LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Filmmaker John Hughes, who made some of the most memorable teen comedies of the 1980s and turned Macaulay Culkin into a major star, died suddenly of a heart attack in New York yesterday. He was 59.
Hughes, who had largely turned his back on Hollywood in the past decade to become a farmer in the Midwestern state of Illinois, collapsed while strolling in Manhattan, where he was visiting friends.
His films, such as “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” are considered standard-bearers of the teen genre, exploring American adolescent behavior with warmth and affection. He supplied his awkward characters with natural dialogue, allowing audiences to empathize with their travails.
Hughes worked with Molly Ringwald on both “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club,” as well as 1986’s “Pretty in Pink,” which he wrote and produced. He also made a star out of Matthew Broderick, the fearless hero of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” who makes good on his determination to miss a day of school.
“Many filmmakers portray teenagers as immoral and ignorant with pursuits that are pretty base,” Hughes told the Chicago Tribune in 1985 as he was about to release “The Breakfast Club,” his second directing effort.
“They seem to think that teenagers aren’t very bright. But I haven’t found that to be the case. I listen to kids. I respect them. I don’t discount anything they have to say just because they’re only 16 years-old.”