If you are an 80′s child then you will be sad to hear that legendary teen movie maker John Hughes has died at age 59 of a heart attack.

Hughes was the writer and director of the hit movies Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (a Christmas favourite in my house!).

His latest success was in the 90′s with Home Alone.
Since then Hughes had withdrawn from Hollywood and become a farmer in Illinois.

But in the 1980′s John Hughes was the king of Hollywood, making kid orientated movies that were part of the zeigeist, understanding and capturing just what it was to be a teenager in eighties. He got the best out of his teen stars Molly Ringwald in Sixteen Candles, and Matthew Broderick asthe eponymous Ferris Bueller.

Sixteen Candles was his directorial debut, but it was working with Emilio Estevez and co in The Breakfast Club ,Weird Science and National Lampoon that he earned his reputation as the quintessential film maker of the decade.

“Many filmmakers portray teenagers as immoral and ignorant, with pursuits that are pretty base,” Hughes told the Chicago Tribune newspaper in 1985.

“They seem to think that teenagers aren’t very bright. But I haven’t found that to be the case. I listen to kids. I respect them. I don’t discount anything they have to say just because they’re only 16 years old,” he added.