COMEDY star John Candy died a lonely man, pining for his wife and family. Ironically, the 43-year-old Hollywood actor, who had ballooned in weight recently, had put himself on a strict diet because he desperately hoped it would save him from sufferinga fatal heart attack. However, on the night he died Candy was also overjoyed about giving the performance of a lifetime in his latest movie, Wagons East.
The multi-millionaire star of such hits as Uncle Buck, Home Alone and Cool Runnings, Candy had shed about 30 kilograms after starting his high-protein liquid diet and often joked with his fellow cast and crew about his weight loss.
'He was the thinnest I'd ever seen him,' said co-star Richard Lewis, who had worked with Candy on the 1992 movie Once Upon A Crime. 'John said to me, 'I've lost one man. Now I am aiming to lose two more'.' The 1.9-metre tall Candy weighed about 180 kg - the heaviest he had ever been - before embarking on the diet of protein power mixtures and mineral water just before filming began on Wagons East in Mexico. By the time he died, on March 4, in a hilltop house on the outskirts of Durango, Mexico, he was down to 150 kg, despite occasionally breaking his strict regime to binge on junk food and potato chips washed down by beer.
He had even installed a gym so he could work out daily.
Experts said Candy, who made about 37 movies in his 22-year career, had risked his life by going on the ultra-low-calorie diet without constant medical supervision. In the weeks before his death he had imported 365 kg of the high-protein powder from the United States into Mexico.
'There has to be a careful watch because it's possible not only to starve the patient but to starve the heart to death,' dietician Sarah Keuster said.