AP Features, April 5th, 2007
Film director Bob Clark, best known for the beloved holiday classic "A Christmas Story," was killed along with his son in a head-on crash with an alleged drunken driver on Pacific Coast Highway, the filmmaker's assistant and police said. He was 67.
Clark and son Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were killed Wednesday in the accident in Pacific Palisades, said Lyne Leavy, Clark's personal assistant.
The two men were in a car that collided head-on with a truck around 2:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), said Lt. Paul Vernon, a police spokesman.
The driver of the other vehicle, Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, of Los Angeles and his passenger, described as a 29-year-old woman, were taken to UCLA Medical Center with minor injuries.
Velazquez-Nava was arrested Wednesday afternoon and booked for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol and gross vehicular manslaughter. He was being held on $100,000 bail.
"The initial investigation has concluded that Nava was driving without a license northbound in the southbound lanes while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage," Vernon said.
Nava's passenger was released from the hospital after receiving treatment.
Scott Schwartz, who played the character Flick in "A Christmas Story" and kept in touch with Clark over the years, said he was devastated by the news. He called Clark one of the "nicest sweetest guys that you'd ever want to come in contact with."
In Clark's most famous film, all 9-year-old Ralphie Parker wants for Christmas is an official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle.
His mother, teacher and Santa Claus all warn: "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."
A school bully named Scut Farkus, a lamp in the shape of a woman's stocking-clad leg, a freezing flagpole mishap and some expletive-laden defiance helped the movie become a seasonal fixture alongside "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street."
Clark specialized in horror movies and thrillers early in his career, directing such 1970s flicks as "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things," "Murder by Decree," "Breaking Point" and "Black Christmas," which was remade last year.
His breakout success came with 1981's sex farce "Porky's," a coming-of-age romp that he followed two years later with "Porky's II: The Next Day."
In 1983, "A Christmas Story" marked a career high for Clark. Darrin McGavin, Melinda Dillon and Peter Billingsley starred in the adaptation of Jean Shepard's childhood memoir of a boy in the 1940s. The film was a modest theatrical success, but critics loved it.
In recent years, Clark made family comedies that were savaged by critics, including "Karate Dog," "Baby Geniuses" and its sequel, "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2."
Among Clark's other movies were Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton's "Rhinestone," Timothy Hutton's "Turk 182!", and Gene Hackman and Dan Aykroyd's "Loose Cannons."
