Looking back at 80's teen flick director's career

Looking back at '80s teen flick director's career

John Hughs, 80's teen flick Director

NEW YORK (AP) -- Writer-director JohnHughes, Hollywood's youth impresario of the 1980s and '90s who captured theteen and preteen market with such favorites as "Home Alone,""The Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," diedThursday, a spokeswoman said. He was 59.

Hughesdied of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan, Michelle Bega said. He was in New York to visit family.

JakeBloom, Hughes' longtime attorney, said he was "deeply saddened and inshock" to learn of the director's death.

A nativeof Lansing, Mich., who later moved to suburban Chicago and set much of his workthere, Hughes rose from ad writer to comedy writer to silver screen champ withhis affectionate and idealized portraits of teens, whether the romantic and sexualinsecurity of "Sixteen Candles," or the J.D. Salinger-esque rebellionagainst conformity in "The Breakfast Club."

Hughes'ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony MichaelHall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted thephenomenally popular "Home Alone," which made little-known MacaulayCulkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationingfamily, and wrote or directed such hits as "National Lampoon's Vacation,""Pretty in Pink," "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" and"Uncle Buck."

"Iwas a fan of both his work and a fan of him as a person," Culkin said."The world has lost not only a quintessential filmmaker whose influencewill be felt for generations, but a great and decent man."

DevinRatray, best known for playing Culkin's older brother Buzz McCallister in the"Home Alone" films, said he remained close to Hughes over the years.

"Hechanged my life forever," Ratray said. "Nineteen years later, peoplefrom all over the world contact me telling me how much 'Home Alone' meant tothem, their families, and their children."

SteveMartin played lead character Neal Page in the 1987 hit "Planes, Trains& Automobiles."

"JohnHughes was a great director, but his gift was in screenwriting," Martinsaid. "He created deep and complex characters, rich in humanity andhumor."

Otheractors who got early breaks from Hughes included John Cusack ("SixteenCandles"), Judd Nelson ("The Breakfast Club"), Steve Carell("Curly Sue") and Lili Taylor ("She's Having a Baby").

ActorMatthew Broderick worked with Hughes in 1986 when he played the title characterin "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

"I amtruly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend John Hughes. He wasa wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family,"Broderick said.

Ben Stein,who played the monotone economics teacher calling the roll and repeatedlysaying "Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?", said Hughes was a toweringtalent.

"Hemade a better connection with young people than anyone in Hollywood had ever made before orsince," Stein said on Fox Business Network. "It's incredibly sad. Hewas a wonderful man, a genius, a poet. I don't think anyone has come close tohim as being the poet of the youth of America in the postwar period. He was tothem what Shakespeare was to the Elizabethan Age.

"Youhad a regular guy - just an ordinary guy. If you met him, you would never guesshe was a big Hollywood power."

As Hughesadvanced into middle age, his commercial touch faded and, in Salinger style, heincreasingly withdrew from public life. His last directing credit was in 1991,for "Curly Sue," and he wrote just a handful of scripts over the pastdecade. He was rarely interviewed or photographed.

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