Steve Martin, Laurie Metcalf and More Remember ‘Sweetheart’ John Candy 30 Years After His Death (Exclusive)

John Candy was always quick with a joke, but also quick to lend a helping hand.

The Canadian, who died of cardiac arrest 30 years ago, today at the age of 43, is remembered among friends and colleagues who say Space balls and Splash star was “just as beautiful as you’d want him to be,” to quote his ex SCTV and Home alone actress Catherine O’Hara.

“John’s comedy lives on, but my memory of him has the words ‘kindness’ and ‘sweetness’ in the titles,” Candy’s Planes, Trains and Cars Costar Steve Martin tells PEOPLE.

Those two qualities are what Laurie Metcalf remembers about Candy, who is survived by his wife Rosemary and their two children, Christopher and Jennifer.

Steve Martin and Jon Candy in ‘Planes, Trains & Automobiles’.

Paramount/Getty

The Roseanne the actress was relatively new to filming when she filmed the family comedy in 1989 uncle buckstarring Candy as a big-hearted man-child who babysits his brother’s three children when a family emergency arises.

Metcalf had a supporting role as nosy divorcee Marcia Dahlgren-Frost, who shamelessly flirts with Buck. “I have done almost no films. It was out of my comfort zone,” she says.

In one of the film’s climaxes, the highly advanced Frost gets a reluctant Buck to dance with her. But in real life, it was Metcalf who was nervous about dancing with Candy.

“What was helpful for me at the time was to drill the scene over and over again,” says Metcalf. “And I’m sure the last thing he wanted to do, after appearing in probably every frame of that movie, was spend time doing something over and over again before it was even shot.”

“But he was so patient and generous with me, and that’s what we did. We just worked on it together and had a lot of fun,” she continues. “And I think that sums up for me how big-hearted he was and how dear he was.”

“He just taught me a lot about how to be a great stage partner,” Metcalf says of Candy, who was adept at improv thanks to his days in the Canadian troupe Second City Comedy, as well as its spinoff television show. SCTV.

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

“I was scared to death to improve with him because I find it scary at first, but then to be faced with the possibility of doing it with a master? No,” she says. “So, I was very cautious about sticking to the script. And I think he picked up on me too. He was good at reading people and knowing what they would be comfortable with.”

While Metcalf shied away from improvisation, Richard Lewis, who starred with Candy in 1992. Once was a crime as well as the 1994 comedy Wagons east, actively encouraged Candy to show off her skills. (The actor and comedian spoke with PEOPLE just weeks before he died on Feb. 27.)

The cast of Once Upon a Crime, including John Candy and Richard Lewis.

Dirck Halstead/Getty

“When I hung out with him, I’d say, ‘Listen, John, just convince me that I’m a writer on SCTVand let me think [a scenario], and you do the voice, and you do the improvisation.’ And he said, ‘Okay,'” Lewis recalls.

“I would do things like, ‘I need a root canal and my dentist is out. And lo and behold, Montgomery Clift is my dentist and he does root canals, but he’s very sad because it bothers him that Marilyn Monroe died.’ I would say, ‘Action!’ and it would have made Monty Clift depressed if Marilyn had died and he was having a root canal,” says Lewis. “I was in comedy heaven.”

While Candy liked to make others wise up, he also appreciated hearing a little good humor.

“When you were with John, he did something that very few brilliantly funny and famous people do: He laughed at other people’s jokes,” says John Turtletaub, who directed Candy in the 1993 sports comedy. Cool running. “It’s actually a big deal. He made people feel welcome. He made people feel wanted.”

Directed by ‘Cool Runnings’ Jon Turtletaub and John Candy.

Buena Vista images / courtesy of the Everett Collection

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Candy didn’t just play pranks on famous people. As Catherine O’Hara recently told PEOPLE, he would also often interact with fans, using the two rules of improvisational comedy: “yes, and…” as well as “no, but…”

“People always say ‘yes, and…’ but ‘no, but…’ is just as important,” she explains. ” ‘Are you a doctor?’ ‘No, but I played one in commercials.’ He was the king of it.”

Richard Lewis and John Candy in ‘Wagons East!’.

TriStar/Courtesy of Everett Collection

“You’d be with him on the street, in the mall, and someone would come up and just want to do comedy with him, and he’d always get it right away and give something back and see their eyes light up. up, like, ‘Oh, I’m doing a little bit with John Candy,'” he recalls.

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Lewis says fans were often amazed. “It was like I was walking with the Pope in Rome when I was walking down the street with him,” he says. “People couldn’t believe they were in his presence. He really had that kind of swagger.”

The cast of ‘SCTV’ including Catherine O’Hara and John Candy.

Courtesy of the Everett Collection

But his swagger was not egotistical. As O’Hara says, he was simply kind.

“It’s so nice to be able to not have to invent a bull, because people loved it,” she says. “And when people ask, ‘What was he like?’ they want to hear what they think he would be like. And it’s so nice to be able to confirm their guesses.”

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