A writer and editor for National Lampoon magazine, Hughes started in films by writing scripts for two forgettable movies, "National Lampoon's Class Reunion" (1982) and "Nate and Hayes" (1983). These were followed by two family comedy hits of 1983: "National Lampoon's Vacation", which displayed his debt to the magazine's low comedy style, and "Mr. Mom", which revealed his talent for capturing the comic absurdities of the suburban family. His first film as a writer and director, "Sixteen Candles" (1984), about the heartaches suffered by a young girl (Molly Ringwald) on her 16th birthday, firmly established his command of teenage comedy. "Weird Science" (1985) was a Frankenstein-like fantasy about two lonely high school "nerds" who create the perfect woman for themselves, only to realize that they are better off with girls their own age. "The Breakfast Club" (1985) charted the gradual self-discovery of five high school students serving time in a Saturday detention hall and clearly expressed Hughes' central concern with the perils of coming-of-age. In these early films, and again in the likable "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), Hughes suggested, cheerfully if unconvincingly, that adolescent woes evaporate once teens recognize their self-worth; by means of a mediator (Ferris for his pal Cameron, Lisa for the two boys in "Weird Science", the "Breakfast Clubbers" for one another), Hughes' high schoolers learn to "fit in" simply by being themselves.

"Pretty in Pink" (1986), written and produced by Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch, was a working-class version of "Sixteen Candles", and the first Hughes film to look at the costs of assimilation rather than seeing it as an end in itself. For the first time, too, Hughes made explicit the class tensions which had been implicit in his earlier films--tensions which become even more central in "Some Kind of Wonderful" (1987, also directed by Deutch for writer-producer Hughes), the culmination of his high school cycle. Here, the middle- to lower-middle-class characters achieve liberation by resisting the snares of the status quo; the rich kids, on the other hand, are trapped in a life of mean-spirited hedonism because of their blind allegiance to a system that fosters petty rivalries and inhumane expectations.

After "Ferris Bueller", Hughes the writer-director tackled life beyond high school. "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987) focused on the misadventures of two traveling businessmen (Steve Martin and John Candy). "She's Having a Baby" (1988) was a vision of what might happen to the couple from "Sixteen Candles" after they get married. "Uncle Buck" (1989) effectively combined Hughes' comic exaggeration with his acute awareness of the problems hiding inside handsome suburban homes. "Home Alone" (1990, written and produced by Hughes, directed by Chris Columbus) took the Hughes focus down to the eight-year-old level and proved a scorching box-office success, as did a sequel, "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (1992).

It is easy to dismiss Hughes as a mere "high school humanist." His characters do, however, ask themselves some tough questions, and they do come up with honest answers. "I realized that I took more than I gave," says the young husband at the end of "She's Having a Baby", "that what I was looking for was not to be found but to be made." At his best, Hughes deftly blends comedy and drama, digging beneath the superficial tranquility of suburbia to examine the restive quality of modern American life.