A Friend of the Geeks: John Hughes Dead @ 59

Another month, another iconic person dies.

John Hughes died today for an apparent heart attack today. He was 59 years old.

Back in the 80's, I wasn't really a John Hughes fan.

I was too engrossed into Eddie Muprhy's coolness, Prince's electric "Purple Rain" and Hip Hop flicks like "Krush Groove", "Breakin" and "Beat Street" than to care about a bunch of students serving detention ("Breakfast Club")

But all of that changed when I got to see got HBO for free one weekend and saw "Weird Science".

Sure the movie wasn't on the same level as "16 Candles" "National Lampoon's Vacation", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", (or Hughe's later works "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", "Uncle Buck" and "Home Alone"), but the the fact two geeks (Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith along with Robert Downey Jr.)could create a hot chick like Kelly LeBrock from a computer appealed me.

OK, it could have been my raging teenage male hormones (and it was), but the film appealed to me because I was geek just like Anthony Michael Hall was geek, just like Duckie (Jon Cryer)was a geek in "Pretty in Pink".

For the first time, someone was able to put on film how the coolness of geeks, the quirkiness of geeks and the torture of geeks to have a crush on someone when she likes someone else, (it still hurts Duckie).

Although many filmmakers have since tried the teen comedy thing, very few, even if they were good, were up to John Hughes level of filmmaking.

This is not only a testimony for the greatness of those films and the actors who performed in them, but also John Hughes' artistry, which will continue to live on and delight geeks for generations to come.

R.I.p Mr. Hughes