Crushes can be fun, but sometimes they are unrequited. This was the case for Catherine O’Hara. She had a thing for her friend the late John Candy but he only had eyes for the woman who would eventually become his wife. Catherine confessed her feelings to People.
Beyond Catherine’s crush, the pair worked together on the hit film Home Alone and in the improv world together. John was always willing to help Catherine out. She has nothing but fond memories of their time together.
John and Catherine worked together at improv venue Second City in Toronto, Canada. They were both members of the troupe and its spin-off show, SCTV, from 1976 to 1984. “[John] was just as lovely as you want him to be,” Catherine gushed.
By the time Catherine and John met, he was already dating Rosemary Hobor, the woman who would become his wife. “I wouldn’t claim he was interested in me that way,” Catherine explained. “But he was always really lovely to me in Second City Theater.”
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John helped Catherine become better in her improv work. She worked her way up at Second City, starting out as a waitress. “He would always be willing to do an improv with me after the show,” she recalled. “You do a show and then you do improvs after the show. That's how you build the next show at Second City Theater. And he was always willing to try any idea.”
John taught Catherine some valuable lessons, including the importance of "No, but…" This is advanced improv. "People always say 'yes, and…' but 'no, but…' is just as important," Catherine mused. "'Are you the doctor?' 'No, but I played one in commercials.' He was the king of that."
John was also always so generous and kind to his fans. “You’d be on the street with him, in a mall, and somebody would come up and just want to do a comedy bit with him, and he would always pick up on it right away and give something back and see their eyes light up, like, ‘Oh, I’m doing a bit with John Candy,’” Catherine explained.
She loves telling people that John was just as good of a person as you can imagine. There was no pretending. “It's so nice to be able to not have to make up any bull, because people loved him,” she went on to say. “And when people ask, ‘What was he like?’ they want to hear what they think he'd be like. And it's so lovely to be able to validate their guesses about what he would be like in person.”
Catherine would go on to find love of her own. She met her husband Bo Welch, a director and production designer, on the set of the movie Beetlejuice. John died in 1994. Catherine misses her friend dearly but holds on to her many fond memories of him.
