Did You Know That Molly Ringwald and John Hughes Have the Same Birthday?

Gabrielle Moss February 18, 4:51 pm

SIXTEEN CANDLES, Molly Ringwald, Director John Hughes, Mark Schoeffling, 1984. (c)Universal Pictures/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.

It’s impossible to separate Molly Ringwald and John Hughes — Ringwald rose to fame in the ’80s in a trifecta of thoughtful teen films written and mostly directed by Hughes, who considered Ringwald a muse (and was inspired to write Sixteen Candles after seeing her headshot). But the two aren’t just tied together professionally — they also share the same birthday, Feb. 18 (if you’re into astrology, that would make them both Aquariuses).

Hughes was born on Feb. 18, 1950, in Lansing, Michigan, and spent his early years in advertising, before a gig writing for National Lampoon magazine gave him the opportunity to write the script for 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation. The next year, he filmed Sixteen Candles, his directorial debut and his first collaboration with Ringwald.

Ringwald was born on Feb. 18, 1968, to a musical family in Roseville, California. After starring in a West Coast production of Annie, Ringwald appeared on Diff’rent Strokes and was part of the first-season cast of The Facts of Life, though she was written out of the show in 1980. A few short years later, she would begin her collaboration with Hughes, ensuring that their names would be forever linked.

Hughes passed away on Aug. 6, 2009, at the age of 59, after suffering a heart attack while on a visit to New York City.

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Though in the years since, Ringwald has revealed that being Hughes’ teen muse was not always easy, she’s reflected on the lasting legacy they created together. “When I first started working with him, he was 36, 18 years older than me to the day,” she said in a 2016 People interview. “We share the same birthday. He was very present and really related to us [the cast]. He obviously had communications with older people, but I really felt like he was most comfortable talking to us.”