John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1950)
John Wilden Hughes Jr. (February 18, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American filmmaker. Hughes began his career in 1970 as an author of humorous essays and stories for the National Lampoon magazine. He went on to Hollywood to write, produce and sometimes direct some of the most successful live-action comedy films of the 1980s such as National Lampoon's Vacation, Mr. Mom, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, She's Having a Baby, Uncle Buck, Home Alone, Dutch, Beethoven (co-written under the pseudonym Edmond Dantès), Dennis the Menace, and Baby's Day Out.

Most of Hughes' work is set in the Chicago metropolitan area. He is best known for his coming-of-age teen comedy films which often combined magic realism with honest depictions of suburban teenage life. Many of his most enduring characters from these years were written for Molly Ringwald, who was Hughes' muse.While out on a walk one morning in New York in the summer of 2009, Hughes suffered a fatal heart attack. His legacy after his death was honored by many, including at the 82nd Academy Awards by actors with whom he had worked such as Ringwald, Matthew Broderick, Anthony Michael Hall, and Macaulay Culkin, among others. Actors whose careers Hughes helped launch include Michael Keaton, Hall, Bill Paxton, Broderick, Culkin, and members of the Brat Pack group.