Movies
Mystery Behind Who Inspired the Titular Character in 1986’s ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ Finally Solved
Ferris Buellers Day Off origin story revealed in a new book debunking theories about John Hughes inspiration for the iconic 1986 film character.
Matthew Broderick cemented his movie star status in 1986 with his memorable turn as the titular truant in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — and now a new book answers the long-asked question: Who did filmmaker John Hughes use as the basis for the smarmy high school slacker?
Hughes, who died of a heart attack in 2009 at 59, wrote and directed the classic flick about Ferris faking an illness to skip a day of school with his girlfriend, Sloane Peterson, played by Mia Sara, and anxious best friend, Cameron Frye, who was portrayed by Alan Ruck.
Now, Jason Klamm’s book Ferris Bueller … You’re My Hero: The Story of the World’s Most Famous Day Off debunks old theories about the character’s origin and sets the record straight.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the author quotes Hughes’ son James, who reveals: “There’s never been any credence to the claims … [that] Ferris was derived or inspired by one person from my dad’s past.”
Klamm writes: “When it comes to most fictional characters, we’re looking at an amalgam at best, which Hughes was a master at creating … basing a character or an idea entirely on someone you know or something they did is not only legally treacherous, it’s uninspired.”
The scribe also shoots down an internet theory that Hughes lifted the name from a childhood friend called Bert Bueller.
The book further explains that a former classmate of Hughes has suggested a person named A.C. Buehler III may have a link to the fictional risk-taker.
The Buehler family was reportedly contacted by Hughes’ wife in 1985 to say the moviemaker planned to use a variation of their name and later let them be extras in the Art Institute of Chicago scene, according to First Curiosity via MSN.
Per the report, school friend Jackson Peterson tells Klamm an outing he, Hughes and other pals had at 17 may have inspired the gag where Ferris and his buddies dine at a fancy restaurant with the ringleader claiming to be Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago. Peterson says the group had gone to Chicago’s Union League Club, where his attorney-dad was known, and “casually ordered drinks — alcoholic drinks — and they brought them.”
According to EW, the book also shares that Hughes himself said, “I designed the character to be the guy I always wanted to be, and I designed his best friend Cameron to be the kind of guy I usually am.”
