Hearing about the death of John Hughes is a little like hearing about the death of a favorite teacher. You haven't seen them in a while, you never really gave much thought to where they were or what they were doing, but when you reflect back on your formative years, you realize the impact they had on your life. It's rare for a filmmaker to be able to capture an era and define a generation so effectively, yet John Hughes managed to do just that in the 1980s with his undeniable teen classics such as Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Not only were they successful at the box office and with the critics, they gave a generation of teenagers a voice they had been lacking before. He held a mirror up to modern teenage life and was praised for his realistic look at the lives of modern kids in the 80s. Hughes can truly be credited with creating the teen angst genre. Before he came along teen movies consisted of fare such as Porky's, but thanks to him we have classics like The Breakfast Club and Weird Science. Many people agree that a big part of Hughes's success was thanks to his ability to create relatable characters that often acted in ridiculous ways, but had an irresistible sweetness about them. In 2008, new comedy it-boy Judd Apatow told the Los Angeles Times, It's pretty ridiculous to hear people talk about the movies we've been doing, with outrageous humor and sweetness all combined, as if they were an original idea. I mean, it was all there first in John Hughes' films." Indeed it was. Hughes wasn't just an influential director; he was also a gifted writer who penned such classics as National Lampoon's Vacation, Uncle Buck, and Home Alone. Comedy vets Chevy Chase and John Candy have Hughes to thank for creating their two iconic roles, Clark W. Griswold and Uncle Buck respectively. (Honestly, who doesn't see their own Dad every time they watch one of the Vacation movies?) He also helped to launch the careers of the infamous Brat Pack. Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Mathew Broderick, and Emilio Estevez are only a few of the names that John Hughes helped make famous. And then of course there's Macauley Culkin, Ben Stein (Bueller...Bueller), the list goes on.
In the last years of his life, John Hughes stepped away from the spotlight to spend time with his family and work on his farm in northern Illinois. Few people doubt that his success would have continued unabated had he chosen to stay, but John Hughes probably knew better than anyone else, Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it's
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