John Hughes Interpreted the "X" in Generation X.

Legendary Filmmaker John Hughes' untimely death from a heart attack (while taking a walk oddly enough) takes with him the rest of his foray into defining "Generation Next" which, with films like The popular "Beethoven" series, and the "Home Alone" franchise began to do so well. While his work is timeless, and now for the ages, if there is to be an epitaph made of the man for his body of his work, it is this: "Here lies John Hughes, the Interpreter or Generation X".

His body of work defines the generation of which I am proud to be a part. To speak of John Hughes' work is to take a trip down memory lane.

In "Sixteen Candles" he introduced us to the possibility of true love as our generation defines it, something totally different than the love of the 50's and 60's.

In "The Breakfast Club", John Hughes introduced us to an exaggerated mirror of ourselves, the "we" that we would become if only left to our own devices, the first peek at the mishmash that became preppydom, alternative, Grunge and even Emo.

In Ferris Bueller's Day off, he celebrated the fantasy lives of the generation that would grow up to simply "do its own thing", a generation that would eventually "take a pass" just as Ferris did, on convention, defining for ourselves a new convention where forthrightness is preferred over the obsequious.

Weird Science, arguably the first "mega nerd" movie, challenged us to respect the geek....to value that which we can do with a computer. When the movie came out Dads across America were still telling their kids to go outside because No one was ever going to pay us to sit in front of the computer". We knew better, and today millions of us (and of those dads) now earn a handsome living from "that damned box".

Planes Trains and Automobiles taught a new generation of Americans to enjoy the road trip invented by our parents, but taken to a new level by Gen X.

In "She's having a Baby" John, in his own way showed the boys of Gen Ex what it looked like to "man up" in the face of becoming a parent unexpectedly.

The list continues with movies like "Uncle Buck" "Christmas Vacation", "Career opportunities" and more.

When John was done with our generation, he moved on to our kids with movies like 101 Dalmatians and Flubber, Miracle on 34ths street, and Curly Sue.

John Hughes was not Ghandi. He was not Mandela. He never made an "epic", and yet the man that made the "brat pack" famous, somehow left an indelible mark on the fabric of our culture. Thank you, and Godspeed John Hughes.