John Hughes (filmmaker)

John Wilden Hughes Jr. (February 18, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American filmmaker. He is best known for writing, directing, and producing the films Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), and Uncle Buck (1989), in addition to writing the films Pretty in Pink (1986), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), Home Alone (1990), 101 Dalmatians (1996), and Flubber (1997).

Widely considered an icon of the 1980s whose coming-of-age stories captured the teenage experience, Hughes set most of his films in Chicago, where he spent his teenage years. His work often combined slapstick comedy with heartfelt moments and launched the acting careers of "Brat Pack" members Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy, as well as John Candy and Macaulay Culkin.