John Candy: I Like Me ending explained: How did John Candy die? 

The new documentary John Candy: I Like Me provides viewers with an in-depth glimpse of the life, challenges, and dying days of one of Hollywood's best-loved comedians. Directed by Colin Hanks, the documentary opened on September 4, 2025, as the opening night feature at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Candy's children, Jennifer and Christopher Candy, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney were in attendance.

The documentary, currently available on Amazon Prime Video, follows John Candy's ascension, from his early television days on Second City Television to Hollywood legend, and exposes the physical and emotional struggles that consumed his final years.

John Candy: I Like Me is greater than a eulogy; it's an intimate profile in rare archival material, home movies, and moving interviews with those closest to him. The film includes appearances by Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Mel Brooks, and Tom Hanks, among others.

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What happens in John Candy: I Like Me?

The documentary chronicles John Candy’s remarkable journey from a young Toronto comedian to one of the biggest comedy stars of the 1980s and early 1990s. Through footage from SCTV, Uncle Buck, Splash, Home Alone, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, John Candy: I Like Me paints a picture of a performer who could make millions laugh while hiding his own pain behind the scenes.

Interviews with friends and relatives show a man whose generosity and compassion extended to all those around him, but whose personal demons became more onerous as his fame grew.

Candy's wife, Rosemary, and his children, Jennifer and Chris, discuss his issues with anxiety, weight, and the suffocating pressures of Hollywood. His son characterizes him as a man with a mind that was overweight, not only burdened by material concerns but with profound anxieties and insecurities.

Colleagues remember Candy's endless work ethic and his devotion to the people around him. However, as his career expanded, so did his inner struggles.

His wife opens up in the documentary that the business did not always encourage him to try and lose weight, but rather encouraged him to keep his physicality as part of his humor persona. The perpetual struggle between who he was and who the world expected him to be left a lasting imprint.

John Candy: I Like Me is also filled with tribute from Dan Aykroyd, who gives a moving eulogy invoking Candy as a grand man, and from Steve Martin, who reminisces about their experiences in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

Director Colin Hanks employs these voices to construct a profoundly human story, a one that honors Candy's wit while unapologetically examining his vulnerability.

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How did John Candy die at the end in John Candy: I Like Me?

John Candy: I Like Me (Image Via Amazon Prime Video)

The most sentimental segment of John Candy: I Like Me returns to the last days of Candy's life, during production on Wagons East! in Durango, Mexico, in early 1994. From interviews with his close friend and co-star Don Lake, the film reveals new insights into how the actor's physical and emotional fatigue reached its peak during that shoot.

Shooting in Mexico was tough. The location was rural, the weather sweltering, and Candy grew increasingly frustrated with the film's production. Alone from his family and suffering from chronic anxiety, he could not cope.

Lake remembers Candy attempted to conceal his deteriorating health from the cast and crew so that production would not be slowed down. With a nutritionist accompanying him and trying to control what he ate, his health still weakened.

Candy had fought weight and cardiac problems for years, a condition exacerbated by heavy alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and stress. He frequently confided to those around him that he was afraid of dying young, just like his father, who died of a heart attack at 35 when Candy was five.

In John Candy: I Like Me, this nagging parallel is told by both his family and friends, who tell of Candy as if he were living on borrowed time.

His wife, Rosemary, describes a spine-tingling dream she had just before his death, one that equated to her fear of losing him. Unfortunately, that nightmare became reality soon enough.

John Candy passed away on March 4, 1994, in his sleep due to a heart attack in Durango, Mexico, at the mere age of 43. Don Lake remembers how Candy was discovered alone in his room, a tragic fate for a man who had devoted his life to tending to everyone else.

The film concludes with insight from those who cherished him most. They recall not only his laughter, but also his humanity, his profound empathy, insecurities, and aspirations to bring others joy even when he couldn't.

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Interested viewers can watch John Candy: I Like Me on Amazon Prime Video.