Remembering Bill Erwin (1914-2010)

Bill Erwin with his dear friend John McCabe in 2001.

A year ago today, actor Bill Erwin passed away at the age of 96. This veteran of movies and television was born William Lindsey Erwin on December 2, 1914 in Honey Grove, Texas, USA. His earliest role was as a soldier in the movie 'You're in the Army Now' from 1941, starring Jimmy Durante and Phil Silvers. His more recent roles were in the tv series 'Monk', 'Everwood', 'My Name is Earl' and 'The King of Queens'.

John Candy fans will remember Bill's role as the man on the plane in 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', which role was, unfortunately, trimmed for the theatrical release in 1987. In a television version the complete role survives which is generally known as 'Airplane food' and was featured as a deleted scene on the 2009 Special Edition of 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'. Bill is fantastic as the hard-of-hearing elderly man, who is eager to receive yet another piece of food from Del Griffith (John Candy) of which Neal Page (Steve Martin) is too picky to eat.











Bill Erwin with Steve Martin and John Candy.

Kevin Bochynski, friend and fan of Bill Erwin, tells me: "Bill told me how much he enjoyed working with John. He said that John was much more than a comedian; he was a fine actor! And that he was wonderful to work with and was very kind to everyone on the set. Bill knew a good actor when he met one, so when he admired John Candy's acting ability it was a sincere and high compliment. Bill seems to have been a favorite of director John Hughes and appeared in four of Hughes's films". One of Bill's dearest friends was John "Jack" McCabe, the official biographer of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy and one of the founders of 'The Sons of the Desert', whom he visited often on Mackinac Island, Michigan where Mr. McCabe lived with his third wife Karen. Mr. and Mrs. Bochynski accompanied Bill on those trips.











Bill Erwin with John McCabe (left) and Kevin Bochynski (right).

I want to thank Kevin Bochynski for his spontaneous cooperation in providing photos and information about Bill Erwin and I would like to end by quoting Kevin: "I'm pleased that you want to mark the one year anniversary of Bill's passing. His 97th birthday would have been Dec. 2. What a remarkable career he had and what an extraordinary man he was!"

Source: Kevin Bochynski's Bill Erwin website.

Christmas greetings

Hohoho! On the last Sunday of the Advent I wish you all a merry and blessed Christmas!

During the holidays I would recommend you watch 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' (if you didn't already during Thanksgiving), 'Christmas with SCTV' (DVD), 'Only the Lonely', 'Home Alone', or 'Kavik The Wolf Dog'. 'The Unexpected' from 1981, the rather grim episode of the series 'Tales of the Klondike', is a possibility too.

Please keep John in your thoughts and prayers this Christmas.

A re-imagined poster of 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' by Sam Gilbey

Sam Gilbey, a wonderfully talented artist, recently finished this beautiful re-imagined poster of 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'. What a great composition! It really captures the spirit of this movie. For his illustrations, Sam combines various digital and analogue techniques. They have been featured on websites and television shows, as well as in books, comics and exhibitions, and also on a movie test shoot. For more information about Sam's work you can visit his website. To see details of the poster, visit this page. To order a print go here.

The poster was made for the screening of 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' today at 8.30 at the online cinema Stratford East, London Picturehouse (Picturehouse Podcast). Click here to read a post about the poster on the Picturehouse blog.

It's really good to see such wonderful attention for 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles'. Let's hope there will be even more attention next year, when the movie celebrates it's 25th anniversary.

'Cool Runnings' and deleted scenes

The above image is of a lobby card that is part of a German set. The photo on it is from a small scene in 'Cool Runnings'. At first I thought it was from a deleted scene, but watching the movie again refreshed my memory. As I said the scene is very small and easily to be forgotten, because in the movie much of it is seen on a small television screen. However, it did make me wonder once more why we have never seen deleted scenes from any of John’s movies as extra on a DVD other than ‘Airplane Food’ on the 2009 special edition of ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’. And this scene wasn’t even new to everyone because it was part of a television version of the movie. Let's hope future DVD releases will include deleted scenes as extra!

Canadians in Hollywood

In the March 2005 issue of Reader's digest you can test your knowledge about Canadians in Hollywood. Sorry, there's no prize..... but I have some great shower curtain rings on discount!

Tribute 1989 - Uncle Buck

For the June/July 1989 issue of Tribute, Jim Slotek had an interview with John on the set of ‘Uncle Buck’ in Chicago.

At the very start of the article is written that “John Candy has tended to come off as a Hardy-without-Laurel in recent years”. I guess John took that as a compliment, especially when you take into consideration that he mentioned Laurel & Hardy as two of his inspirators in an interview in Boxoffice of March 1991.

John praises John Hughes, the director of the movie ‘Uncle Buck’, and tells something about the title character. The interview also takes us back to the SCTV years and mentions ‘Radio Candy’ the comedy radio show John had just started. On the page next to the interview is an ad for 'Uncle Buck'.

Videomania 1985 - Brewster's Millions

Here's another nice item from my collection; an issue of Videomania from fall 1985, Canada's Number 1 Video Magazine.

Besides the wonderful photo of John on the cover, this magazine offers an article on the movie 'Brewster's Millions' to promote the MCA Home Video Release. For the most part it concentrates on Richard Pryor's career and the movie itself. However, John definitely gets positive attention in a paragraph too. He is praised for his work in 'SCTV' and his moviework. A wonderful photo of Richard and John accompanies this article.

61 years ago today...

61 years ago today our beloved John Candy was born. He left us much too early on March 4, 1994. Since then the world has become a less funny place.

Let's hope the interest in John will continue to grow. He deserves it, being a comedian and actor on par with all the other greats.

Jim Candy (1947-2011)

Jim Candy, John's older brother, passed away suddenly on April 16, 2011 at Toronto East General Hospital after a short battle with cancer. He was 64.

May Jim be reunited with his brother John and his other loved ones.

With thanks to Kevin Ducket. Source: Dignity Memorial.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all followers and visitors of this blog. May John be in your thoughts and / or prayers this Easter.

Remembering John

Today marks the 17th anniversary of John's passing. A sad day, ofcourse. I find comfort in the fact that it has been wonderful to receive so much e-mails the last two years from John Candy fans from all over the world! And from all ages too!

I had the honor to talk about John in an interview with Joe Burima from CJSW, an independent radiostation in Calgary, Canada. The interview is part of the program 'Today in Canadian History'. It will air today and you can listen to it on CJSW.com or on the Facebook page Today in Canadian History.

The best thing you could do today as a John Candy fan is to grab a bear and some chips and watch one of his movies or some SCTV episodes. Well, what are you waiting for?! You're on a plane? "Is there a movie on this flight?!"