John Hughes, the director of such iconic teen comedies as “16 Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Beuller’s Day Off,” died Thursday in New York, the Associated Press reports.

Hughes also directed “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” much of which was filmed in St. Louis. And among the films he wrote or produced were the wildly successful “Home Alone” and “Vacation” movies.

After writing, directing and producing a string of hits in the 1980s, the Chicago resident became a virtual recluse. In 2008, one of his unproduced script ideas was adapted into the Owen Wilson comedy “Drillbit Taylor,” but Hughes did not participate in the production. Indeed, he was rarely seen in public for the last two decades of his life.

Here’s the AP report:

NEW YORK – Writer-director John Hughes, Hollywood’s youth impresario of the 1980s and ’90s who captured and cornered the teen and preteen market with such favorites as “Home Alone,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” died Thursday, a spokeswoman said. He was 59.

Hughes died of a heart attack during a morning walk in Manhattan, Michelle Bega said. He was in New York to visit family.

A native of Lansing, Mich., who later moved to suburban Chicago and set much of his work there, Hughes rose from ad writer to comedy writer to silver screen champ with his affectionate and idealized portraits of teens, whether the romantic and sexual insecurity of “Sixteen Candles,” or the J.D. Salinger-esque rebellion against conformity in “The Breakfast Club.”

Hughes’ ensemble comedies helped make stars out of Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and many other young performers. He also scripted the phenomenally popular “Home Alone,” which made little-known Macaulay Culkin a sensation as the 8-year-old accidentally abandoned by his vacationing family, and wrote or directed such hits as “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” “Pretty in Pink,” “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” and “Uncle Buck.”

Other actors who got early breaks from Hughes included John Cusack (”Sixteen Candles”), Judd Nelson (”The Breakfast Club”), Steve Carell (”Curly Sue“) and Lili Taylor (”She’s Having a Baby“).

As Hughes advanced into middle age, his commercial touch faded and, in Salinger style, he increasingly withdrew from public life. His last directing credit was in 1991, for “Curly Sue,” and he wrote just a handful of scripts over the past decade. He was rarely interviewed or photographed.

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Personally I will remember Hughes best for his contribution to the National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook Parody and the Sunday Newspaper Parody, which he co-edited with P.J. Rourke before embarking on his movie career. Oh, and for helping to popularize new-wave music.

Now it’s your turn:

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