John Hughes has died of a heart attack.
Hughes suffered the heart attack while taking a morning walk during a trip to NYC to visit family.
John Hughes
He directed such ’80s hit films as “The Breakfast Club,” Weird Science,” “Sixteen Candles” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”
From FoxNews, this is a biography from John Hughes.
A prolific writer, director and producer in the 1980s and early 1990s, John Hughes was the guiding force behind some of the most popular teen-oriented comedies of the period, including “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983), “Sixteen Candles” (1984), “The Breakfast Club” (1985) and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986). Though his stock in trade was broad, he had a particular gift for the speech and emotions of middle-class suburban youth, who were portrayed in his films with a complexity and respect rarely afforded to them in major Hollywood features. Hughes’ popularity appeared to fall off after the blockbuster holiday hit “Home Alone” (1990), though he remained active as a screenwriter, often under his pen name of Edmond Dantes. His films were frequently cited as a major influence on writers and directors who toiled in the teen movie field.
Born John Hughes, Jr. in Lansing, MI on January 18, 1950, Hughes was raised in the suburbs of Detroit but moved to Chicago, IL in his early teens. He spent his high school years in Northbrook which would figure as both the setting and location for many of his films. After dropping out of the University of Arizona in his junior year, Hughes returned to Chicago and began penning gags for established comics like Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers. He later took a job as an advertising copywriter for DDB Needham Worldwide and later the Leo Needham Company, where he contributed to several memorable campaigns for Edge shaving cream and Johnson Floor Wax. After hours, he wrote numerous short stories and magazine articles, one of which – a childhood remembrance called “Vacation ’58″ – gained him entry into the humor magazine National Lampoon.
In 1984, Hughes made his directorial debut with “Sixteen Candles,” an enormously popular teen comedy-romance about a bright high school sophomore (Molly Ringwald) whose unrequited affections for a senior (Michael Schoeffling) are complicated by her sister’s wedding and the attention of a hyperactive freshman known as “The Geek” (Anthony Michael Hall). The film demonstrated Hughes’ keen understanding of teenage language and social codes, as well as the fast pace and highly animated style (which relied on classic comedy tropes like breaking the fourth wall and heavy use of musical cues for comic effect) which made it an enduring favorite for younger viewers. “Candles” also made a star of the red-headed Ringwald, who would collaborate with Hughes on three of his most successful films.