primarily due to the actor’s large frame. 

When it came to changing his lifestyle, though, Candy wasn’t always ready. Eugene Levy recalled the Home Alone actor disassociating from a friend who worried about his weight.

“I remember John going through doctors like cigarettes,” friend Dave Thomas said in the documentary. “A doctor would tell him, ‘You gotta lose weight, you gotta stop drinking.’ John didn’t want to hear that.”

Candy died in 1994 at 43 after suffering a heart attack.

John Candy: I Like Me premieres on Amazon Prime on October 10.