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John Hughes

For anyone who grew up in the 1980’s the name John Hughes is still a very familiar one. His movies provided inspiration and entertainment for the teenage generation that grew up in that decade and beyond. So the news that the filmmaker had died of a heart attack on Thursday, apparently suffered walking while visiting family in Manhattan has come as a surprise to many.

For some cynics the movies that made him (and many actors) a household name were light fare and overly sentimental. But teenagers from all over the world related with movies like “Sixteen Candles” “the Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink” and Hughes’ work has become considered almost classic.

It was Hughes who made household names out of Matthew Broderick and Molly Ringwald, the latter appearing in three of his movies including his first “Sixteen Candles”. His movies also gave birth to the so called “Brat Pack” whose “membership included Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Anthony Michael Hall and Andrew McCarthy, all of whom appeared in at least one Hughes production.

The plot of a Hughes movie usually followed a set formula. A girl who feels like the “ugly duckling”, boys that just don’t fit in, the bullies that taunt them and the troubles they go through before it all comes out right in the end. A simple scenario, but one that appealed to millions of teenagers who felt like they could be a Hughes characters themselves.

But not all Hughes movies featured teenage drama. He was the writer and producer of “Home Alone” the kiddie comedy that made a star out of then ten year old Macaulay Culkin, as well as the comedy “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” Hughes first venture into adult comedy that starred Steve Martin and John Candy.

In recent years John Hughes had been absent from the film industry, having decided to return to Illinois and leave the media spotlight that he was never very comfortable with.

Stars from many of his movies paid tribute to Hughes on Friday. In a statement made to People magazine Ringwald said she was “stunned and extremely saddened” by the news and Matthew Broderick, who became a break out star after appearing “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” told reporters that he was “truly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend. … He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family.” John Hughes leaves behind a wife Nancy, for whom he was married to for 39 years and two sons.