Strangely I just watched Ferris Bueller last night.
Sent by my sister a few hours ago (don't know where she got it):
The director of some of the most iconic movies of the 80's and 90's, John Hughes, died at the age of 59. According to TMZ, Hughes had a heart attack "while taking a morning walk during a trip to NYC to visit family." Hughes directed hit films such as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, and produced Home Alone, giving voice to disgruntled teens (in the Greater Chicago area, of course) and shedding light on high-school angst without trivializing it. Superbad producer Judd Apatow says Hughes invented the niche he now occupies: His great film characters were big inspirations, Apatow told The Los Angeles Times' Patrick Goldstein last year. When we were growing up, we were all like [Sixteen Candles' Anthony Michael Hall] – the goofy skinny kid who thinks he's cool, even if nobody else does. Superbad has that same attitude, that mix of total cockiness and insecurity. Hughes' style of filming also broke the mold, Goldstein writes: oftentimes, he'd allow the camera to continue rolling for four or five takes in order to get the proper tone and rhythm for a scene, and would ask his actors to stray from the script based on on-the-spot edits. In recent years, Hughes had strayed towards being "a Howard Hughes-style recluse," according to Goldstein, refusing interviews and professional representation, preferring instead to live quietly at home in Chicago...He is survived by his wife Nancy, sons John and James, and four grandchildren.