John Hughes
1950-2009
Today I was quite saddened to hear that Writer/Director John Hughes passed away. The man behind such 80s classics as; Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, along with penning the scripts to Home Alone and National Lampoon’s: Vacation and Christmas Vacation died earlier today from a heart attack while on a morning walk in Manhattan, he was 59 years old.
Regarded mostly for his films portraying teens in an affectionate and idealized fashion, often set in or around the Chicago area, John Hughes quickly gained a reputation as one of the most talented screenwriters of his time. Hughes’ various ensemble comedies helped propel such actors as Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson and Macaulay Culkin and frequently liked to cast the same actors, most notably Anthony Michael Hall and of course the late great John Candy.
He’d become somewhat of a recluse in his later years, rarely giving interviews of being photographed but with such a great body of work did he need to do anymore? I would of loved to see Hughes make a comeback film someday but perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be. Either way he’ll always be one of the greatest comedy writer/directors in my book and easily the greatest “Teen Movie” filmmaker of all time.