It seems weird that as I approached the first of my John Hughes characters on this list, that the man himself should die.

John Hughes was a brilliant writer and director who created a couple of characters who appear later on this list. Despite his tendency to put younger characters into fairly broad stereotypes (the nerd, the jock, the slacker, etc.), he still had an amazing understanding of what it was like going through high school and being a teenager, no matter what clique you supposedly belonged to.

He ruled the 80s teen scene with hits like "The Breakfast Club," "Sixteen Candles," and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," drastically different material than what most teen comedies were churning out back then (see "Porky's." Don't actually see it, though, it's awful). He eventually branched out from the teen genre with slightly wackier family-friendly fare in the late 80s and early 90s in films like "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" and the "Home Alone" movies.

Even though I was born in 1990 and was thus unable to take part in the 80s teenage years, I still felt like here was a guy, no matter how old he was when he wrote those films, that he got me at a time where very few people even try to remember what it was like to be a teenager. I would honestly be lying if I didn't say that John Hughes shaped who I am today.

Thanks, John. Thanks for making it bearable to be a teenager.

Rest In Peace