Obituary: John Hughes
Obituary by Jack Foley
JOHN Hughes, creator of seminal movies The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, has died at the age of 59.
The legendary director, who inspired the likes of Judd Apatow, Kevin Smith and Wes Anderson, suffered a heart attack while taking a walk in Manhattan on Thursday (August 6, 2009).
Hughes became a prolific filmmaker during the ‘80s following the success of his debut film, Sixteen Candles in 1984. He went on to enjoy a string of hits, including The Breakfast Club, Weird Science and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off before branching out into slightly more adult fare with Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Following the release of Curly Sue, however, he stepped away from directing in favour of writing and producing, and promptly delivered his biggest hit in the form of Home Alone. That film remains one of the top-grossing live-action comedies of all time and spawned three sequels.
For the remainder of the ‘90s he continued to write and produce family comedies, including Robin Williams flop Flubber and Disney hit 101 Dalmatians, but increasingly distanced himself from Hollywood in favour of working on his farm in northern Illinois.
Of late, he had provided the inspiration for films such as Maid in Manhattan and Drillbit Taylor using the pseudonym Edmond Dantes.
Born in 1950 in Michigan, Hughes and family soon uprooted and moved to Chicago when he was 11.
Ironically, his youthful passion was music and he often cited The Beatles’ White Album and Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home as records that changed his life. He also enjoyed a spell as a self-professed hippy.
Writing soon followed, though, and he became a journalist and advertising copywriter before turning to script writing.
Prior to that, he met his future wife, Nancy Ludwig, whom he married at the age of 20 shortly before dropping out of the University of Arizona, and the couple gave birth to their first son, John III, in 1979.
Career-wise, Hughes swapped his job as an advertising copywriter for the editorship of National Lampoon magazine and, from there, got his first break as a screenwriter for National Lampoon. His second son, Jamie, was born in 1980.
After a few screenwriting misfires, Hughes finally began his winning streak in 1983 with two hit comedies, National Lampoon’s Vacation and Mr Mom, and make his directorial debut the following year with Sixteen Candles from which he never looked back.
Hughes rapidly became the king of the High School comedy, with The Breakfast Club a seminal work, but eventually tired of the teen genre following the release of Some Kind of Wonderful, and moved into broader comedy vehicles such as Planes, Trains and Automobiles and She’s Having a Baby.
He also put renewed energy and focus into his scriptwriting and enjoyed a prolific period that included screenplays for The Great Outdoors, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and, of course ,Home Alone and its 1992 sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
Thereafter, however, the quality of his work became a little more hit-and-miss and Hughes spent less and less time in Hollywood, before virtually leaving it behind in his later years to spend more time on his farm.
He is survived by Nancy, his wife of 39 years, and two sons, John and James.
Pay tribute…