By all accounts, the late comedic actor John Candy was a professional on the set of his many films. However, the “Canadian Bacon” star did get in some trouble on one of the most unlikely films, “Splash.” The Tom Hanks romantic-comedy about falling in love with a mermaid was the first film produced under Disney’s Touchstone brand and was concocted by up-and-coming director Ron Howard. Still, as the director would recount in Josh Gad’s YouTube series “Reunited Apart,” there was one day of filming that almost never made it onto the big screen, and it’s all Jack Nicholson’s fault.
“John, totally professional guy, but he’s late one day and he finally pulls up and rolls out of the car and he says, ‘Ron, I’m so sorry,'” says Howard. “I said, ‘It’s okay. You’re late, but we’ll get going.’ He said, ‘No, no, no. Look, I’m drunk. Here’s what happened, I’m telling you the truth: I’m at the bar and Jack Nicholson is at the bar. Jack Nicholson knew my name, Ron! And he starts buying me drinks.” Unfortunately, with filming continuing on “Splash” the next morning, Candy paid a price for his late-night run-in with Nicholson, “I never went to bed, Ron. I never went to bed!”
