John Hughes (1950

Biography

John Wilden Hughes Jr. was an American filmmaker. He is best known for writing, directing, and producing the films Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), and Uncle Buck (1989), in addition to writing the films Pretty in Pink (1986), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Home Alone (1990), 101 Dalmatians (1996), and Flubber (1997).

Timeline

The story of John Hughes, told in moments.

1984 Event

Sixteen Candles opens. It's his directorial debut. Molly Ringwald stars. He wrote the script in a single weekend. The film launches both their careers and establishes the John Hughes high school universe.

Writing Sixteen Candles in a single weekend. Do scripts arrive or get built? Launching Molly Ringwald's career and your own simultaneously. Was that mutual?

1985 Event

The Breakfast Club premieres. Five teenagers in Saturday detention. A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal. He writes it for them and lets them improvise. The ending, with Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me," defines a generation.

'Don't You Forget About Me.' Did you choose that song, or did it choose the film? Five teenagers in detention. Was that every high school, or just yours?

1986 Event

Ferris Bueller's Day Off opens. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." It makes $70 million. He shoots the parade scene in downtown Chicago without permits.

Shooting the parade without permits. Was that the spirit of Ferris? 'Life moves pretty fast.' Was that your philosophy?

2009 Death

Dies of a heart attack while taking a morning walk in Manhattan. He was 59. He'd stopped directing in 1991 but kept writing. He hadn't given an interview in years. Molly Ringwald publishes a tribute in the New York Times.

No interviews for years before dying at fifty-nine. Was silence the preference? Molly Ringwald's tribute in the Times. Would that have moved you?