How did John Hughes, director of so many teen angst films, die?
John Hughes, the director and screenwriter who helped define a young generation with his ’80s films “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink,” has died. The cause was a heart attack, according to a statement from the publicists Paul Bloch and Michelle Bega. Mr. Hughes first began as a screenwriter, gaining notoriety for his screenplay for “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” which became a popular franchise. But his true success came with his directorial debut, “Sixteen Candles,” which made a star out of its young lead, Molly Ringwald. Mr. Hughes was responsible for a slew of films in the 1980s that defined what it meant to be an American teenager, from the music to the fashion to the social faux pas. His universe of nerds and jocks, socialites and misfits, rockers and rebels – not to mention overbearing principals, clueless teachers and absentee parents – also influenced a generation of movie-goers and -makers, versing them in a common language of pop culture idioms that
John Hughes, whose coming-of-age movies captured an American teenage generation between Elvis Presley and Britney Spears, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack while walking on a Manhattan street. He was 59. Hughes, a Michigan native who lived in Illinois, was visiting his family in New York, according to a spokeswoman. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2009/08/07/2009-08-07_titan_of_teen_angst_john_hughes_dies.html#ixzz0NVKIN7U5 Sources: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2009/08/07/2009-08-07_titan_of_teen_angst_john_hughes_dies.
