He devoted his spare time to golf, motorcycling and painting. He was married to Mary W. McWalter, but they never had children. He died in 1935 in Aberdeen after several years of suffering from arthritis, despite which he remained active almost until his death. In 1933 he made a lecture tour of the US, and in 1934 he published the 7th edition of his book "Physiology and Biochemistry in Modern Medicine". After Banting's death in a plane crash in 1941, Best, with the help of his friends, continued to spread Banting's account of the discovery and tried to "write out" Macleod and Collip from the history books. Only in 1950 was the first independent revision of all sides of the story made, and it gave credit to all four members of the team. However, Macleod's public image remained tainted for decades after that. The 1973 British television drama "Comets Among the Stars", for example, portrayed him as dark and repulsive. The second dramatization of the discovery, "Glory Enough for All" (1988), at last portrayed him more objectively. By then it was commonly accepted that Banting's and Best's story was distorted, since more documentation had been made publicly available, and it made a precise reconstruction of the events possible. Until Best died, this documentation had been kept secret for over 50 years by the University of Toronto, whose administration wanted to avoid fueling the controversy. Macleod was a prolific writer. His first academic article was a paper on phosphorus content in muscles published in 1899. During his career he authored or co-authored over 200 papers and eleven books. Among them are:   John Macleod was a distinguished physiologist even before the discovery of insulin. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1919 and president of American Physiological Society in 1921. In 1923, Banting was awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh. Among the recognitions he received after 1923 were memberships of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, corresponding membership of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and honorary membership of the Regia Accademia Medica. His reputation in Canada remained under the influence of Banting's story for decades, so Macleod was not esteemed there. His contribution to science is now recognized by the broad public, even in Canada. The auditorium of the Toronto University Medical Research Center was named in his honor, as was Diabetes UK's award for patients who survive for 70 years with diabetes.