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Sad news, TheFeed readers: Film-maker John Hughes is dead. Hughes, whose writing and directing work includes 16 Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and National Lampoon's Vacation as well as many others, was 59. He died of a heart attack in Chicago.

It's impossible to overstate the influence of John Hughes on suburban teenagers of the 1980s -- his films defined fashions, music trends, and mind-sets for an entire generation, as well as launching the careers of countless famous actors and actresses. Thanks to endless repeats of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and The Breakfast Club on TNT, Hughes' influence extends into later generations as well.

Hughes' movies were so influential because, at their best, they took the internal lives of young people seriously -- there's very little condescension and pandering in his stories. Where other film-makers write teenage characters as either vacant idiots or little adults, Hughes seemed to understand that teenagers are neither, or maybe a little of both -- fully mature physically, but emotional beginners. The characters in Hughes' movies are what people are like before they become jaded -- scratch the surface of even the most anti-social delinquent in a John Hughe's movie, and you'll find something beautiful beneath the surface.

Hughes also managed to capture the sense that teenagers live in a different, slightly-magical world from the adults and children around them, and he didn't have to resort to cheap fantasy tropes to do it. The adults in Sixteen Candles or The Breakfast Club have no idea that personally cataclysmic, life-altering events are unfolding right below their noses. They don't know what the signs and signifiers mean. They can't speak the language. I think this is what gives John Hughes movies the feeling of myth. As in many myths, the plot in John Hughes movies seems to unfold in a unique plane of existence apart from the mundane world. Occasionally, outsiders will try to enter the sacred space (Rooney in Ferris Bueller, for instance, or the teacher in Breakfast Club) but they are always rebuffed, unless invited, like when Molly Ringwald confides in her father in 16 candles. Anyway, it's a pretty cool trick to take something as dull as a high school and create timeless drama (for kids, anyway) in the middle of it.

John Hughes will be missed, by everyone, I assume. For a little teary-eyed nostalgia, check out the youtube tribute video below -- bet you'll recognize and smile-at every single shot.

R.I.P., teenage film-maker guy. We love you man, even though Ducky didn't get the girl at the end of Pretty in Pink.

What are your favorite and least favorite John Hughes movies? Personally: I've always liked Pretty in Pink, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Vacation best, but I think Breakfast Club is overwrought and mawkish. Oh, and She's Having a Baby is pretty bad too.

"Life goes pretty fast. If you don't look around every once in awhile, you might miss it."--John Hughes