Andrew McCarthy Reveals the Surprising Real-Life Inspiration Behind His ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ Character

Andrew McCarthy has revealed that, as outrageous as he was, his Weekend at Bernie’s character was based on a real person he knew.

The St. Elmo’s Fire actor, 63, revealed in his new book, Who Needs Friends, that the inspiration for Larry Wilson — the somewhat bumbling man who spends the whole movie trying to make people believe the corpse of his boss is still alive and well — was based on an English teacher he once had.

“I met Eddie in high school. He was my English teacher for a semester during the fall of my senior year,” McCarthy writes, per Entertainment Weekly. “Having graduated from Columbia University just the year before, Eddie was seven years older than me — and a world more worldly.”

“While other teachers at school wore penny loafers and button-down shirts, Eddie cruised around in retro 1950s suits and skinny ties,” he continued. “He rode a motorcycle and lived in Greenwich Village — an exotic and distant planet from my nearby New Jersey suburb. I admired him hugely, but mostly from a distance.”

McCarthy explained that, although he didn’t mimic Eddie in personality, he quickly began dressing like him. He sported baggy clothes “procured from secondhand shops along 8th Street” and went to revival house movie theaters. However, perhaps his biggest eccentricity based on Eddie was his propensity to carry around a folded up newspaper in his back pocket.

“I would later adopt this look for my role in the movie St. Elmo’s Fire,” McCarthy explained, “and base my portrayal of my character in Weekend at Bernie’s on Eddie — if Eddie had been a complete idiot.”

Weekend at Bernie’s was a 1989 slapstick comedy about two corporate guys who go to their boss’ beach house only to discover he’s died. For their own purposes, they need people to believe he’s alive, so they spend the movie — and its subsequent sequel — keeping up that ruse.