Before Generation X even had a name, John Hughes gave it a voice. For these kids of the Reagan era, the movies he wrote and directed in his ’80s heyday — Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — captured how it felt to be a teenager with an accuracy and sensitivity so uncanny, it often felt as though he’d jimmied the lock on your private diary. He only directed eight films, yet Hughes’ additional string of hits as a writer and producer, culminating in the juggernaut Home Alone franchise, established him as a dominant force in comedy — and then, at the height of his power, he dropped out of sight, becoming Hollywood’s answer to J.D. Salinger.

Even in his absence, Hughes’ knack for translating the humor and heartache of adolescence to the screen would continue to resonate with teens and leave a lasting mark on the movie business, influencing the likes of Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow. In the wake of his untimely death on Aug. 6 of a heart attack at age 59, Entertainment Weekly invited his friends and colleagues to share their memories of a remarkable man — and a remarkable career.

JON CRYER (Duckie from ‘Pretty in Pink’)

KEVIN BACON (Jake from ‘She’s Having a Baby’)

BILL PAXTON (Chet from ‘Weird Science’)

JEFFREY JONES (Principal Ed Rooney from ‘Ferris Bueller’)

ALAN RUCK (Cameron from ‘Ferris Bueller’)

LEA THOMPSON (Amanda from ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’)

KELLY LYNCH (Grey from ‘Curly Sue’)

HAROLD RAMIS: (director of Hughes-penned ‘Vacation’)

BEVERLY D’ANGELO (Ellen Griswold in ‘Vacation’)

DANIEL STERN (burglar in Hughes-penned ‘Home Alone’)

CHRIS COLUMBUS (director of ‘Home Alone’)

LEA THOMPSON:

It’s so sad. John, what a talent! The thing I remember about him as an artist was how much he invested in his characters. These people lived and breathed. He knew all his characters so well. That’s a really special gift. Most screenwriters that I’ve worked with didn’t have so much invested in their characters. I remember that when I was shooting a scene in Some Kind of Wonderful, he came to visit, and he said, “Can I look in your bag?” I had my, you know, my prop bag. And he looked in my bag, and I was so happy that I had stuff in there. It wasn’t just like paper. Because he was interested in if you had worked on your character enough that you actually knew what they would carry in their bag.

They weren’t just teen movies to him. They were people. They were people that he cared about. And I think that’s why people really respond to his movies. I’m still amazed at how many people quote this one line I said in Some Kind of Wonderful. The line is, “I’d rather be alone for the right reasons than with someone for the wrong reasons.” I’m not even quoting it right, but people quote it back to me perfectly. He really touched a lot of people. I’m sorry that we didn’t get even more of his work.

What I loved about my part in Some Kind of Wonderful is that she was supposed to be the most popular girl in school, and yet he made her an underdog. He had a way of breaking down stereotypes and showing how we all feel like the underdog. Even the quote unquote prettiest girl in school feels like that. And that speaks to a real understanding of people.

People keep trying to recreate what he did. And nobody seems to be able to. And that’s amazing. With all the brains and talent and the years that it’s been — I mean, Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink, all those movies are, what 25 years old? — trust me, people have been trying to do it, and no one can. So, he obviously had something really special.

More John Hughes Remembered:

JON CRYER (Duckie from ‘Pretty in Pink’)

KEVIN BACON (Jake from ‘She’s Having a Baby’)

BILL PAXTON (Chet from ‘Weird Science’)

JEFFREY JONES (Principal Ed Rooney from ‘Ferris Bueller’)

ALAN RUCK (Cameron from ‘Ferris Bueller’)

KELLY LYNCH (Grey from ‘Curly Sue’)

HAROLD RAMIS: (director of Hughes-penned ‘Vacation’)

BEVERLY D’ANGELO (Ellen Griswold in ‘Vacation’)

DANIEL STERN (burglar in Hughes-penned ‘Home Alone’)

CHRIS COLUMBUS (director of ‘Home Alone’)

Harold Ramis directed National Lampoon’s Vacation, which John Hughes wrote, based on his own short story.

HAROLD RAMIS:

I read the screenplay. I thought it was very good. And John and I had some meetings, and I guess I probably made some notes, and then Chevy [Chase] and I did a rewrite, which I’m not sure John was happy with [Laughs]. And I didn’t see him much, and then the ending of the film didn’t work at all when we tested it, so I had a notion for a new ending for the film, and John very quickly scripted that.

He was really quick. The meetings were short; we didn’t hang out or anything. It was very business-like, which I guess became his style, He was tremendously productive, obviously. But the thing that surprised me — and I can’t even say I was bitter about it — but after Vacation came out and was a pretty big hit, I saw John quoted in an interview saying he was going to start directing his own movies because he was tired of seeing his scripts ruined by other directors. [Laughs]

I ran into him once in Chicago. I moved back there like 12 years ago, and I went to our local multiplex. The usher said, “Hey, John Hughes is in the next theater.” So I walked over and John is standing there in the tunnel [entry hall outside the theater], not going in, but standing where he can see the screen. I said, “What are you doing?” He said, “I want to see how my trailer plays.” I said, “John, you’ve got 100 million dollars. What do you care how this trailer plays?”  [Laughs] And he said, “No, no, I care.” I thought, wow, that’s probably why he was so much more successful than I was—or at least productive. He really did care.

I wasn’t really surprised [he left Hollywood]. He was so focused on a certain area of life — adolescence and particularly suburban adolescence — he might have reached a point where he said all he could say about teenagers and their families and just didn’t have any new stories to tell. I always thought that was a mature and respectable choice. We lived two suburbs away from each other. He bought an amazing piece of farmland and developed it into a virtual English park. The story I heard was he bought this beautiful farm acreage, which was really flat, and had earth-movers come in and sculpt it into an English garden. And had a beautiful house up there, and it was a good life for him, I think.

I admired him. I was jealous of him. I really felt that John Hughes tapped into that same kind of Disney core of the American movie-going audience: There’s something wholesome and appealing and yet slightly subversive about his movies. As hard as I try sometimes, it’s hard for me to get real mainstream because I’m inherently counter-cultural. But John’s not. He was not a rebel, but he understood the rebelliousness of teenagers.

PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Locke/PR Photos

More John Hughes Remembered:

JON CRYER (Duckie from ‘Pretty in Pink’)

KEVIN BACON (Jake from ‘She’s Having a Baby’)

BILL PAXTON (Chet from ‘Weird Science’)

JEFFREY JONES (Principal Ed Rooney from ‘Ferris Bueller’)

ALAN RUCK (Cameron from ‘Ferris Bueller’)

LEA THOMPSON (Amanda from ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’)

KELLY LYNCH (Grey from ‘Curly Sue’)

BEVERLY D’ANGELO (Ellen Griswold in ‘Vacation’)

DANIEL STERN (burglar in Hughes-penned ‘Home Alone’)

CHRIS COLUMBUS (director of ‘Home Alone’)

BILL PAXTON:

He was quintessentially a Midwestern American in many ways. That voice was, to me, really a voice of the heartland, but it wasn’t like a country bumpkin vibe. He was a guy who came along to show the regionalists were actually pretty urbane. I always saw him as part of that big creative movement that came out of Chicago, with Second City. There was something about the way he was loyal to Chicago. He drew from the well that he’d known, and it was something we could all relate to.

It was a real family thing, making Weird Science. I remember [Hughes’ wife] Nancy really well. I remember his two sons around. There’d be coloring books in his bungalow.

I tell you the other thing I saw, which was amazing to me: One of great collaborations of a director and an actor was John with Anthony Michael Hall. They could almost finish each other’s thoughts. Because Weird Science was kind of a sketch of a script. It wasn’t as tightly scripted as The Breakfast Club, which could be performed as a play. And by then John had such an incredible working relationship with Michael, who was kind of his alter ego in many ways. Although all the characters he wrote were characters he could relate to, it seemed like Michael was like his on screen avatar in a way. But these guys, when they get going—it was exciting to see a director and actor work like that.

He was a giant, he really was. I mean, his impact on just filmmaking in general — it was such a strange thing when he decided to just pull up stakes. I guess he made enough money. He was a really private guy anyway, but he pulled up stakes and just split the whole scene. But I’d always wanted to look him up. I almost did one time a couple years ago when I was in Chicago but I just didn’t have the time. I just wanted to look him up to thank him for that role in that movie just changed my whole career. I always wanted to see him again to see if he had anything in a drawer anywhere — if he wanted to do Chet: The Early Years.

PHOTO CREDIT: Everett Collection

More John Hughes Remembered:

JON CRYER (Duckie from ‘Pretty in Pink’)

KEVIN BACON (Jake from ‘She’s Having a Baby’)

JEFFREY JONES (Principal Ed Rooney from ‘Ferris Bueller’)

ALAN RUCK (Cameron from ‘Ferris Bueller’)

LEA THOMPSON (Amanda from ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’)

KELLY LYNCH (Grey from ‘Curly Sue’)

HAROLD RAMIS: (director of Hughes-penned ‘Vacation’)

BEVERLY D’ANGELO (Ellen Griswold in ‘Vacation’)

DANIEL STERN (burglar in Hughes-penned ‘Home Alone’)

CHRIS COLUMBUS (director of ‘Home Alone’)