Catherine O'Hara had "such a crush" on the late John Candy.

The 'Argylle' actress was drawn to the comedian's kind and "lovely" personality when they worked together in the Second City comedy troupe in Toronto and later spin-off show 'SCTV', which ran from 1976 to 1984, but her feelings were never reciprocated by the 'Cool Runnings' actor - who died in 1994 - as he was already in a relationship with wife Rosemary.

She told People magazine: “He was just as lovely as you want him to be.

“I wouldn’t claim he was interested in me that way. But he was always really lovely to me in Second City Theater.”

The 69-year-old star joined the troupe in the 1970s after waitressing at the venue and John was always happy to give up his time to help her hone her skills.

She recalled: “He would always be willing to do an improv with me after the show. You do a show and then you do improvs after the show. That's how you build the next show at Second City Theater. And he was always willing to try any idea...

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

Catherine - who has two sons with husband Bo Welch - is happy she has nothing but good things to say about the 'Uncle Buck' actor.

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

“It's so nice to be able to not have to make up any bull, because people loved him. And when people ask, ‘What was he like?’ they want to hear what they think he'd be like. And it's so lovely to be able to validate their guesses about what he would be like in person.

"He was just so generous and larger than life. Maybe not larger, but [what] life was supposed to be."