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.