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John Hughes (film director)
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John Hughes, Jr. (born February 18, 1950) is an American film director, producer and writer, responsible for some of the most successful comedy films of the 1980s and 1990s, including National Lampoon's Vacation, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Home Alone and its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
Biography
Personal life
Hughes was born in Lansing, Michigan to a mother who volunteered in charity work and John Hughes, Sr., who worked in sales.
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Encyclopedia
John Hughes, Jr. (born February 18, 1950) is an American film director, producer and writer, responsible for some of the most successful comedy films of the 1980s and 1990s, including National Lampoon's Vacation, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Home Alone and its sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
Biography
Personal life
Hughes was born in Lansing, Michigan to a mother who volunteered in charity work and John Hughes, Sr., who worked in sales. A 1968 graduate of Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Illinois, Hughes used Northbrook and the adjacent North Shore area for shooting locations in many of his films, as well as using the original name of Northbrook (once Shermerville, Illinois) as the setting of a number of films.
Career
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 film Vacation. Subsequent stories such as the April Fool's Day classics "My Vagina" and "My Penis" gave an early indication of 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 film became the second disastrous attempt by the flagship to duplicate the runaway success of Animal House. It was 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 Hughes had no involvement in European Vacation (1985), he did return to write and co-produce 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 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 change in teenager'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 would be the top grossing film of 1990, and remains the most successful live-action comedy of all time. Hughes has not directed a film since 1991's Curly Sue.
He has been noted as an inspiration for many in the film industry, including Wes Anderson. He has also written screenplays using his pseudonym, Edmond Dantès (protagonist of Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo).
Since 1994, Hughes has lived a reclusive life in Wisconsin, rarely granting or giving interviews or photographs to the media save a select few interviews in 1999 to promote the soundtrack album to Reach the Rock, an independent film he wrote. The album was compiled by Hughes' son, John Hughes III, and released on his son's Chicago-based record label, Hefty Records. He also recorded an audio commentary for the 1999 DVD release of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. A photograph of him visiting his son on the set of his son's film in 2001 is the last photo taken of him in public. A documentary film called Don't You Forget About Me is currently in production, detailing a road journey in search of the director.
Trademarks and trivia
Casting
Hughes frequently casts actors he has worked with on previous movies, as shown below:
Several director's trademarks can be seen within Hughes' films:
- Set in the fictional Shermer, Illinois, North Shore suburbs or the Chicago metropolitan area.
- Characters breaking the fourth wall (acknowledging the audience)
- Additional scenes under and/or after the closing credits
- Non-linear montages, where characters' actions in preparing for an event are spliced together immediately before the event takes place.
- A strong emphasis on pop songs and music cues
Filmography
Writer
Director
Producer
Unproduced screenplays
- The History of Ohio From The Beginning Of Time To The End Of The Universe (with PJ O'Rourke)
- Jaws 3: People 0 - A parody sequel to the popular series.
- Bartholomew Vs. Neff - A film that would have pit Sylvester Stallone & John Candy against each other as feuding neighbors.
- The Bee - A feature length Disney film that was to have starred Jackie Chan.
- The Grisbeys - A very wealthy family loses all of their money and must move to the other side of the tracks during Christmas.
Books
- The National Lampoon Sunday Newspaper Parody (1978) (with PJ O'Rourke)
External links
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