Director John Hughes has died aged 59 after suffering a heart attack in New York.
His best known films were The Breakfast Club (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987).
Whilst no-one serious is going to claim that he was one of the greats of his era, he definitely tapped in to the 1980s zeitgeist and his films became cultural touchstones for anyone who grew up in that decade.
Interestingly, after the mammoth success of Home Alone (1990), which he wrote and produced, he retreated from Hollywood with his last film as director being Curley Sue (1991).
Over the last two decade he spent more time with his family and maintained a farm in northern Illinois.
Earlier this year he was photographed enjoying a hockey game at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
He is survived by his wife Nancy and two sons, John and James and four grandchildren.
This is a fan montage of some of his most famous films:
Here are some original trailers:
> John Hughes at the IMDb
> BBC News report on his death
> LA Times article from 2008 on the influence of John Hughes