John HughesFilmography

Born:: February 18, 1950 in Lansing, MI
Occupation:: Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Biography:: Once dubbed the "philosopher of adolescence" by film critic and fellow Chicagoan Roger Ebert, John Hughes made his mark as the man most frequently associated with the 1980s teen angst genre. With his name attached in some form to such genre classics as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty...Read More

Sort By:
Title
Release Date

New Port South

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Teen movie icon John Hughes returns to the genre he helped revolutionize as producer of the first screenplay written by his son James Hughes. Maddox (Blake Shields) is an intelligent but moody teenager growing up in a suburb of Chicago. High school student Maddox believes schools aren't designed Read More

9/7/01
Just Visiting

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jean Reno, Christina Applegate, Christian Clavier, Matthew Ross, Tara Reid

Synopsis: Lots of people find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, but this comic fantasy takes that notion to a whole new level. Count Thibault of Malfete (Jean Reno) is a brave warrior and respected nobleman in 12th century France. Count Thibault has won the heart of the lovely Princess Read More

4/6/01
Reach the Rock

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Bill Sadler, Alessandro Nivola, Bruce Norris, Karen Sillas, Brooke Langton

Synopsis: William Ryan made his directorial debut with this comedy-drama set in the small town of Shermer, Illinois, where vandalism by Robin Fleming (Alessandro Nivola) gets him thrown in jail by the two-man police force -- Sergeant Phil Quinn (William Sadler) and his dim-bulb deputy, Ernie (Bruce Norris). Read More

10/16/98
Flubber

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Christopher McDonald, Raymond J. Barry, Clancy Brown

Synopsis: Although "flub" is defined as "to make a mess of," the word "flubber" is a contraction from "flying rubber." In this remake of the 1961 comedy-fantasy The Absent Minded Professor, Robin Williams takes on the role created by Fred MacMurray and later executed by Harry Anderson on television, while Read More

1997
Home Alone 3

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Alex D. Linz, Olek Krupa, Rya Kihlstedt, Lenny Von Dohlen, David Thornton

Synopsis: For the third film in this series, Alex D. Linz replaced Macaulay Culkin as the central figure. Four industrial spies acquire a missile guidance-system computer chip and smuggle it through an airport inside a remote-controlled toy car. Because of baggage confusion, grouchy Mrs. Hess (Marian Read More

1997
101 Dalmatians

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, Joely Richardson, Joan Plowright, Hugh Laurie

Synopsis: There are more puppies than you can shake a rolled up newspaper at in this live-action remake of the Disney animated favorite 101 Dalmatians. Roger (Jeff Daniels) is a designer of computer games who shares his home with his pet dalmatian, Pongo. One day, Roger takes Pongo for a walk in the park Read More

1996
Miracle on 34th Street

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, Mara Wilson, Robert Prosky

Synopsis: The 1947 holiday classic Miracle on 34th Street is transplanted to the 1990s with few changes in this family-oriented remake. The screenplay by the prolific John Hughes sticks close to the original outline, centering on Macy's executive Dorey Walker (Elizabeth Perkins) and her young daughter Susan Read More

1994
Baby's Day Out

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Joe Mantegna, Lara Flynn Boyle, Joe Pantoliano, Brian Haley, Cynthia Nixon

Synopsis: John Hughes sticks to his seemingly fool-proof formula for success in Baby's Day Out, a cross-pollination of Home Alone and a Swee' Pea cartoon. The plot seems all-too familiar: posing as baby photographers, a group of three would-be kidnappers (led by the usually outstanding character actor Joe Pantoliano Read More

1994
Dennis the Menace

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Walter Matthau, Mason Gamble, Joan Plowright, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson

Synopsis: John Hughes continues the trend he began with the Home Alone series in Dennis the Menace, the Hughes-scripted film version of Hank Ketcham's long-running comic strip, cartoon show, and television comedy. The film opens as Dennis (Mason Gamble) is seen careening down a sidewalk in a beautiful and Read More

1993
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard

Synopsis: John Hughes and Chris Columbus repeat their best-selling formula from the first Home Alone film with this sequel. Once again Kevin McCallister's (Macaulay Culkin) family leave him behind, only now he gets on a flight to New York instead of going with his family to Miami. Kevin manages to hail a Read More

11/20/92
Curly Sue

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: James Belushi, Kelly Lynch, Alisan Porter, John Getz, Fred Dalton Thompson

Synopsis: John Hughes dishes out the sentiment by the ladle-full in Curly Sue. The film stars James Belushi as Bill Dancer, a down-on-his-luck drifter who lives by his wits on the highways and byways of the United States, stealing free meals, slipping into movie theaters, and sleeping in welfare hotels. Read More

10/25/91
Dutch

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Ed O'Neill, Ethan Randall, JoBeth Williams, Christopher McDonald, Ari Meyers

Synopsis: John Hughes re-works his already over-used formulas from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and Uncle Buck in this bald-faced rip-off directed by Peter Faiman. Ed O'Neill stars as working stiff Dutch Dooley. Dutch is in love with Natalie (JoBeth Williams), who is recovering from a failed marriage to Read More

7/19/91
Only the Lonely

Crew: Producer

Actors: John Candy, Maureen O'Hara, Ally Sheedy, Kevin Dunn, Milo O'Shea

Synopsis: Writer-director Chris Columbus mines Paddy Chaveysky's Marty for this bittersweet comedy about a lonely 38-year old Chicago cop dominated by his harridan mother. Danny Muldoon (John Candy), in spite of being well known and well liked in his neighborhood, still lives at home with his mother Rose (Maureen O'Hara Read More

5/24/91
Career Opportunities

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Frank Whaley, Jennifer Connelly, Dermot Mulroney, Kieran Mulroney, John M. Jackson, Barry Corbin

Synopsis: John Hughes strip-mines familiar terrain -- in this case his own past successes -- in this comedy that Hughes produced and scripted, directed by Bryan Gordon. Frank Whaley stars as Jim Dodge, a 21-year-old con-man who goes from job to job but likes to put on a facade of success. As Career Read More

3/29/91
Home Alone

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O'Hara, John Heard

Synopsis: Home Alone is the highly successful and beloved family comedy about a young boy named Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) who is accidentally left behind when his family takes off for a vacation in France over the holiday season. Once he realizes they've left him "home alone," he learns to fend for himself Read More

12/25/90
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, Diane Ladd, John Randolph

Synopsis: Chevy Chase, star of National Lampoon's Vacation and its sequel, is back as the paterfamilias of the Griswold family (including Beverly D'Angelo as his missus) to skewer the Yuletide season. Chevy mugs, trips, falls, mashes his fingers and stubs his toes as he prepares to invite numerous Read More

12/1/89
Uncle Buck

Crew: Co-producer, Director, Screenwriter

Actors: John Candy, Amy Madigan, Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby Hoffmann, Macaulay Culkin

Synopsis: In this cheerful, lightweight comedy, excruciatingly clumsy, disorganized, and messy Uncle Buck Russell (John Candy) becomes the screens most unlikely babysitter since Clifton Webb in Sitting Pretty. While their parents are away, eight-year old Miles (Macaulay Culkin), six-year old Maizy (Gaby Read More

8/16/89
The Great Outdoors

Crew: Executive Producer, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Stephanie Faracy, Annette Bening, Chris Young

Synopsis: In the John Hughes-scripted The Great Outdoors, John Candy stars as Chet Ripley, an oafish paterfamilias who takes his family on a vacation at a lakeside resort. Their enjoyment is seriously compromised when brother-in-law Roman Craig (Dan Aykroyd) shows up with his wife and kiddies. The rest of Read More

6/17/88
She's Having a Baby

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth McGovern, Alec Baldwin, Isabel Lorca, William Windom

Synopsis: An aspiring writer faces up to the responsibilities of marriage and family in this romantic comedy from writer, director, and producer John Hughes. Despite the misgivings he pours out to best friend Davis McDonald (Alec Baldwin), Jake Briggs (Kevin Bacon) marries high-school sweetheart Kristy Read More

2/5/88
Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins, William Windom, Michael McKean, Kevin Bacon

Synopsis: Were it not for its profanity-laden opening scenes, John Hughes' Planes, Trains and Automobiles might have been suitable family entertainment: certainly it's heaps less violent and mean-spirited than Hughes' Home Alone. En route to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his family, easily annoyed Read More

11/25/87
Some Kind of Wonderful

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, Lea Thompson, Craig Sheffer, John Ashton

Synopsis: In a gender-reversed version of his previous hit Pretty in Pink, John Hughes retreads all-too- familiar ground in Some Kind of Wonderful, the story of a sensitive, young would-be artist, Keith (Eric Stoltz), who vies for the affection of his high school's popularity queen, Amanda (Lea Thompson) Read More

2/27/87
Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones, Jennifer Grey

Synopsis: Teenaged Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is a legend in his own time thanks to his uncanny skill at cutting classes and getting away with it. Intending to make one last grand duck-out before graduation, Ferris calls in sick, "borrows" a Ferrari, and embarks on a one-day bacchanal through the Read More

6/11/86
Pretty in Pink

Crew: Executive Producer, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Molly Ringwald, Harry Dean Stanton, Jon Cryer, Andrew McCarthy, Annie Potts

Synopsis: John Hughes crafts an exemplary '80s Brat Pack romance out of the standard Cinderella story in Pretty in Pink. Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) is a teenager who lives in the dingy part of town with her terminally underemployed dad (Harry Dean Stanton). She works at a record store with eccentric Ionia Read More

2/28/86
National Lampoon's European Vacation

Crew: Producer, Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Jason Lively, Dana Hill, Eric Idle

Synopsis: Despite the many adventures they suffered in National Lampoon's Vacation, the Griswold family decides to take another crack at having fun. This time, the doltish clan heads across the Atlantic for a whirlwind vacation after winning a game show. Will the monuments of Europe survive? ~ Sandra Read More

1985
Weird Science

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly LeBrock, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Bill Paxton, Suzanne Snyder

Synopsis: John Hughes's third directorial effort, Weird Science, follows in the tradition of his previous teen-centered films, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith play the wannabe hipster Gary and his nebbish weak-willed best friend, Wyatt, a pair of Read More

1985
The Breakfast Club

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Paul Gleason

Synopsis: John Hughes wrote and directed this quintessential 1980s high school drama featuring the hottest young stars of the decade. Trapped in a day-long Saturday detention in a prison-like school library are Claire, the princess (Molly Ringwald); Andrew, the jock (Emilio Estevez); John, the criminal (Judd Nelson Read More

1985
Sixteen Candles

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Michael Schoeffling, Paul Dooley, Liane Alexandra Curtis, Justin Henry

Synopsis: On the eve of her sister's wedding, suburban teenager Samantha (Molly Ringwald) suffers silently as her family forgets her birthday. Even worse, some total dork (Anthony Michael Hall) keeps propositioning her with sophomoric innuendo when she really craves romantic attention from high-school hunk Read More

1984
Mr. Mom

Crew: Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Frederick Koehler, Taliesin Jaffe, Brittany White

Synopsis: Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) is a Detroit automobile engineer unjustly fired by his boss. Jack's wife Caroline (Teri Garr) is compelled to get a job to make ends meet, and is soon hired on as an advertising executive in a firm run by the shifty Ron Richardson (Martin Mull. This leaves Jack at home Read More

1983
National Lampoon's Vacation

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid

Synopsis: The first film in the Vacation comedy franchise stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, an ad exec who becomes consumed with taking his family cross-country to Wally World, a California amusement park. Less a vacation than a descent into a peculiarly American kind of hell, the Griswolds suffer Read More

1983
Nate and Hayes

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Michael O'Keefe, Max Phipps, Jenny Seagrove, Grant Tilly

Synopsis: After wiping out half a village of native South Pacific tribesmen, Captain Bully Hayes (Tommy Lee Jones) is eventually captured, put in prison, and the rest of this swashbuckling action film is told in a series of flashbacks as he remembers the recent past. The lead-in scene may be off-putting Read More

1983
National Lampoon's Class Reunion

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Gerritt Graham, Michael Lerner, Fred McCarren, Miriam Flynn, Stephen Furst

Synopsis: A high school class reunion turns bloody when a former student seeks revenge on his classmates in this black comedy. That mayhem would strike this 20-year reunion seems preordained, given that the name of the school is Lizzie Borden High. Little did anyone expect, however, that this trouble would Read More

1982
National Lampoon's Animal House

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: John Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna Bloom, Tom Hulce, Stephen Furst

Synopsis: Director John Landis put himself on the map with this low-budget, fabulously successful comedy, which made a then-astounding 62 million dollars and started a slew of careers for its cast in the process. National Lampoon's Animal House is set in 1962 on the campus of Faber College in Faber, PA. The Read More

1978