Breakfast Clubbers, Stars Say Goodbye to John Hughes, Childhood

Demi Moore, Soleil Moon-Frye, Rainn Wilson and more tweet their respects to the late filmmaker

You didn't have to be a Brat Packer to identify with the characters in John Hughes' movies. Really, you just had to have feelings.

Molly Ringwald, the poster girl for '80s suburban teen angst, was "stunned and incredibly sad" to learn of Hughes' sudden death today at the too soon age of 59.

"He was and will always be such an important part of my life," she said of the man who directed her in Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. "He will be missed—by me and by everyone that he has touched. My heart and all my thoughts are with his family now."

Jon Cryer, who crushed hard on Ringwald in the Hughes-penned Pretty in Pink, called his passing "a horrible tragedy."

"He was an amazing man to work for and with," the Two and a Half Men star, who was barely 21 when he played the penniless yet adorable outcast Duckie, said.

"He respected young actors in a way that made you realize you had to step up your game because you were playing in the big leagues now. That's why he got such great performances out of his actors. My heart goes out to his wife Nancy and their children."

Another one of those young actors—Macaulay Culkin, who starred in the Hughes-directed Uncle Buck and Home Alone, which Hughes wrote—was also an all-around fan.

"I was a fan of both his work and a fan of him as a person," he said in a statement. "The world has lost not only a quintessential filmmaker whose influence will be felt for generations, but a great and decent man."

Breakfast Club bad boy Judd Nelson says that he cherished the one time he got to work with Hughes, whom he called "a giant" under whose "great shadow we remain."

"He had a profoundly meaningful and lasting affect on my life as an actor, and as a young man," the actor said in an eloquent statement. "John's desire for the truth of the spoken word aligned perfectly with his gift for treating young people not as children, but as developing adults.

"John always treated me with respect and consideration. He encouraged a real and active collaboration, he was most generous with his insight...I know many people whose lives were touched by John will be saddened today.

"I know I am."

Not unexpectedly, many of the late filmmaker's celebrity fans—many of whom weren't even old enough to join The Breakfast Club at the time—paid their respects Thursday via Twitter. (Which, if it had existed in 1985, would have given the Princess, the Basket Case and the others a much less interesting way to spend their Saturday detention.)

"John Hughs' inconic [sic] films gave a powerful voice to a generation. He will be missed but never forgotten!," tweeted part-time Brat Packer, Demi Moore, who joined Hughes minions such as Ally Sheedy and Emilio Estevez in the Joel Schumacher-directed St. Elmo's Fire.

Others who enjoyed Hughes at a more removed distance:

• Shanna Moakler's life was changed by Sixteen Candles.

• Rainn Wilson called The Breakfast Club "a revelation to my late teenage years" and called Hughes his hero.

• True to hipster form, Juno scribe Diablo Cody tweeted that the writer-director was "an idol to this magna-zoom-dweebie."

• Denise Richards "grew up watching his movies" and her "heart goes out to his family."

• "Thanks 4 the nostalgia you gave us all," '80s kid Soleil Moon Frye tweeted. She was joined by fellow former child star Alyssa Milano, who duly thanked Hughes for "making my teen years bearable."

• "With him goes my childhood," added Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas, 37, who was exactly the right age to identify with Hughes' brand of cinematic teen angst.

• Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes offered up the "life moves pretty fast" quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Indeed it does.

(Originally published Aug. 6, 2009, at 3:42 p.m. PT)