A Boy from Toronto
John Franklin Candy was born in Newmarket, Ontario, on October 31, 1950. He came from a working-class Roman-Catholic family. His British father, Sidney James Candy, earned a living as a car salesman in Toronto. His mother, Evangeline Candy, was Polish. When John was only five years old (his brother Jim was six), the family felt their first pang of tragedy.
Photo by Keith Beaty / Toronto Star / Getty Images
Sidney died suddenly of heart disease at the age of 35, forcing his mother to move her and the boys to a small bungalow in Toronto, which they shared with John’s grandparents and aunt, to make ends meet. As John grew up, the knowledge of his father’s heart disease was always present.