For a period of time, Hughes was so dominant — certainly in the U.S. where he always played best — that it’s hard to believe that he only directed eight films. He wrote 30 others — the “Home Alones,” most notably — that were produced, 16 of them in the ’80s, 13 in the ’90s, and contributed characters or ideas to a handful of others.
John Hughes died Thursday of a heart attack during a walk in Manhattan, where he was visiting family.
For the record, those eight films: Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), She’s Having a Baby (1988), Uncle Buck (1989), and Curly Sue (1991).
Among the films he wrote: National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983), Home Alone (1990) 101 Dalmatians (1996), and (under the name Edmond Dantes) the St. Bernard flick Beethoven (1992).