When the news of the death of writer and director John Hughes broke yesterday, anyone who was born between, say, 1967 and 1973 (Update: my younger colleagues are correcting me with a cut-off date of 1984) paused to reflect on his body of work, and what his movies, including the trio of suburban teen-angst hits “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink,” meant to them.

As the “Good Morning America” story on Hughes put it: “John Hughes didn’t just direct movies. He directed a generation.”

One of the most memorable lines from one of Hughes’ most oft-quoted films, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” was delivered by a man who is now a cable news regular. Ben Stein, who yesterday told FBN’s Neil Cavuto, Hughes “was a wonderful man. A genius. A poet:”

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> More: Vote for your favorite Hughes movie over at FishbowlDC…