The Best Characters In John Hughes Movies
Get ready for a blast from the past as we rank some of John Hughes’ best and most memorable characters. There are so many great characters in John Hughes movies that it can be hard to pick a favorite. The writer/director/producer had an amazing output in the '80s and early '90s. His directorial debut was Sixteen Candles, which made Molly Ringwald a star. From there, he delivered the classics The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Hughes is best known for his teen comedies, but he was also responsible for films aimed at a more adult audience. Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a prime example. That R-rated 1987 Steve Martin and John Candy comedy gave us two of the very best John Hughes movie characters - Neal Page and shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith. In every case, Hughes created fictional people who felt real and who dealt with issues audiences could identify with.
Vote up the best John Hughes characters from the list below. It includes characters from movies where he was both writer and director, as well as films in which he was the writer and producer only, such as Pretty in Pink and Home Alone.
If one of your favorites isn't here, add it. Don't forget to check back to see how other users rank your addition.
- 1Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Played by: John Candy
Memorable quote: "The last thing I want to be remembered as is an annoying blabbermouth!"
- 2Uncle Buck
Played by: John Candy
Memorable quote: "We've done the battle of the wills. The deck's stacked in my favor. You're just gonna lose again."
- 3Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Played by: Matthew Broderick
Memorable quote: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
- 4Home Alone
Played by: Macaulay Culkin
Memorable quote: "This house is so full of people it makes me sick. When I grow up and get married, I'm living alone."
- 5The Breakfast Club
Played by: Judd Nelson
Memorable quote: "Being bad feels pretty good, huh?"
- 6The Breakfast Club
Played by: Anthony Michael Hall
Memorable quote: "You see us as you want to see us - in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions."
- 7The Breakfast Club
Played by: Emilio Estevez
Memorable quote: "We're all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all."
- 8Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Played by: Alan Ruck
Memorable quote: "Ferris Bueller, you're my hero."
- 9The Breakfast Club
Played by: Molly Ringwald
Memorable quote: "Do you know how popular I am? I am so popular. Everybody loves me so much at this school."
- 10Pretty in Pink
Played by: Molly Ringwald
Memorable quote: "If somebody doesn't believe in me, I can't believe in them."
- 11Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Played by: Mia Sara
Memorable quote: "Sooner or later, everybody goes kazoo."
- 12Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Played by: Steve Martin
Memorable quote: "As much fun as I've had on this little journey, I'm sure one day I'll look back on it and laugh."
- 13Pretty in Pink
Played by: Jon Cryer
Memorable quote: "May I admire you again today?"
- 14The Breakfast Club
Played by: Ally Sheedy
Memorable quote: "It's kind of a double edged sword isn't it? Well, if you say you haven't, you're a prude. If you say you have, you're a slut. It's a trap. You want to, but you can't, and when you do, you wish you didn't, right?"
- 15Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Played by: Mia Sara
Memorable quote: "Oh, he's very popular Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."
- 16Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Home Alone
Played by: Joe Pesci
Memorable quote: "I don't care if they give me the chair, I'm going to kill that kid!"
- 17Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Played by: Jeffrey Jones
Memorable quote: "Les jeux sont faits. Translation: the game is up. Your a** is mine."
- 18Sixteen Candles
Played by: Anthony Michael Hall
Memorable quote: "Can I borrow your underpants for 10 minutes?"
- 19Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Home Alone, Home Alone 4
Played by: Daniel Stern
Memorable quote: "I hope your parents got you a tombstone for Christmas!"
- 20The Breakfast Club
Played by: Paul Gleason
Memorable quote: "Don't mess with the bull, young man - you'll get the horns."
- 21Sixteen Candles
Played by: Molly Ringwald
Memorable quote: "I can't believe this. They f*cking forgot my birthday."
- 22Sixteen Candles
Played by: Gedde Watanabe
Memorable quote: "What's happenin', hot stuff?"
- 23Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Played by: Jennifer Grey
Memorable quote: "Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe Ferris isn't such a bad guy... But still, why should he get to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants? Why should everything work out for him? What makes him so god d*mn special? Screw him."
- 24She's Having a Baby
Played by: Kevin Bacon
Memorable quote: "And in the end, I realized that I took more than I gave, I was trusted more than I trusted, and I was loved more than I loved. And what I was looking for was not to be found but to be made."
- 25Some Kind of Wonderful
Played by: Mary Stuart Masterson
Memorable quote: "Don't go mistaking paradise for a pair of long legs."
