During the 1980s and 1990s if you wanted a comedy making you phoned John Candy. The larger-than-life actor was everywhere from 'Stripes' to 'Uncle Buck,' but was probably best known for 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles.' Candy was a huge man with a huge presence to go with it, but being such a physically large human being had negative consequences for his health.
Candy was morbidly obese for his whole adult life. He was also known to smoke and drink heavily, and had been an infrequent user of cocaine. When you also take into account that his family had a history of men dying young from heart attacks, his fate seemed to be written in stone. He suffered a fatal heart attack on the set of 'Wagons East' - from which this picture was taken - in 1994 at 43 years old. The movie was completed using a stand-in and special effects, and was dedicated in his memory.