John Hughes was THE writer/director of the 1980s. He didn’t just create his own genre and influence millions of American teens, he launched the careers of a host of actors. He died yesterday of a heart attack.
A native of Lansing, Mich., who moved to suburban Chicago and set much of his work there, Hughes rose from comedy writer to ad writer to silver screen champ with his affectionate and idealized portraits of teens, whether the romantic and sexual insecurity of “Sixteen Candles,” or the J.D. Salinger-esque rebellion against conformity in “The Breakfast Club.”
Hughes’ ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular “Home Alone,” which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as “National Lampoon’s Vacation,””Pretty in Pink,””Planes, Trains & Automobiles” and “Uncle Buck.”
[…] Other actors who got early breaks from Hughes included John Cusack (“Sixteen Candles”), Judd Nelson (“The Breakfast Club”), Steve Carell (“Curly Sue”) and Lili Taylor (“She’s Having a Baby”).
[…] Actor and director Bill Paxton credited Hughes for launching his career by casting him as bullying older brother Chet in the 1985 film “Weird Science.”
I’ve seen more of his films than I realized. And it’s interesting to note that some of his best work was based on real life.
Hughes films, especially “Home Alone,” were among the most popular of their time and the director was openly involved in marketing them. But, with his ever-handy “idea books,” Hughes worked as much from personal life as from commercial instinct. His “National Lampoon” scripts were inspired by his own family’s vacations. “Sixteen Candles,” in which Ringwald plays a teen whose 16th birthday is forgotten, was based on a similar event in a friend’s life.
I think my favorites are Ferris Bueller and Sixteen Candles. I didn’t even realize Weird Science was his, but it makes sense—it’s totally in the same genre, and uses some of the same actors. The house used as Cameron’s house used in the movie was recently sold for over $2 million. And the realtor, of course, used the movie in the ad.
Hughes was only 59.
And yet the death of Budd Schulberg, who I would bet will in the long run be a more signifiant cultural figure, seems to have passed almost unnoticed.