Home Alone star Daniel Stern took to Twitter to share an emotional letter to his longtime friend and co-star John Heard, who died Friday.
Stern, 59, told fans that he knew Heard as far back as the early ’70s, long before the movie for which both actors became best known.
Stern played one half of the Wet Bandits, Marv, while Heard played family patriarch Peter McCallister in the 1990 Christmas film classic.
When he heard the sad news that John Heard died suddenly at the age of 72, Stern wrote an emotional letter, which he posted to Twitter.
In it, he detailed their history together and the side of an actor even many longtime fans of his work probably aren’t familiar with.
“John Heard was the coolest cat in New York City for about 10 straight years, 1974-1984,” Stern, who also starred in City Slickers, wrote.
“Ask anybody who was there then. Every actor wanted to be as intense as him, every woman wanted to sleep with him.”
“He was defiant, he was poetic, he was ridiculously generous,” Stern said of his friend, “and he was charismatic as hell.”
Stern explained that he met Heard the day he moved to New York City to become an actor, and that John changed his life as a result.
“John was the very first person I knew to be in a movie,” he wrote. “It had never crossed my mind that that was a thing you could do.”
“I was a theater rat in high school,” Stern says, “and New York only meant trying to be a professional actor in the theater.”
After Heard invited Stern to a showing of his 1977 movie Between the Lines, the Maryland native realized that he, too, could do films.
Early on in his career, Stern and his wife, Laure Mattos, were plagued by financial troubles; Heard helped out whenever he could.
“We were amazed that he had that kind of cash to throw around,” he said of Heard, who frequently treated them to dinners out.
“It was so sweet over the years to have our family and home become a place of ‘normalcy’ in John’s otherwise frenetic life.”
“He so loved having his ‘kid brother’ do good and thrilled at our kids’ accomplishments,” he said of their lasting friendship.
Stern notes that many obituaries have referred to him as “Home Alone actor John Heard” when he was so much more.
As Stern admitted in his letter, which appears below, “What’s funny is I never remember that John is even in that movie.”
“I’ve only ever really watched it once, and he and the family were all so great in it. But we never had any scenes in it together.”
“We only crossed paths on the set once or twice.”
Even remembering him only as an actor wouldn’t do him justice, his friend said, because of the simple but profound way he lived.
“Nothing was more intense than John’s performance in life,” Stern concluded his tribute. “He lived it hard, fast and fearlessly.”
“He was a romantic and a raconteur.”
“He was as loyal and generous as they come. He was a friend and a brother and a legend in his time. RIP John.”
As for his passing, various reports regarding Heard’s cause of death have surfaced, but nothing has been concluded definitively.
Our thoughts go out to his loved ones and friends at this difficult time, and we thank Daniel for sharing his wonderful letter.
