John Hughes, the celebrated writer and director who masterfully captured the teenage experience of the 1980s in beloved movies such as “The Breakfast Club,” “Sixteen Candles,” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” has died. He was 59 years old.
Hughes, who had retreated from the Hollywood spotlight over a decade prior and resided on a working farm in Northern Illinois, passed away on Thursday from a heart attack. The incident occurred during his morning walk in Manhattan while he was visiting family in New York, according to his spokeswoman Michelle Bega.
Emerging from the worlds of advertising and National Lampoon writing, Hughes became a defining figure in 1980s comedy. He was particularly known as a teen movie auteur who deeply understood the complexities of adolescence, often highlighting the stories of outcasts and geeks.
Matthew Broderick, who famously played Ferris Bueller in the 1986 hit comedy “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” expressed his sorrow: “I am truly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend John Hughes,” Broderick stated on Thursday. “He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family.”
Macaulay Culkin, the star of the Hughes-penned 1990 comedy “Home Alone,” also shared his condolences. “I was a fan of both his work and a fan of him as a person,” Culkin said. “The world has lost not only a quintessential filmmaker whose influence will be felt for generations, but a great and decent man.”
Before becoming a director, Hughes had already penned successful comedies like “Mr. Mom” and “National Lampoon’s Vacation.” His directorial debut came with “Sixteen Candles” in 1984, starring Molly Ringwald as a high schooler whose 16th birthday is forgotten by her family.
Ringwald was a prominent member of the “Brat Pack,” a group of young actors and actresses who rose to fame through Hughes’ films. This group also included notable names such as Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, John Cusack, Emilio Estevez, Robert Downey Jr., and Judd Nelson.
In response to the news of Hughes’s passing, Ringwald stated she was “stunned and incredibly sad.” “He was and will always be such an important part of my life,” she said. “He will be missed — by me and by everyone that he has touched.”
Hughes articulated his perspective on teenagers in a 1985 interview with film critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune. He observed that many filmmakers “portray teenagers as immoral and ignorant with pursuits that are pretty base. They seem to think that teenagers aren’t very bright. But I haven’t found that to be the case. I listen to kids. I respect them. I don’t discount anything they have to say just because they’re only 16 years old.”
While Hughes’ films often depicted teenage struggles with a blend of drama and humor, his characters resonated deeply with audiences due to their emotional honesty and relatability.
His teenage characters were often portrayed as highly self-aware, articulating their social positions and high school hierarchies with an almost adult-like understanding. This unique portrayal of adolescence profoundly influenced subsequent generations of writers and directors.
Comedy writer-director Judd Apatow acknowledged Hughes’s pioneering role in blending humor and heart. Speaking to The Times in 2008, Apatow noted, “John Hughes wrote some of the great outsider characters of all time. It’s pretty ridiculous to hear people talk about the movies we’ve been doing, with outrageous humor and sweetness all combined, as if they were an original idea. I mean, it was all there first in John Hughes’ films.”
Upon hearing of Hughes’s death, Apatow stated, “I felt like a part of my childhood has died. Nobody made me laugh harder or more often than John Hughes.”
Film critic Elvis Mitchell, writing about Hughes in 1999, emphasized his unique contribution: “No one before him had created a body of work that treated adolescent crisis as if it were a tragedy disrupting the world as the millennium nears. His balance of sophistication and cruelty, scored with the smartest use of contemporary music a director has ever brought to his pictures on a consistent basis, played ever so brilliantly to an audience who felt it had never seen its own stories on the screen before.”
Hughes’s directorial filmography also includes “Weird Science,” “Planes, Trains & Automobiles,” “She’s Having a Baby,” “Uncle Buck,” and “Curly Sue,” which was released in 1991 and marked his final directorial effort.
Beyond directing, Hughes was a prolific writer, credited with screenplays for “Pretty in Pink,” “Some Kind of Wonderful,” “Christmas Vacation,” “Dennis the Menace,” and “101 Dalmatians.”
Steve Martin, who starred alongside John Candy in “Planes, Trains & Automobiles,” lauded Hughes’s screenwriting prowess: “He was a great director, but his gift was in screenwriting. He created deep and complex characters, rich in humanity and humor.”
Reportedly, Hughes relocated back to the Chicago area in 1995 and maintained a very private life thereafter.
Filmmaker Kevin Smith likened Hughes’s reclusive nature to that of J.D. Salinger, telling The Times this year, “He’s our generation’s J.D. Salinger. He touched a generation and then the dude checked out.”
Bruce Berman, chairman and CEO of Village Roadshow, who collaborated with Hughes during his time at Universal and Warner Bros., suggested Hughes’s departure from Hollywood was due to his dissatisfaction with the studio system. “He quit because he really didn’t like the studio system,” Berman explained. “All considered, I think he could have stayed as long as he wanted.”
Berman, who last spoke with Hughes a year prior to his death, believes Hughes’s move back to Chicago was facilitated by his financial success, allowing him to avoid the pressures of Hollywood. “…he made enough money that he didn’t have to deal with Hollywood any more,” Berman stated.
John Hughes was born on February 18, 1950, in Lansing, Michigan. At the age of 13, his family moved to the Chicago suburbs, a setting that inspired many of his films.
After dropping out of the University of Arizona at 20, Hughes began his career in advertising as a copywriter in Chicago. He also wrote jokes for comedians like Rodney Dangerfield.
Prior to his breakthrough in filmmaking, Hughes worked as a creative director at the Leo Burnett agency. He later took a pay cut to join National Lampoon, where he had been a freelancer.
His first screenplay credit was for the 1982 National Lampoon comedy “Class Reunion.”
While a complete list of surviving family members was not immediately available, Hughes is survived by his wife of 39 years, Nancy, his sons, John and James, and four grandchildren.
Times staff writers Susan King and Valerie J. Nelson contributed to this report.
