comment #1

dangovich says ...

The guy was visiting New York with his family. Hardly Howard Hughes-like behavior.

comment #2

VoiceOfReason says ...

Maybe we'll get a Peter Biskind Vanity Fair post-death takedown piece in a few months. Hope, hope, hope, fingers crossed.

comment #3

the sordid sentinel says ...

Could the reason nobody cares to dig deeper be that Hughes hasn't been relevant for nearly 20 yrs.? I enjoyed his films as much as any other child of the 80's, but c'mon.

comment #4

a1 says ...

"Nostalgia turns out to be a more powerful media force than gossip."

I don't think that's necessarily true, but if it was, I don't see anything bad about that, at all. You might want to try arguing otherwise before your next "scoop" about how Hughes is a big bloated fat fuck who left a fat corpse.

comment #5

Movie Geeks United says ...

I'm not sure what the big mystery is. He died of a heart attack while walking. Countless millions have suffered the same fate, because those kinds of heart conditions are often silent killers. And he "retired" from the business because he saw what was happening to his boys and the development of their jaded attitudes (by being the children of privileged parents and living the high life), and he wanted to focus on maintaining a more 'normal' family life for them. This has already widely been reported.

comment #6

Masheen says ...

Hughes dropped out to care for his family... and besides other things he mentored his son John Hughes III to set-up and run Hefty Records which might be a rather weird but quite a succesful music label

http://www.discogs.com/label/Hefty+Records

comment #7

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Actually the same site with the potbellied-Hughes-in-an-overcoat photo has one of him watching an '09 football game and he didn't look any different, just minus the beard. I never even hinted at faint hints that Hughes was a massively fat Jabba. I just said all along that something obviously killed him and it wasn't old age. And it is curious when someone passes under somewhat unusual circumstances (i.e., healthy people don't drop dead at 59) and the media almost makes a point of NOT asking why, how, what really happened, etc.? On top of which guys like you jump in and say "what's so bad about that? I loved Ferris Bueller! The man represents my '80s youth and must be respected and tributed!," etc.

comment #8

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

Even if he did die of issues relating to his weight, why the eagerness to have this confirmed? If you want to believe he died from eating pizza and drinking soda then go ahead and believe that if it reaffirms your worldview.

The implied "it serves him right" tone in the John Hughes articles you've posted is not pleasant at all.

comment #9

Clear says ...

That's what baffles me BBWD. Let's say everything Jeff would like exposed is exposed, and all of his resentments of successful people and fatties are confirmed: the story would be, in a different shade, as much of a so-what as the tributes. A retired-director dying of bad health, from bad habits, is still not a world changer.

comment #10

a1 says ...

Because nothing is gained from speculating on Hughes' death. For all intents and purposes, the guy hasn't had an effect on Hollywood or other public's lives for the last 15 years, except for nostalgia. If his Twinkie obsessions stopped his production of the "Home Alone" musical, you might have a point in bringing up his unhealthy behavior. But if the guy basically retreated into private life, then "John Hughes the Voice of the 80's" *is* the only thing people should react to, and his private health problems shouldn't concern you, me, or anyone else aside from his family.

comment #11

corey3rd says ...

""At the height of his career -- he was not just one of the most commercially successful writers and directors in Hollywood but a zeitgeist phenomenon -- he drops out."

he made Curly Sue....who wouldn't want to walk away from that piece of wreckage. And he didn't drop out. He was still writing and producing. He hadn't quit filmmaking. He hadn't quit Hollywood. He hadn't dedicated his life to a leaper colony or run guns in deepest Africa. He had always been making films- just nobody wanted to say that he made Flubber, Dennis the Menace, Beethoven, Just Visiting and Maid In Manhattan.

In the end, Hughes is a guy who had that moment in the mid-80s that he was gold. he's like an 80s act on VH1Classic. And then he embraced mindless, soulless family entertainment crap topped off with Drillbit Taylor.

comment #12

mattn says ...

Here's an apparently more recent photo; doesn't seem Howard Hughes-like to me:

http://www.daylife.com/photo/0axLbvM7P88rA?q=John+Hughes

Also, here's a blog post from someone who talked to him in the late '90s:

http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.html

suggesting he left Hollywood for the reasons generally quoted.

Wolff is a fairly irresponsible asshole; it took me about three minutes of googling to find these. He yet again shows how easy it is to be a gossip-monger (his post obviously took no actual work to write) but how it's a little harder to be an actual reporter.

comment #13

Carl Kolchak says ...

Okay, I get the idea that "healthy people don't just fall down dead at 59", of course, obviously you aren't well if this happens. But that doesn't mean you look at this person and do an easy connect-the-dots kind of analysis. "This guy died early so he must have been abusing himself in some way". It isn't that simple....or reassuring. My 51 year old brother passed away last year from a massive heart attack. No warning, no symptoms. He was in good shape, normal body weight, good diet, exercise. No extreme family history. Most people who die suddenly from heart attacks have good cholesterol numbers. There are so many factors involved. Yes, most contributors to this are preventable with a healthy lifestyle, but not everything. I know it would be more comforting to be able to say "I'm doing everything right, therefore I'm going to be fine" but it just isn't true. That's the cold hard truth. Hughes probably wasn't feeling well when he went on that walk, but it's only human to try to ignore these signs and assume that nothing bad is happening.

comment #14

Joshua Mooney says ...

Curiouser and curiouser. I have been trying to discover WHERE in Manhattan he dropped dead since the day he died. If anyone knows, please tell me. My research (admittedly desultory, and only on-line) has come up with nothing. But to quote Walter Peck in Ghost Busters, "I'm curious." About where he fell, and I find it odd I can get no info. Harlem? Upper East Side? West Village? Curry Hill? Noho? Hell's Kitchen? As a Manhattan resident, I'd like to be able to go there and spill out some warm gummi-bears for a lost O.G. homeboy. Is there a conspiracy at work here? Do tell. Is he, in fact, not even dead yet? I'm not entirely joking.

comment #15

scooterzz says ...

hughes was just being 'fashionable':

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/fashion/13POTBELLY.html?_r=1

comment #16

DeafBrownTrashPunk says ...

Hughes seemed like an extremely private man and I think he would have preferred this kind of media treatment. Just my guess, though.

Michael Jackson, on the other hand, was morbidly weird/fascinating and the subject of many media scandals over the years. Of course, his death has now unleashed a whole plethora of insanity and chaos, with random people popping up and claiming to be the biological parent of either of his kids.

comment #17

mccool says ...

Who GIVES a fuck???

He was fat. He died young. Coincidence? Not likely. Cause? Not necessarily. Pinning it to fatness has no bearing on your own longevity, so get past it already. How many times do you need to try to convince yourself that you're an Adonis who will live to be 110? You're obsession with pinpointing Hughes cause of death can ONLY be an attempt to convince yourself that you are free from it so you can avoid reflecting on your own mortality. "Oh he was a jabba so it must have been his obesity that killed him. People die at 59 IF AND ONLY IF they've sustained themselves on Oreos and Cheeze Wiz. Yup. I'm safe. Whew." Maybe you're not doing this consciously, but it's written all over HE the last week or so. It's obvious you're comforting yourself. Why else become so suddenly infatuated with a man who hasn't made a decent movie in 20 years and whom you've written about maybe once in the last ten? You're self-medicating...it's your site, cool...but it's boring. Jesus, go take a trueage or realage test or whatever the hell those stupid ads are for. I mean, if they say McCain is as fit as a 58 year old, how old can you be??

comment #18

Joshua Mooney says ...

P.S.: Having now read Wolff's "Newser" piece, I must say that Wolff not only doesn't suggest any answers, he barely begins to raise any questions. What is up with this? Cat's a journalist, supposedly? Why is he pulling his punches? Or is this his typical style? Why publish (or post --whatever) a piece that moves the story along not a bit and only restates the obvious?

He concludes: "The media protects its own... even at the expense of a juicy story." Hello, WHAT?? What the fuck is this guy talking about? What planet is he living on? John Hughes? "The media"? This is passive-aggressive paranoid crap. What am I missing? Please tell me why is anyone taking this absurd shit seriously.

comment #19

Travis Crabtree says ...

(NY Times - Oct. 11, 1985)

ORSON WELLES, DIRECTOR, FAT MAN, DEAD AT 70

Los Angeles - Noted writer, director, radio personality and actor Orson Welles died in his home yesterday at the age of 70. He was very fat. Welles became notable in the 1930's for the broadcast of his Mercury Radio Theater's production of "War of the Worlds". The realistic nature of the production caused many listeners to think that an actual invasion was taking place causing switchboards throughout the Northeast to light up all that night and into the next morning. At the time of the broadcast Welles was a little flabby, but not yet fully corpulent.
Besides being chubby, Welles will perhaps be best known for the 1940 film "Citizen Kane", which he not only wrote and directed, but also starred in as the rotund, titular character.
As the years went by, Welles girth increased to the point where the mere sight of his flabby, porcine body made normal people want to vomit.
He would later star in several films and television productions, usually playing fat men.
He died of a heart attack due to his fatness.
Friends and family remember his as a very fat man.
He was fat.

comment #20

rockne says ...

I love the way it's ALWAYS the SAME commenters who get on here and bash on Mr. Wells for everything he posts, when it wasn't even a story that he wrote.
There are a certain few who always get on here and get a rise out of Mr. Wells. It's a shame he gets on and responds to their ridiculous comments about how he hates everyone and everything and all his posts try to drag people down...
Do these guys have nothing better to do than bash a guy who writes a column...a guy they most likely don't even know?
Nikki Finke is the most opinionated writer out there, and no one bags on her half as much as some of these idiots bag on Mr. Wells, except for David Poland.
Do you have nothing better to do than sit here and read what Wells writes and tell him how much you hate his writing?
And watch: I guarantee those same people, and a few others tell me to get my head out of Jeff's ass and come up for air.
Hey, people: He didn't write the original article! Get over yourselves...

comment #21

sumo-pop says ...

Crabtree and I have gone back and forth, but I'm with him on this one. I should also say that his post was damn funny. Credit where credit is due.

comment #22

mccool says ...

rockne ... Wells has a comments section, which means he invites conversation. He's much more interesting when he's writing about movies and issues that he hasn't beaten, then beaten again, and again until they're dead, pulpy, bloody messes.

You don't see the irony? You tire of seeing us constantly chiding Wells and felt the need to comment. Our needling has become redundant and bothersome to you. Well you get it! I don't need to explain in much detail....

Wells' harping on Hughes and other matters has become redundant. So whatever compelled you to comment about any of us is what compels me to comment about Wells. I spend 30-40 minutes per day at HE reading Wells' posts and skimming his comments section. I could remain silent....but then, so could you.

comment #23

Baron Munchausen-by-Proxy says ...

he was scared it was going to cause them to lose perspective on what was important and what happiness meant. And he told me a sad story about how, a big reason behind his decision to give it all up was that "they" (Hollywood) had "killed" his friend, John Candy, by greedily working him too hard

The news coverage of Hughes' death, as well as freshly-unearthed articles, universally cite two reasons that Hughes left Hollywood:

1. He wanted to raise his sons far away from show business, because the participants were venal, shallow and crooked; and,

2. He felt that Los Angeles would engender an unhealthy lifestyle for his family. While some would presume that this refers to "mental health" and tied to #1, Hughes only given example was John Candy, and he was citing Candy for his awful health and ballooning weight and the fact that 'Hollywood' pushed Candy too hard, never affording Candy the opportunity or encouragement to get control of his physical well-being.

SO - what does Hughes do with himself after fleeing Sodom?

1. He buys his son, and assists his son in developing, a *music* company ("Hefty Records" - see #2 below); and,

2. He puts on what appears to be an extra 100 lbs, and drops from a heart attack at 59.

There is indeed an interesting story there. Its a shame, though, that Wolff doesn't even come close to assembling a "report" or even posing the obvious questions.

(And this shouldn't be read as a knock on Chicago. I believe I would pack on the pounds from Al's Italian Beef sammys immediately. But I don't live there - I do love visiting for the "Taste", though.)

comment #24

Baron Munchausen-by-Proxy says ...

(Whoops - that opening quote, without quote marks, natch, is excerpted from that recent "pen-pals with Hughes" blogposting that's been zipping around.)

comment #25

Ray says ...

Wells, I want you to pull up your shirt, stand in front of a mirror, and snap a picture of the resulting obscenity to post on HE. You talk and talk and talk about being surrounded by all of these fatasses ... let's see your svelte, sculptured frame.

I'm starting to see the truth behind funny articles like this one:

http://www.celebrityfreakshow.com/2009/08/movie-critic-threatens-suicide-over-stupidity-of-humanity/

comment #26

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

Lost a high school friend last year at age 42. He dropped dead on a treadmill in his own house, a routine he did everyday. Several of us noted that now was the time when the car accidents, homicides and suicides would be giving way to "natural" causes.

Between this and the Legos, you really are off your game today Wells...

comment #27

longrunner says ...

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/30/wells.jpg

Hmm... Seems to me that button over the belly looks rather strained, Mr. Perfect.

comment #28

MartinBlank says ...

He looks a bit thicker, but not massively so. Y'know, people do drop dead of heretofore undiagnosed heart conditions, cf. John Ritter, who was not a porker.

comment #29

DeafEars says ...

Wolff's a bit of a publicity whore himself. So I think the notion of someone getting sick of the rat race and voluntarily retreating from the public eye just confuses him beyond the point of no return. I mean, who in his right mind would want to do that, right? I was never a huge Hughes fan, but I certainly respect the way he lived his life and did his work on his own terms.

comment #30

danny bloom says ...

I'm the bloke at northwardho in Taiwan, far away from all this madness here, who first raised the medical questions about exactly how Mr Hughes died and of what? Even Ben Stein raised this question last week on the Larry King Show. The transcript in on the northwardho blog. The recent photos there, from 2001 and again in 2009 at a hockey game, Detroit Red Wings, they won the game, too, are meant to show Mr Hughes as a human being, who aged, as we all must age. Nobody said "somebody" killed him. Mr Wolff used the word WHO in his headline just for dramatic impact, maybe he meant to ask "Did Hollywood Kill John Hughes?" Wolff knows full well that people die suddenly from pokkuri (look it up) heart attacks at young ages, even 35, even 59. Nobody has said Mr Hughes was fat and that he died from overweight issues or diabetes or an undiagnozed heart condition that even his private doctor did not know about, as Ben Stein says on Larry King Show with Wolf Blitzer. It's just that really, all the initial obits did a poor job of explaining how he died. Mr VanAirsdale's shrine and post on Gawker and Movieline are important steps forward in this slow investigation. No one is calling foul play. Life happens. Death happens. But the media was extremely lazy in reporting the real facts of Mr Hughes' sudden demise, popping off like that at age 59 after being in seemingly good health. But was he in good health? Some savvy reporter at the NYer or New York mag or TNR will report the facts, from a medical POV soon, maybe even Gawker or Defamer will do it. These photos of Mr Hughes at at 50 and age 59 merely serve to make him more human, rather than that 1984 pic that is printed and reprinted everywhere. I think that is all Mr Wollf, who I have been in touch with, and Mr Wells here, who I think I have been in touch with, are saying? Maybe Gabriel Sherman will do a good report on all this later. But again, this is not to cast aspersions. We all loved John Hughes. But the media was lazy on all this and still is. Wollff raised some very good points as did Colby Cosh for the National Post in Canada, read his column there, too. He says same thing that Wolff said. And of course, I said it first on August 7 the day the obits first appeared, on my blog, but of course, nobody reads my blog, and my name means nothing. I am nobody.

comment #31

danny bloom says ...

As baron Vm says above "There is indeed an interesting story there." I know a top investigative reporter at a major newspaper in the USA who is looking into all this now, medical records and all, the personal doctor, Ben Stein, everyone invovled and his piece will be appearing soon. The wire services didn't have time or gumshoe polish to do it right, But stay tumed. A very nice and warm and lioving story is coming out soon about the real death of Mr Hughes. Noting to gossip about.

comment #32

danny bloom says ...

I told John at the Gothamist where some of this originated from:

"John, I think you misunderstood Mr Wolff's commentary on Newser and HuffPo.
He was saying that the media in general did a rather shabby job
writing the initial wire service obit, without really going into
details, not gory details, but just medical forensic details, and
thanks to Stu VanAirsdale gumshoe work, we now know. He beat AP and
Reuters at their game. And his make-shift shrine is a sweet piece of
urban engineering and a new StrawBerry Fields Forever might make its
mark for the Hughes Generation on that street site. Nice. Wolff did
not mean WHO killed Mr Hughes, he meant WHAT killed Mr Hughes and he
said so in his piece. Read it again. He wondered if maybe Hollywood
spit him out (Wolff had not read Alison Bryne Fields very popular
bleuology (that's blog eulogy) when he wrote that piece because now we
all know that Hughes told Alison that he left Hollywood in part
because he wanted to raise his kids far away from that den of BS and
also because he felt that Hwood had sort of caused John Candy's early
death at 43 and Hughes never forgave Hwood for that. That's all that
Mr Wolff was asking: Did Hollywood Kill John Hughes? Turns out
Hollywood did not kill John Hughes, he died of some kind of myocardial
infarction of the clogged artereies kind in a rather fast "pokkuri"
[google it] sudden popping off. Almost 60, his ticker was tired of
ticking. It will happen to all of us eventually. My only question
which nobody has answered yet is this: why did none of the newspaper
or blog stories about his passing show readers or viewers ("screeners"
as some people call online "readers" -- are you reading this or are
you screening this, John?) why did none of the newspapers worldwide
show a recent photo of Mr Hughes. I mean it's not 1984 forever. There
are two nice decent photos of him in 2001, looking a bit like Francis
Ford Coppola with a beard, salt and pepper, and a very nice family pic
of him at a Detroit Red Wings game on January 1, 2009, with his two
sons seated next to him on both sides. Why is everyone apparently
afraid to publish either of those two "recent" photos? YOU CAN SEE
BOTH OF THEM AT MY BLOG THAT NOBODY VISITS AT: "NORTHWARHDO" in the
blogspot community. Both photos btw are from IMDB data base and in the
public domain. And in neither photo is he fat. So case closed.
Clogging of the arteries led to JH's early demise. He will be missed.
The shrine rocks. "

comment #33

danny bloom says ...

A friend in Eastern Seabord tells me via email today: ..."...it is quite interesting tho...... Wolff is a bit of pussy for only asking questions and not answering them..."

comment #34

danny bloom says ...

What the Death of Baby Boomer Icon John Hughes Can Teach You About Heart Disease

by Melanie Haiken,

Caring.com senior editor

Last week, film director John Hughes, an iconic figure to Baby Boomers for his '80s-era movies about teenage angst, died of a heart attack at age 59. The outpouring of nostalgia and grief was palpable, and it wasn't just because Hughes inspired such affection, though he was a beloved figure. It was also a collective cultural gasp, because 59-year-old Baby Boomer icons are not supposed to have heart attacks while visiting family in New York, which is how Hughes died.

I did a little research about Boomers and heart attacks, and came upon some startling information. Our generation, it seems, is experiencing heart disease in higher numbers than any previous generation - and we can't blame cigarettes, prime villain for our parents' heart disease. The generation of adults currently between the ages of 46 and 64 (known as boomers thanks to a post WW II spike in the national birth rate) is less likely to smoke than our parents and grandparents. Yet we're getting heart disease earlier, and worse, than our parents and grandparents.

So what's to blame? Weight gain, pure and simple. The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that 73 percent of men and 60 percent of women ages 45 to 54 have a body mass index of 25 or higher, considered over the healthy weight limit for their height. And more than 30 percent of both sexes has a BMI of 30 or higher, which means they're considered obese. Along with weight gain comes elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure, and hardening of the arteries -- all risk factors for heart disease.

comment #35

danny bloom says ...

This AFP wire story did use the 2009 photo, they are the only wire service to do, I assume because it is an AFP file photo.

http://www.24heures.ch/depeches/culture/mort-john-hughes-scenariste-maman-rate-avion-beethoven

comment #36

free games says ...

Because nothing is gained from speculating on Hughes' death.