RIP Director John Hughes

John Hughes died today at age 59 of a heart attack. John Hughes movies and the 1980's - these were my teenage years, and like millions, I thought John Hughes was speaking just to me. I lived in the Chicago suburbs, and that's mostly where he filmed. He was just a huge influence on me then. I felt like going to his movies, that I was invited to party with the cool kids.

And the list of actors who started in John Hughes is incredible: Molly Ringwald, Matthew Broderick, Judd Nelson, James Spader, Andrew McCarthy, and both John AND Joan Cusack, and the entire Brat Pack including Emilio Estevez.

My favorite John Hughes movie was the classic Pretty in Pink from 1986. Interestingly, John Hughes had to refilm the ending, because the original had Duckie winning the girl in the end. Test audiences rejected that, wanting the Cinderella ending with Blaine.