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What a shocker. It was a sudden death, of a heart attack while he was taking a walk in NYC. He was 59. The writer/director/producer will be remembered for his unique ability to speak to kids, tweens, teens and young adults with movies that became instant pop culture classics with such seminal films like Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Though the busy filmmaker’s career had gone quiet in recent years, his films shaped the 1980s and 1990s and early 2000s in a way few in Hollywood can claim. He leaves behind a rich legacy.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Great filmmaker. Films had heart and were funny without being a frat gross out festival.
“I knew John Hughes, and Mr. Apatow, you are no John Hughes”
As a child of ’80s I owe John Hughes a huge debt of gratitude for making wonderful films that were in many ways time capsules of a very special time in my life. I’ll be able to watch his films when I’m old and gray and remember what it was like to be a kid. Rest in peace, John. We will miss you.
His era ended a long time ago, but that’s more to our detriment than his. It’s too bad that either studios or audiences don’t have an appetite for that kind of filmmaking today–what I now think of as the pre-snark era. The 80s really were the last great stretch for comedy. Sad. We’ll miss you, John.
I can’t bear the idea of living in a world without John Hughes. He wrote the screenplay for my favorite movie of all time, National Lampoon’s Vacation, and for that I will always be grateful.
“The moose says you’re closed…I say you’re open!”
Brilliant man. God bless him.
So sad. John Hughes was a rare talent. I want to be the writer / director that he was. I grew up on his films. I still can recite Breakfast Club line by line.
I’m trying to refrain from crying while typing this.
For democracy’s sake, a dissenting voice: his films were puerile and facile, at best. That’s why teens liked them — you could check your brain at the door and just “feel.” Junk, and he knew it. That’s why he quit. You’re forgetting the critics pegged him early.
Compare his TV-ready pap with the films Hollywood routinely produced a decade before — challenging, thought-provoking films from directors who actually wanted to stretch. This guy…the Hallmark card of screenwriters/directors.
He also wrote Vacation, a treasured staple while growing up and still one of my all-time favorite comedies.
“Can I wash your back?”
“I’ve already done my back.”
“Can I do your front.”
“Go do your own front.”
Always thought it was interesting how after his phenomenal run in the 80s, he basically left the biz.
My all time favorite has been the Breakfast Club. I watched it again and to me it’s one of his best films.Seeing this time from being in front of the movie camera,I can see how he used this ensemble cast. After the 80s he disappeared. But regardless I’m going to miss him.
Go put his movies in your DVD player and compare his work to the pure remade garbage slopping out of Hollywood today.
Come on. He wrote some fine movies but some horrible Hollywood shit as well. Was anything worse than Home Alone 2 (and talk about remade? It was the same movie as Home Alone but not funny and not cute and just horrid)?
Pluto Nash, nice insight you have about John Hughes.
YOU ARE A MORON. I visited his sets as a kid. THE WORLD LOVED HIM. His crew loved him. His cast loved him. I think I even met him as a grown up TV exec at Disney in the 90′s. Legendary.
What do you do Pluto, work at a network? NBC????
Thank you John Hughes for being who you were. Without you, I would have been a lawyer.
“What would you do?”
“SHOWER WITH THEM.”
How could I forget WEIRD SCIENCE?! I must have watched this 30 times in high school.
The TEMPLATE for the high school “geeks get the girl” movie (except it was funny from start to finish).
Bill Paxton as Chet. ‘Nuff said.
I was a big Molly Ringwald and John Candy fan in the ’80s which made me a big fan of writer/director John Hughes. I also loved Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and still watch it even today. In fact, when I moved to L.A. 2 years ago, I was riding done San Vincente and Jeffrey Jones (Edward Rooney) was driving in the car next to me. He looked grumpy and he was hunched over the steering wheel just as he did in the movie. He glanced my way and our eyes connected for a moment as bits of dialogue and scenes from Ferris Bueller just flashed back at me in a surreal way. This must happen to Jones regularly because he just smiled and drove off. Priceless.
John Hughes genius was the right blend of comedy and angst (mostly the teenage variety). His movies defined an era and made me want to make movies. He will really be missed and my prayers and sympathies go out to his family. R.I.P.
1 of the best dialogue writers, crackling w/ flow & snap; almost up there w/ Hawks or Brooks.
This is indeed sad.
Thank you, Mr Hughes. You may not have tapped into my particular teen angst, but it was close enough for some laughs & much needed heartfelt enjoyment.
1 of the funniest monologues EVER–
I’m Buck Melanoma. Moley Russell’s wart. Not her wart. Not her wart! I’m… I’m the wart. She’s my tumor. My… my growth. My… uh, my pimple. I’m Uncle Wart. Just old Buck “Wart” Russell. That’s what they call me, or Melanoma Head. They’ll call me that. “Melanoma Head’s coming.” I’m s… uncle! Maisy Russell’s uncle!
“Those aren’t pillows.”
RIP
John — yes, I’ll go ahead and call him John — was arguably the only filmmaker to ever connect so deeply with a generation, with such commitment and dedication. I will always love and treasure much of his work. I consider many of his films old friends: Vacation; Sixteen Candles; Trains, Planes & Automobiles; Breakfast Club; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; Mr. Mom; Pretty in Pink; Some Kind of Wonderful; Uncle Buck; She’s Having a Baby…damn, I’m gettin’ misty eyed just thinking about ‘em.
PLUTO-WRONG-I WORKED FOR JH AND WAS PRES OF HIS COMPANY-I LIKED HIM A GREAT DEAL AND WAS FORTUNATE TO LEARN FROM HIM-HE WAS A MASTER-HE WANTED YOU TO TELL HIM THE TRUTH-IF YOU DIDNT-HE WAS VERY TOUGH-IF YOU GAVE HIM 100%-YOU GOT HIS RESPECT-SO-NASH-YOU BASICALLY DONT KNOW WHAT THE F*** YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT-ALAN RICHE
Let it not be forgotten that in addition to his film work, John Hughes was a brilliant writer for the National Lampoon, maybe its funniest ever, and contributed many of its best pieces during that once-great humor magazine’s second wind, 1977-1980.
In fact, “Vacation” the movie was first “Vacation ’58″ the magazine article, and for my money — and this is coming from someone who enjoyed the film version very much — the magazine article was better.
I think it’s a shame that these wonderful sentiments only come out after the man has passed and is unable to read them.
So many people (myself included) got into this business wanting to BE John Hughes, and yet none of the imitators have even gotten close.
To think the guy never got nominated for a single Oscar, and now they’re going to give out nominations by the dozen.
Before there was an “Edward”, there was a “Jake”.
RIP
She’s having a Baby is criminally underrated. And anyone who says he wrote ‘teen flicks with no brains’ should just watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles. A very talented writer.
So sad…
He found a way to tell interesting stories about suburban Chicago teen life. Growing up in the city of Chicago I had no idea what it must have been like to be from a wealthy suburb, not even close. It was like Mars to me. But watching his movies gave me a little glimpse of it, and I realized it wasn’t much different from what I knew. There where still the same internal problems us teens had to deal with that they did in the ‘burbs. (I know it’s a movie but it was very real). Maybe we had more crime we had to deal with, but kids are kids.(Bender would have gotten the crap kick out of him the first day)
Hughes helped show me that.
RIP big guy.
John Hughes, along with other comedy directors of the era such as Harold Ramis, John Landis, and Ivan Reitman, made the best comedy films ever. Why do the studios continue to hire first-timer video directors, short film directors, or all these other hacks that they perceive as “hot”. If they’d trust these REAL filmmakers with the good material, so many of these mediocre films would be far far better. Like what the hell were they thinking giving Brad Silberling “Land of the Lost”, or the first-timer who did “Fired Up”, and the list goes on and on. WAKE THE HELL UP STUDIO EXECS AND HAVE SOME BALLS.
What a bummer of a day. I feel like Del Griffith sitting at the train station at the end of PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES.
Great soundtracks, too.