John Hughes Directs Pinocchio
I'm using some of the same cast members from Ferris Bueller's Day Off
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- Writer
- Producer
- Director
John Hughes was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter. He was credited for creating some of the most memorable comedy films of the 1980s and the 1990s, when he was at the height of his career. He had a talent for writing coming-of-age stories, and for depicting fairly realistic adolescent characters.
In 1950, Hughes was born in Lansing, Michigan. The city's main employers for much of the 20th century were manufacturing plants for automobiles. Lansing housed the headquarters of companies such as Oldsmobile and the REO Motor Car Company. Hughes' father John Hughes Sr. was a salesman, while Hughes' mother Marion Crawford worked as a volunteer for charity organizations.
Hughes had three sisters and no brothers. His family moved often. For most of his childhood, the Hughes family lived in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, a commuter suburb of Metro Detroit. According to an interview of Hughes, he was the only boy in his neighborhood while growing up. He was surrounded by girls and "old people," and there was no boys around for him to befriend. He spend a lot of time alone, and used his active imagination to keep himself entertained.
In 1963, the Hughes family moved to Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Hughes attended first the Grove Middle School, and then the Glenbrook North High School. His high school experiences reportedly provided inspiration for his teen-themed films of his career. According to interviews with Hughes' friends, Hughes had a poor relationship with his parents who often criticized him.
As an adolescent, Hughes felt the need to escape his problems. He became an avid film fan, as he found that films satisfied his need for escapism. He was a fan of both the Rat Pack (an informal group of actors and singers), and the music group The Beatles.
After graduating high school, Hughes enrolled in the University of Arizona. He eventually dropped out of the University, and tried to make a living as a comedy writer. He wrote jokes for professional comedians, such as Rodney Dangerfield (1921 - 2004) and Joan Rivers (1933 - 2014).
In 1970, Hughes was hired by the advertising company Needham Harper & Steers (1925-1986). That same year, Hughes married his former high school classmate Nancy Ludwig. Hughes worked in the advertising industry for several years. In 1974, Hughes was hired by the advertising agency Leo Burnett Worldwide. This company's most notable clients included the Pillsbury Company, StarKist, Heinz, Green Giant, and Philip Morris.
As a marketing agent, Hughes was assigned to handle Virginia Slims, a brand of cigarettes produced by Philip Morris. The assignment required him to regularly travel to New York City, where Philip Morris' headquarters were located. Hughes took the opportunity to visit the offices of the popular humor magazine "National Lampoon" (1970-1998) in New York City. He successfully negotiated a new position as a regular contributor to the magazine.
Hughes reportedly impressed the magazine's editors by producing quality work at a fast pace. Among his first short stories was "Vacation '58," based on his recollections of his family's vacations during his childhood. The story was eventually adapted into the road comedy film "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983).
"National Lampoon" co-produced films written by their staff writers. Hughes provided the script for the black comedy "National Lampoon's Class Reunion" (1982), depicting a serial killer who targets his former classmates. The film was poorly received and under-performed at the box office, but it inspired Hughes to try to make a career as a screenwriter.
Hughes subsequently wrote the scripts for both "National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983) and "Mr. Mom" (1983), comedy films which were box office hits. He then signed a contract for three films with the studio Universal Pictures. He made his directing debut in the coming-of-age comedy film "Sixteen Candles" (1984). The film depicted the misadventures of high school sophomore Samantha "Sam" Baker (played by Molly Ringwald). It performed well at the box office, and was well-received by critics.
Hughes quickly established himself as a leading director of teen films. His films "The Breakfast Club" (1985), "Weird Science" (1985), and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986) are considered classics of the genre. To cover new ground, he then directed "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987), featuring a duo of adult protagonists. The stars of the film were experienced comic actors Steve Martin and John Candy. The film was a hit. More importantly, Hughes and Candy became close friends. They would often work together in subsequent films.
Hughes' next film as a director was "She's Having a Baby" (1988), about the life of a newlywed couple. The film fared poorly financially and was considered rather "blasé" by critics. Hughes made a comeback with "Uncle Buck" (1989), about a lifelong bachelor who has to take care of his two nieces and a nephew. The film was a box office hit, earning about 80 million dollars at the box office.
Hughes' final film as a director was the comedy-drama "Curly Sue" (1991), about homeless con artist Bill Dancer (played by Jim Belushi) who desperately tries to keep the custody of his surrogate daughter. While moderately successful at the box office at the box office, the film was widely ridiculed for being overly sentimental.
In the 1990s, Hughes found success as a screenwriter, scripting several box office hits. Among his most notable films in this period were "Home Alone" (1990) and "Beethoven" (1992), with both films starting lucrative media franchises. Hughes also wrote the scripts of the sequels "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992) and "Home Alone 3" (1997). He also scripted a notable comic strip adaptation, "Dennis the Menace" (1993). It was based on the long-running comic strip "Dennis the Menace" (1951-) by Hank Ketcham (1920-2001).
In 1994, Hughes moved to the Chicago metropolitan area. At about that time, he started actively avoiding publicity. He rarely gave any interviews until the end of his life. In 1995, Hughes co-founded the production company Great Oaks Entertainment, which mainly handled co-production of Disney produced films. Hughes handled the scripting of two of the company's films: "101 Dalmatians" (1996) and "Flubber" (1997). Both were remakes of older films.
In 1997, Hughes severed his partnership with Ricardo Mestres. A year later, their final co-production, "Reach the Rock," was released. The film was scripted by Hughes, though it was uncharacteristically dramatic for a Hughes film. The film depicted the conflict between an alienated young man and a police chief.
In the 2000s, Hughes only scripted three more films. The most notable among them the romantic drama "Maid in Manhattan" (2002), a hit for protagonist Jennifer Lopez. It earned about 164 million dollars.
In August 2009, Hughes visited New York City with his wife. He wanted to visit one of his sons who lived there, and to meet his new grandson. On August 6, Hughes suffered a heart attack while walking in Manhattan. He was transported to Roosevelt Hospital, but died shortly after. He was fifty-nine years old.
Hughes was buried in Lake Forest Cemetery, a rural cemetery located in Lake Forest, Illinois. He was survived by his wife, their two children, and several grandchildren.Director- Actor
- Director
- Producer
A slight comic actor chiefly known for his boyish charm, Matthew Broderick was born on March 21, 1962 in New York City, to Patricia Broderick (née Biow), a playwright and painter, and James Broderick, an actor. His father had Irish and English ancestry, and his mother was from a Jewish family (from Germany and Poland).
Matthew initially took up acting at New York's upper-crust Walden School after being sidelined from his athletic pursuits (football and soccer) by a knee injury. His father got him his stage debut at age 17 in a workshop production of the play "On Valentine's Day". Matthew's career then accelerated with parts in two Neil Simon projects: the play "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1982-83) and the feature film Max Dugan Returns (1983). Broderick reprised the role of Eugene in "Biloxi Blues" (1988), the second installment of the Simon trilogy, for both the Broadway production and the film adaptation (Biloxi Blues (1988)). For the third and final installment of the trilogy, he was replaced by Jonathan Silverman. In 1983, the same year as Max Dugan Returns (1983), Broderick had his first big-screen success in the light comedy WarGames (1983). Since then he has had his fair share of hits and misses, with some of his better films including Project X (1987) also starring Helen Hunt, whom he subsequently dated; Addicted to Love (1997); and Inspector Gadget (1999). Other films he has appeared in which may be known but not so much respected include Out on a Limb (1992) with his Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) co-star Jeffrey Jones; The Night We Never Met (1993); The Road to Wellville (1994); and The Cable Guy (1996) with Jim Carrey, which got him an MTV "Best Fight" award nomination; and the MTV film Election (1999) with Reese Witherspoon. In 1985 he was involved in a controversial car crash while driving in Ireland with his then fiancée Jennifer Grey. The crash killed a woman and her daughter. Broderick paid a small fine to the family of the victims. He broke his leg in the accident, which happened just as Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), his biggest hit, was coming out in the US. The box office success (but critical flop) and special effects blockbuster Godzilla (1998) gave Broderick his first action role (should any "Godzilla" sequels be planned, he is under contract for two more). He has occasionally returned to the stage in New York, either in revivals of old musical warhorses such as "How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" or in revivals of old "show people"plays, such as "Night Must Fall". In 1996 Broderick attempted to wear three hats as co-producer/director/actor in Infinity (1996), working very closely with his mother, who also wrote the screenplay. It was not a critical or commercial success, and he has not directed or produced since. Since May 1997 he has been married to actress Sarah Jessica Parker. He was previously engaged to both Helen Hunt and dated Lili Taylor. In 1999 he donned a trenchcoat for the children's film Inspector Gadget (1999), alongside Rupert Everett as the evil villain Claw. In March 2001 Broderick returned to Broadway in the musical smash "The Producers" (based on the 1968 Mel Brooks film of the same name). He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, which he lost to his co-star, Nathan Lane.Role: Pinocchio- Actor
- Soundtrack
Alan Ruck was born on July 1, 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio, and has made over 100 appearances in films and television, and on stage. He is best known for his role as the friend of Matthew Broderick and hopeless hypochondriac Cameron Frye, in John Hughes's Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).
During the 1980s he appeared in films such as Class (1983) with Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy and Three for the Road (1987) with Charlie Sheen. The 1990s included Young Guns II (1990) with Emilio Estevez and Lou Diamond Phillips, Star Trek: Generations (1994), Speed (1994) with Keanu Reeves and Twister (1996) (the latter two films are directed by Jan de Bont).
Ruck's television appearances include Tales from the Crypt (1989) opposite Lou Diamond Philips, Mad About You (1992) with Helen Hunt (his co-star in Twister), and Spin City (1996) with Michael J. Fox.
Ruck made an appearance in the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998) which reunited him with his Twister co-star Cary Elwes.Role: Lampwick- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cindy Pickett was born on 18 April 1947 in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, USA. She is an actress, known for Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Son in Law (1993) and DeepStar Six (1989). She was previously married to Lyman Ward.Role: The Blue Fairy- Lyman Ward was born on 21 June 1941 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. He is an actor, known for Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Not Another Teen Movie (2001) and Independence Day (1996). He was previously married to Cindy Pickett, Leigh Heine and Cathy Gelbart.Role: Geppetto
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Jeffrey Duncan Jones was born in Buffalo, New York. He is a very tall, fair-haired character actor who is recognized all over for his excellent work. He is a veteran stage actor having such plays as "The Elephant Man" and Neil Simon's "London Suite" under his belt. His first film role was in The Revolutionary (1970).Role: The Talking Cricket- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Ben Stein (Benjamin J. Stein) was born on Nov. 25, 1944 in Washington, D.C. The son of noted economist and writer Herbert Stein, he grew up in Silver Spring, Md., and attended Montgomery Blair High School. Some of his classmates included journalist Carl Bernstein, and actors Goldie Hawn and Sylvester Stallone. He graduated from Columbia University in 1966 with honors in economics and as valedictorian of the 1970 Yale Law School class. He has worked as a poverty lawyer, a trial lawyer, a university adjunct (American University, University of California at Santa Cruz and Pepperdine University), a speech writer for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, King Features Syndicate, Los Angeles Magazine, New York Magazine, E! Online and The American Spectator. He also writes frequently for The Washington Post. Stein has written and published 16 books (seven novels, nine nonfiction books), the most recent of which is about life with his 12-year-old son, Tommy. He has been a longtime screenwriter and was one of the creators of the TV series Fernwood Tonight (1977). He has acted and made guest appearances in numerous movies and TV series, appears in many TV commercials and is the host of two Comedy Central TV series, Win Ben Stein's Money (1997) (October, 1997-2002) and Turn Ben Stein On (1999). He is married to entertainment-industry attorney Alexandra Denman, son Tom Stein,Role: Medoro- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Writer
The great character actor Richard Edson's first feature film role came in Jim Jarmusch's 1983 cult hit, Stranger Than Paradise (1984), where he played "Eddie", one of the main characters. Edson then had small, but memorable, roles in other big hits such as Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), John Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Oliver Stone's great Vietnam-movie Platoon (1986), Barry Levinson's Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) and, in 1989, Edson starred in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989). In 1993, he played "Spike", one of the evil King Koopa's henchmen, in Super Mario Bros. (1993) and, in 1995, he had a part in the engaging sci-fi thriller, Strange Days (1995). More recently, he has appeared in the remake of Starsky & Hutch (2004), the dubious horror-flick, Frankenfish (2004) and is currently starring with Tom Arnold in The Kid & I (2005).
In addition to his film success, Edson has had a fascinating career in music, being the original drummer in the New York post-punk band, Sonic Youth, and spending three years as drummer for the rhythmic dance band, Konk. (Actually, he was a trumpet player in Konk, not the drummer) It was his involvement in Konk and the New York art scene that caught Jim Jarmusch's eye and led to his being cast in Stranger Than Paradise (1984).
Edson currently lives in Los Angeles where, in addition to acting, he is very active in music, writing and photography.Role: The Fox- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Larry Flash Jenkins was born on 10 May 1955 in Long Island, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Fletch (1985) and Mr. Mom (1983). He was married to Michelle, Harriet Michele Lark and Jean Coleman. He died on 25 April 2019 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Role: The Cat- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Jonathan Schmock was born on 26 February 1956 in San Diego, California, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) and Blossom (1990).Role: Mangiafuoco (Stromboli)- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Del Close was born and raised in Manhattan, Kansas, and attended Kansas State University, after touring with a sideshow act for a period of time in his teenage years. In 1957, at the age of 23, he became a member of the St. Louis branch of "The Compass Players", the direct precursor of "The Second City", which opened in December, 1959. Most of the St. Louis cast went to Chicago, but Close chose New York and a budding career as a hip, young stand-up comic in competition with Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Bob Newhart, etc. That same year, he also appeared in the off-Broadway musical, "The Nervous Set", of which an original cast album exists. Close came to Chicago in 1960 and, more or less, made it his home for the rest of his life, always gravitating back there after a few months or even years elsewhere. Perhaps he understood instinctively the advice Paul Sills gave Stuart Gordon some years later: "Come to Chicago", they Close directed and performed at "The Second City", until he was fired (major substance abuse problems) in 1965.
He spent the next five years in San Francisco eating acid and touring with the "Merry Pranksters" on their famous psychedelic bus, creating light images for Grateful Dead, and working with The Committee, a North Beach equivalent of "Second City", which Close helped organize. It was at "The Committee" that he first began seriously to develop his ideas and techniques of long-form improvisation, although "Second City" had experimented with long-form as early as 1962. Close returned to Chicago in 1970 and set up a free, open-to-all workshop at the Kingston Mines Company Store, the café attached to the Kingston Mines Theatre Company on Lincoln Avenue (where the parking garage of Children's Memorial Medical Center now stands). He drilled his students -- everyone from acid-dropping love children to a vice-president of the Foote, Cone and Belding advertising agency -- in the basic principals of improv and theatre games, and in the specifics of "The Harold", a long-form improv technique developed by Close. At a time when most improvisation mainly focused on creating single scenes, Del devised "The Harold" as something not unlike a sonata form. Several themes would be established, a community of characters would be introduced, and then the resulting scenes would play off each other in comedic counterpoint -- characters from one environment moving to another and phrases and images recurring, each time accruing new meaning. Going to this from conventional sketches was like going from arithmetic to calculus. (Why was it called "The Harold"? When he introduced it, one of his students said, "Del, you've invented something, you get to name it". Del said, "Well, the Beatles called their haircut "Arthur", so I'll call this Harold". He later regretted the flipness. "Probably my most significant contribution and it's got that stupid name").
The weekly public performances at Kingston Mines sometimes had as many as 20 performers participating. After a few months, Close hand-picked a dozen of his best, and moved operations down the block to the Body Politic for twice-weekly workshops and Sunday night performances. He named the company "The Chicago Extension Improv Company", as an extension of his San Francisco work. The best-known players to emerge from the troupe were "Broadway" Betty Thomas, Dan Ziskie, Brian Hickey and Jonathan Abarbanel.
Before leaving Chicago, again, in 1972 to perform for Paul Sills in a Story Theatre production at the Mark Taper Forum in LA, Close and "The Chicago Extension" had begun to explore scenario improvs based on dreams. The techniques the "Extension" developed after Close left became Dream Theatre, which continued at the Body Politic over the next five years, although with different personnel. Close returned to Chicago in 1973 as resident director at "The Second City", a position he kept until 1982. It was during this decade that he taught and directed a long list of TV and film comedy greats, including John Belushi, Bill Murray, John Candy, Don DePollo, George Wendt, Audrie Neenan, Eugenie Ross-Leming, David Rasche, Shelley Long, Ann Ryerson, etc.
Upon leaving the troupe, Close pursued legitimate acting opportunities with a number of theatres, including Wisdom Bridge, Remains, Goodman and Steppenwolf. He won his Joseph Jefferson Award in 1985 in a radical "Hamlet", directed by Robert Falls at Wisdom Bridge. Close also did TV and film work, appearing in The Untouchables (1987) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), among others. It was during this period that Close finally beat his long heroin addiction (although he continued to smoke cigarettes and marijuana), in part truly shocked by the excesses and death of John Belushi, and, in part, because, as he told Jonathan Abarbanel, "I've decided I want to live".
Close was enjoying his new theatrical vistas, as well as a successful professional partnership with Charna Halpern and ImprovOlympic, which allowed him to concentrate on further development of "The Harold", and on team improv. Close was 64 when he died of complications due to emphysema the evening of March 4, 1999, just five days shy of his birthday. He left no survivors, although he claimed to have fathered an illegitimate child by a woman in Minneapolis sometime in the late 1950s. Close requested in his will that his skull be given to the Goodman Theatre so that he could play Yorick in the company's next "Hamlet". However, Halpern, his executor, was unable to persuade doctors to remove Close's skull, and it was cremated along with the rest of his body.
Close was one of three titans of improvisational theatre who put it on the map, refined it, and turned it into the fixture of comedic and acting technique which it has become. The first was Viola Spolin, who started the work in the 1930s with her development of theatre games -- originally for children -- as exercises in imagination. She didn't utilize them for public performance. It was her son, Paul Sills, who was able to take theatre games and use them as the basis for development of satirical revue comedy. Sills and a group of brilliant cohorts, including Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Shelley Berman, Sheldon Patinkin and others made this work the focus of various company experiments in the mid-1950s, including the Compass Players in Chicago and St. Louis. In 1959, The Second City opened, co-founded by Sills, Howard Alk and Bernard Sahlins. Close arrived on the scene a year later. Within three years, both Sills and Alk had left the troupe to pursue other ventures. Alk continued to work in the improv field, but died young. Sills has retained improv and theatre games within his artistic repertory -- it is part of the basis of his Story Theatre -- but has not devoted his career to it. Close, then, became the third titan of improvisation after Spolin and Sills, and the only one to devote his artistic life and best theoretical thinking to it. He fully understood pain and suffering as a basis for comedy, as well as the nature and limitations of the comedic form. The Harold, the scenario, long-form improv -- call it what you will -- is his personal legacy to the field; while his own boundless, sometimes manic drive as a charismatic teacher and director have done more to establish improvisational theatre around the world than anything or anyone else. The explosion of improv troupes and teams and classes (the Museum of Contemporary Art offers an improv class, for example), and the inclusion of theatre games and improv exercises in standard acting curricula, are the result of the work of Spolin and Sills and Close. With specific regard to long-form improv and Close's own contribution, that legacy will grow even greater through the next generation, as his students and acolytes inherit the world of comedy.Role: Farmer