John Franklin Candy October 31 1950 March 4 1994 was a Canadian actor and comedian He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto Ontario branch of The Second City its related Second City Television series and in his role in comedy films such as Stripes Splash Cool Runnings The Great Outdoors and Uncle Buck One of his most renowned onscreen performances was that of Del Griffith the loquacious on the move shower curtain ring salesman in the John Hughes comedy Planes Trains and Automobiles Description above from the Wikipedia article John Candy licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia