John Hughes (filmmaker)
| John Hughes | |
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| Born | John Wilden Hughes, Jr. February 18, 1950 , United States |
| Died | August 6, 2009 (aged 59) , United States |
| Occupation | Director, producer, writer |
| Years active | 1969–2009 |
| Spouse | Nancy Ludwig (1970–2009) |
John Wilden Hughes, Jr.[1] (February 18, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American film director, producer and writer. He scripted some of the most successful films of the 1980s and early 1990s, including National Lampoon's Vacation; Ferris Bueller's Day Off; Weird Science; The Breakfast Club; Some Kind of Wonderful; Sixteen Candles; Pretty in Pink; Planes, Trains and Automobiles; Uncle Buck; Career Opportunities; 101 Dalmatians; Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and Home Alone 3.
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Early life
Hughes was born in Lansing, Michigan, to a mother who volunteered in charity work and John Hughes, Sr., who worked in sales.[2] He spent the first 12 years of his life in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.[3] Hughes described himself as a kid as "kind of quiet."[4]
I grew up in a neighborhood that was mostly girls and old people. There weren't any boys my age, so I spent a lot of time by myself, imagining things. And every time we would get established somewhere, we would move. Life just started to get good in seventh grade, and then we moved to Chicago. I ended up in a really big high school, and I didn't know anybody. But then The Beatles came along (and) changed my whole life. And then Bob Dylan's Bringing It All Back Home came out and really changed me. Thursday I was one person, and Friday I was another. My heroes were Dylan, John Lennon and Picasso, because they each moved their particular medium forward, and when they got to the point where they were comfortable, they always moved on. I liked them at a time when I was in a pretty conventional high school, where the measure of your popularity was athletic ability. And I'm not athletic - I've always hated team sports.
While admittedly not an athlete, Hughes was a devoted Detroit Red Wings hockey fan and admired star player Gordie Howe (Hughes later gave tribute to Howe in Ferris Bueller's Day Off).[3] In 1962, Hughes's family moved to Northbrook, Illinois, where Hughes’s father found work selling roofing materials.[3] Graduating from Glenbrook North High School in 1968, Hughes used Northbrook and the adjacent North Shore area for shooting locations and settings in many of his films, though he usually left the name of the town unsaid, or referred to it as "Shermer, Illinois", Shermerville being the original name of Northbrook. In high school, he met Nancy Ludwig, to whom he was married from 1970 until his death. They had two sons, John Hughes III, born in 1976, and James Hughes, born in 1979.
Career
After dropping out of Arizona State University, he began selling jokes to well-established performers such as Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers. Hughes used his jokes to get an entry-level job at Needham, Harper & Steers as an advertising copywriter in Chicago in 1970[5] and later in 1974 at Leo Burnett Worldwide. During this time, he created what became the famous Edge "Credit Card Shaving Test" ad campaign.
Hughes's work on the Virginia Slims account frequently took him to the Philip Morris headquarters in New York City. This gave him the opportunity to hang around the offices of the National Lampoon Magazine.[3] Hughes subsequently penned a story, inspired by his family trips as a child, that was to become his calling card and entry onto the staff of the magazine. That piece, "Vacation '58", later became the basis for the film Vacation. Among his other contributions to the Lampoon, the April Fool's Day stories "My Penis" and "My Vagina" gave an early indication of Hughes's 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 film became the second disastrous attempt by the flagship to duplicate the runaway success of Animal House. It was Hughes's 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.
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, 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 films like Uncle Buck (one of the first films to display the changeover in a suburban teen's choice of music from rock to rap) proved popular. Hughes's greatest commercial success came with Home Alone, a film 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 was the top grossing film of 1990, and remains the most successful live-action comedy of all time. His last film as a director was 1991's Curly Sue.
He also wrote screenplays under the pseudonym Edmund Dantes, after the protagonist of Alexandre Dumas's novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
In 1994, Hughes retired from the public eye and moved back to the Chicago area. Hughes was considerably shaken by John Candy's sudden death of a heart attack that same year (in a strange twist of fate, a heart attack would also take Hughes' life 15 years later). "He talked a lot about how much he loved Candy—if Candy had lived longer, I think John would have made more films as a director," says Vince Vaughn, a friend of Hughes.[3] In the years following, Hughes rarely granted interviews to the media save a select few in 1999 to promote the soundtrack album to Reach the Rock, an independent film he wrote.[6] The album was compiled by Hughes's son, John Hughes III, and released on his son's Chicago-based record label, Hefty Records.[7] He also recorded an audio commentary for the 1999 DVD release of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.[8] In the later years of his life, he was a farmer in Illinois .
Trademark characteristics in Hughes's movies
Several director's trademarks can be seen within Hughes's films:
- Set in fictional Shermer, Illinois, as represented by the North Shore suburbs of the Chicago metropolitan area.
- Characters breaking the fourth wall (acknowledging the audience)
- Additional scenes under and/or after the closing credits
- Non-linear montages
- Strong emphasis on pop songs and music cues
- Using a Freeze-Frame as the final shot of the movie
Death
Hughes died of a heart attack on August 6, 2009, while walking in Manhattan, where he was visiting his family.[9][10] On that morning, Hughes was on West 55th Street in Manhattan when he was stricken with chest pains. At 8:55 a.m., 9-1-1 operators summoned paramedics to assist. Hughes was unconscious when they arrived several minutes later. Hughes was raced to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.[11] He was 59 years old. Hughes's funeral took place on August 11 in Chicago.[12] In addition to his wife and two sons, Hughes is survived by four grandchildren.[13]
The pilot episode of the NBC comedy Community, broadcast on September 17, 2009, was dedicated to Hughes.[14] The episode included several references to The Breakfast Club and ended with a cover of Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by rock band The 88.[15] The One Tree Hill episode titled "Don't You Forget About Me", broadcast on February 1, 2010, ended with a scene similar to the ending scene of Sixteen Candles and included some other references to his movies such as Home Alone.
Oscar tribute
On March 7, 2010, the 82nd annual Academy Awards included a tribute to Hughes's life's work. A retrospective of clips from Hughes's films was followed by cast members from several of them gathering on stage to commemorate the man and his contributions to the film industry.[16]
Filmography
- Delta House (1979) (TV)
- National Lampoon's Class Reunion (1982)
- At Ease (1983) (TV)
- Mr. Mom (1983)
- National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
- Nate and Hayes (with David Odell) (1983)
- Sixteen Candles (1984) (also Director)
- The Breakfast Club (1985) (also Director)
- Weird Science (1985) (also Director)
- National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) (Story Only)
- Pretty in Pink (1986)
- Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) (also Director)
- Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
- Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) (also Director)
- She's Having a Baby (1988) (also Director)
- The Great Outdoors (1988)
- Uncle Buck (1989) (also Director)
- National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)
- Home Alone (1990)
- Career Opportunities (1991)
- Only the Lonely (1991) (Producer Only)
- Dutch (1991)
- Curly Sue (1991) (also Director)
- Beethoven (1992) (as Edmund Dantes)
- Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
- Dennis the Menace (1993)
- Baby's Day Out (1994)
- Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
- 101 Dalmatians (1996)
- Flubber (1997)
- Home Alone 3 (1997)
- Reach the Rock (1998)
- Just Visiting (2001) (with Christian Clavier and Jean-Marie Poire)
- New Port South (2001) (Producer Only)
- Maid in Manhattan (2002) (Story Only) (originally titled The Chambermaid) (as Edmund Dantes)
- Drillbit Taylor (2008) (Story Only) (as Edmund Dantes)
Unproduced screenplays
- The History of Ohio From The Beginning Of Time To The End Of The Universe (with P. J. O'Rourke)
- Jaws 3: People 0 – a parody sequel to the popular series.[17]
- Bartholomew Vs. Neff – a vehicle that would have starred Sylvester Stallone and John Candy as feuding neighbors.[18]
- The Bee – a feature length Disney film.[19]
- Grisbeys Go Broke – a wealthy family loses their fortune, forcing them to move to the other side of the tracks during Christmas.[20]
- Tickets – Teens wait overnight for free tickets to a farewell concert.[21]
- Oil and Vinegar - A soon-to-be-married man and a hitchhiking girl end up talking about their lives during the length of the car ride.[22]
- A Chicago teen takes to riding the L and daydreaming.
Books
Don't You Forget About MeDon't You Forget About Me is a documentary about four Canadian filmmakers who go in search of Hughes after his drop out of the spotlight in 1991, featuring interviews with actors in Hughes's films, notably missing Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Matthew Broderick. The film is distributed by Alliance Films.[23] Don't You Forget About Me is also the name of an anthology of contemporary writers writing about the films of John Hughes, edited by Jaime Clarke, with a foreword by Ally Sheedy, published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Writers include Steve Almond, Julianna Baggott, Lisa Borders, Ryan Boudinot, T Cooper, Quinn Dalton, Emily Franklin, Lisa Gabriele, Tod Goldberg, Nina de Gramont, Tara Ison, Allison Lynn, John McNally, Dan Pope, Lewis Robinson, Ben Schrank, Elizabeth Searle, Mary Sullivan, Rebecca Wolff, and Moon Unit Zappa. References
External links
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