Confirmed by spokeswoman:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090806/ap_on_en_mo/us_obit_hughes_1
Damn, what a shitty year for this kind of stuff.
p.s. We were lamenting his departure from movie making earlier this summer:
Rest in peace.
I was really hoping that comeback was going to hope, and it saddens me that it never will.
Peace, too.
This is very sad news. Writer/directors that talented don’t come around very often. I mean, Planes Trains and Automobiles? Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? :(
This is really sad.
Damn. 59 while walking. Hate to see someone go that you so closely connect to good times in your youth. SOme of those were good flicks that hold up pretty well today.
RIP.
Shitty news. For many of us Hughes was the pop poet of teen life. I like the almost abstracted, minimalist quality of The Breakfast Club, and Ferris Bueller is an extremely wise film whose lessons I wish I had paid more attention to as a kid.
“Life goes by pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.”
Thanks for looking around and telling us what you saw, Mr. Hughes.
RIP
For me, and I’m sure many others, these films were the way I found out that we’re all “weird” in our own special way…
Don’t you…forget about me…la la la la la la la la la
How does Breakfast Club hold up? Anyone? I probably haven’t seen it for 15 years. Might have to watch it again as kind of a send-off.
It holds up extremely well; it is a timeless film.
RIP
He impacted my teen years in such a cool way. He will be missed.
Back in the 1980’s if you’re a guy and you couldn’t take delivery after “16 Candles” or “Pretty In Pink” or “Breakfast Club”, you clearly failed to place the order correctly.
I mean, not many girls in contemporary American society today would give their underwear to help a geek like me.
Of all the many recent celebrity deaths, this is the first of a figure that had a real impact on my own life. Not in any personal enlightenment way, but he was just the iconic figure of movies during my teenage years.
The Breakfast Club is both a timeless classic and also a truly great dissection of the social mores of suburban high school in the 80s. It runs a bit behind the great Fast Times at Ridgemont High as my pick for all time best teen film.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles is also a great film, probably the best film to feature John Candy and the best thing Steve Martin did for many years prior to Bowfinger.
Then there’s Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, which IMO should be considered as the great zen masterpiece of the 80s.
Then there’s all the classic lines, and guilty pleasures: 16 Candles, Weird Science, even Home Alone.
And the number of careers he helped create or boost: of the actors of my generation, a huge chunk of em got a lift from Huges.
He will be missed. I might have to have a John Huges DVD fest this weekend.
Agreed with everything you wrote. Have to break out the Hughes DVDs this weekend as well.
I want a fucking car . . . right fucking now.
I feel churlish because I’m pretty much the only gen-Xer on the planet that hated The Breakfast Club. It came out when I was the exact target market, too, but even then I thought it was painfully pretentious grade-school Mamet knock-off. It also occurs to me that, Lucas-like, the one teen John Hughes movie I really liked (Some Kind Of Wonderful) wasn’t actually directed by him. And, of course, it’s good to remember that while the dude gave us Vacation and Sixteen Candles and Uncle Buck, he also gave us Home Alone and like five Beethoven movies.
I also think Ferris Bueller is over-rated - I always thought his sister was sort of right to hate him because, quite frankly, he’s kind of a douche. And the thrid-act switch into drama seems really forced. That said, Ferris Bueller did a whole lot to justify me and my friends weirdo tastes in music to the normals in my high school - it was suddenly OK to like Yello and Sigue Sigue Sputnik because, dude, it’s in Ferris Bueller.
Also, I loved that bit in Some Kind Of Wonderful when Stolz’ sister sneaks his copy of Psychocandy out of his room, something that had literally happened to me with my own sister.
My sister and every single one of her friends would get together each time one of them turned 16 and watch Sixteen Candles.
I never broke 100lbs until around 17 or so and had insane insecurity about being so thin. The constant Ethiopian jokes may have played a role in that. But, I loved that Anthony Michael Hall was the cool dude…well, within his click.
He covered a spectrum of normal, non-Hollywood teen issues and emotions and did not make it all bleak.
I think it hit me more today.
Damn, madkevin…“Let us all reflect also on the crap he produced”. ;)