TMZ is reporting director John Hughes died by suffered a heart attack while taking a morning walk during a trip to New York City with family.
Hughes is best known for writing and directing some of our favorite movies from the 1980’s - National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, European Vacation, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. Hughes dropped out of moviemaking in 1991.
John Hughes began his career as an ad copywriter in Chicago. During this time, he created what became the famous Edge "Credit Card Shaving Test" ad campaign.
His first attempt at comedy writing was selling jokes to well-established performers such as Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers. This led him to pen a story, inspired by his family trips as a child, that was to become his calling card and entry onto the staff of the National Lampoon Magazine. That story, "Vacation '58", became the basis for the movie Vacation. Subsequent stories such as the April Fool's Day classics "My Vagina" and "My Penis" gave an early indication of John Hughes' ear for the particular rhythm of teen speak, as well as the various indignities of teen life in general.
His first credited screenplay, Class Reunion, was written while still on staff at the magazine. The resulting movie became the second disastrous attempt by the flagship to duplicate the runaway success of Animal House. It was John Hughes' next screenplay for the imprint, National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), however, that would prove to be a major hit, putting the Lampoon back on the map. Although John Hughes had no involvement in European Vacation (1985), he did write and co-produced Christmas Vacation (1989) based on another of his Lampoon stories.
His first directorial effort, Sixteen Candles, won almost unanimous praise when it was released in 1984, due in no small part to its more realistic depiction of middle-class high school life, which stood in stark contrast to the Porky's-inspired comedies being made at the time. It was also the first in a string of efforts set in or around high school, including The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Weird Science and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (See also Brat Pack).
To avoid being pigeonholed as a maker of teen comedies, John Hughes branched out in 1987, directing Planes, Trains & Automobiles starring Steve Martin and John Candy. His later output would not be so critically well received, though movies like Uncle Buck (one of the first movies to display the change in teenager's choice of music from rock to rap) proved popular. John Hughes's greatest commercial success came with Home Alone, a movie he wrote and produced about a child accidentally left behind when his family goes away for Christmas, forcing him to protect himself and his house from a pair of inept burglars. Home Alone would be the top grossing movie of 1990, and remains his most successful live-action comedy of all time. His last movie as a director was 1991's Curly Sue.
Here are some famous quotes from John Hughes movies
Ferris Bueller's Day Off quotes
"That's right, I'm Abe Froman." "... the Sausage King of Chicago?"
"Save Ferris"
"Bueller? ... Bueller? ... Bueller?"
"Excuse me: if whoever was in this house is still in the house, I'd like you
to know that I've just called the police. I'd also like to add that I've got
my father's gun and a *scorching* case of herpes."
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a
while, you could miss it."
Pretty in Pink quotes
"His name is Blane? Oh! That's a major appliance, that's not a name!"
"Love's a bitch, Duck. Love's a bitch. "
"Well, that's very nice. I'm glad. Well here's... here's the point, Andie.
I'm not particularly concerned with whether or not you like me, because
I live to like you and... and I can't like you anymore. So... so when you're
feeling real low and... and dirty, and your heart is splattered all over hell,
don't look to me to pump you back up 'cause... 'cause... 'cause maybe
for the first time in your life I won't be there!"
"You said you couldn't be with someone who didn't believe in you. Well I
believed in you. I just didn't believe in myself. I love you. Always."
Sixteen Candles quotes
"I can't believe my grandmother actually felt me up."
"I can't believe I gave my panties to a geek."
"By night's end, I predict me and her will interface."
The Breakfast Club quotes
"Could you describe the ruckus, sir?"
"Face it. You're a neo maxi zoom dweebie, what would you be doing if
you weren't out making yourself a better citizen?"
"Eat my shorts."
"Are you crazy? -- Obviously she's crazy if she's screwing a shrink."
Johne Hughes, we are going to miss you
