John Hughes, the American film director behind The Breakfast Club and other seminal works of the teen-film canon of the 1980s, as well as the screenplay for Home Alone, has died in New York. He was 59.
He died Thursday of a heart attack while on a morning walk,
according to his spokeswoman, Michelle Bega. He was in Manhattan
visiting family.
Hughes began his comedy career as a writer for National Lampoon magazine, and his first successful screenplay was National Lampoon's Vacation in 1983.
As a director, he made a string of hit, teen-oriented films in the 1980s, including The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Weird Science and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
His greatest commercial success was Home Alone, the 1990 film he wrote about a child left home alone by accident who foils a pair of inept burglars.
Directed by Chris Columbus and starring Macaulay Culkin, it was the top-grossing film of the year.