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In Remembrance: Bob Clark
Bob Clark, the
director of the 1983 holiday season classic A Christmas Story,
has passed away April 4, 2006 in Pacific Palisades, CA in an
automobile accident. He was 67.
Born Benjamin
Clark on August 5, 1941 in New Orleans, LA, Clark grew up in Ft.
Lauderdale, FL. After attending North Carolina’s Catawba College
where he studied philosophy, Clark went on to Hillsdale College in
Michigan on a football scholarship. Turning down offers to play pro
ball, Clark studied theater at the University of Miami, where he met
his future frequent screenwriting partner Alan Ormsby.
Clark’s
directorial career began with a string of low budget horror films
starting with 1972’s Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things.
His 1974 film, Black Christmas, is widely considered one of
the first slasher films. He also produced the 1975 Moonrunners,
which was adapted onto television as the long-running series The
Dukes Of Hazzard.
Another of
Clark’s first as a director was 1982’s Porky’s, which
launched the teen sex comedy genre. Clark based the story loosely on
his own teen years in Florida. Detailing the misadventures of
several high school students trying to have their first sexual
experience, the film went on to be the third most successful of film
of the year. Clark also served as writer, producer and director on
the first Porky’s sequel, Porky’s II: The Next Day
(1983), but had no connection to a third film, Porky’s Revenge
(1985).
But Clark’s
best known film was 1983’s A Christmas Story, based on a
story by novelist Jean Sheperd. Although it didn’t perform well at
the box office on its initial release, the nostalgic story of a boy
who wanted a Red Rider BB gun for Christmas only to be repeatedly
told by adults, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid,” soon gained a
reputation over several years’ worth of television airings during
the Christmas holiday season. Clark also helmed a sequel It Runs
In The Family (aka My Summer Story), again based on a
story by Shepherd in 1994. However, due to the amount of time that
had passed since the original film was produced, he was forced to
recast all of the principal roles with new actors. The film did not
capture the magic of A Christmas Story and quickly
disappeared from cinemas.
Unfortunately,
Clark’s later films did not meet with the same success as his
earlier ones. Films like the Sylvester Stallone – Dolly Parton
comedy Rhinestone (1984), the Dan Akyroyd – Gene Hackman
buddy film Loose Cannons (1990) and the two children films Baby
Geniuses (1999) and SuperBabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004)
were not well received either critically or commercially.
At the time of
his death, Clark was working with radio personality Howard Stern on
a remake of Porky’s with Stern producing. |
