Daryl Hannah Was Working on a John Candy ‘Love Story’ When He Died: ‘He Would’ve Been My Romantic Lead’ (Exclusive)

Daryl Hannah remembers her late colleague John Candy – and their project that could have been.

“What a great man,” she tells PEOPLE when asked about the March 4 anniversary of his death. “He was so wonderful.”

On the set in 1984 Splash, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, Hannah, 63, remembers Candy as “such a bundle of warmth and light and humor, just wonderful. I just loved him.”

John Candy’s children pay touching tribute to their dad 30 years after his death: ‘I miss you and love you always’

Hannah played Madison, a mermaid who comes ashore and disguises herself as a human to return the wallet of Allen, played by Hanks. Eugene Levy played con artist Dr. Walter Kornbluth, while Candy played Freddie, Allen’s boisterous and womanizing brother.

Reflecting on Candy’s loss 30 years later, and 40 years after they bonded on set, “is so sad,” says Hannah. When she’d be half-submerged during her lunch break, weighed down by her elaborate mermaid tail, “John would come and pop a little French fry in my mouth,” she remembers.

(L-R:) Eugene Levy, Tom Hanks and John Candy in “Splash.”

Cinematheque/Shutterstock

Their friendship continued after filming the rom-com hit about a boy who meets a mermaid. In 2016, Hannah described Candy as “a tear-jerking, piss-your-pants funny” Empire.

As we worked together, she recalled, “I would sit on his lap all the time and he would speak for me and I would mimic what he said like a ventriloquist puppet. He would answer my questions in interviews.”

John Candy ‘Overdid It’ with Jack Nicholson the night before filming Splash The racquetball scene, the producer recalls

I had Space balls and Cool running star didn’t tragically die of cardiac arrest at the age of 43, Hannah tells PEOPLE that the two would work together again — with many of the same team members from Splash.

“Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel wrote the screenplay,” she says of the two screenwriters Splashwhich received an Oscar nomination for the film.

The project “was something I kind of made up,” says Hannah, “a kind of love story.”

Candy, she adds, “would be my romantic role.”

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(L-R:) Eugene Levy, Daryl Hannah, Tom Hanks and John Candy in “Splash.”

Cinematheque/Shutterstock

Catherine O’Hara recalls her ‘crush’ on friend John Candy: ‘He was always very nice’ (Exclusive)

Candy is survived by his wife Rosemary and their two children, Christopher and Jennifer. On the 30th anniversary of the Canadian star’s death, fellow actors remembered him as a generous collaborator and friend.

“He just taught me a lot about being a great scene partner,” Laurie Metcalf, who starred with Candy in the 1989 film. uncle buckhe told PEOPLE.

“I did almost no films,” she added. “He was good at reading people and knowing what they would be comfortable with.”

“John’s comedy lives on, but my memory of him has the words ‘kindness’ and ‘sweetness’ in the titles,” said Steve Martin, a colleague from 1987. Planes, Trains and Cars.

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