Wilma Glodean Rudolph was born on June 23, 1940, in the St. Bethlehem section of Clarksville, Tenn., 45 miles north of Nashville, and grew up in Clarksville.
John Candy dies. The larger-than-life comedic star John Candy dies suddenly of a heart attack on this day in 1995, at the age of 43. At the time of his death, he was living near Durango, Mexico, while filming Wagons East, a Western comedy co-starring the comedian Richard Lewis.
That reaction is testament to Candyâs aura of boyish innocence. Before he died, he looked cherubic, rosy-cheeked, hardly a day older than he did in 1984âs Splashâbut he did not look healthy. Carrying some 330 lbs. on his 6â3â³ frameâand often smoking a pack of cigarettes a dayâCandy was tempting fate. His father, Sidney, a Toronto car salesman, had died of heart disease at the age of 35, leaving his wife, Evangeline, to raise 4-year-old John and his older brother, Jim, on her own.