'Christmas Story' director dies in crash

Source: Yahoo

LOS ANGELES - Film director Robert Clark, best known for the beloved holiday classic "A Christmas Story," was killed with his son Wednesday in a car wreck, the filmmaker's assistant and police said.

Clark, 67, and son Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were killed in the accident in Pacific Palisades, said Lyne Leavy, Clark's personal assistant.

The two men were in an Infiniti that collided head-on with a GMC Yukon around 2:30 a.m. PST, said Lt. Paul Vernon, a police spokesman. The driver of the other car was under the influence of alcohol and was driving without a license, Vernon said.

The driver, Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, of Los Angeles, remained hospitalized and will be booked for investigation of gross vehicular manslaughter after being treated, Vernon said. A female passenger in his car also was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and released, police said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070404/ap_on_en_mo/obit_clark

my nieces and nephews never get enough of A Christmas Story...

Can you tell by my avatar that I'm a fan?

He also did a couple of horror flicks that are a favorite of mine:

Black Christmas (w/Kier Dullea, not the recent remake) and Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things.

Damn shame he's gone so soon.
:mad: :mad: :mad: :cry: :cry:

Channel 11 in NYC used to play that at least once every other month for the Saturday afternoon horror movie (heavily edited, of course).

He was certainly a favorite of mine. What teenage boy was not influenced by "Porky's"?

What a real shame. "A Christmas Story" was pitch-perfect and so vivid in its retelling of the weird, warped family Christmas. I grew up in a much later era than the one depicted ... still felt right to me somehow.

I just posted it in the lounge, too. :-(

...he claimed it recreated his boyhoor perfectly. and even when we didn't get along -- hell, when we were practically at each other's throats -- we could watch 'christmas story' together and laugh our asses off.


i HATE drunk drivers.
drunk drivers who kill should face second-degree murder charges --- they killed, without intent perhaps but with such recklessness that they took a life...

I expect KO to note it tonight. A Christmas Story is one of his favorite movies.

and the way that film delivers really speaks of a soul who understands familial relationships, and the humorous side of ritual. A great balance between nostalgia and humor (that keeps it away from sappiness). It just oozes with the warm glow of the post-WWII period. He got the essence of what now looks like a simpler, less complicated era.

Seems like the drunks always win. They should limit the size car that drunk drivers can have -- to around 400 pounds or so. They drive the big ones because in their more sober moments they know someday they will hit something. Or some people.

one of the great comedic writers of the 20th century. All his stories captured that balance you mention. My favorite -- which I read the year I became a high school junior -- is Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories . . . and you'll never find a finer (or funnier) recounting of a high school prom.

If you haven't read much by Jean Shepherd, he's well worth seeking out.

Also In God We Trust from which a great deal of Christmas Story is taken.

A damn shame about Clark and his son - what a waste.

I figured he didn't write the film but I give him credit for recognizing what made the original work so attractive to so many and making sure that the story got told on screen with the soul that that movie and no doubt the original work has.

40's and Shepherd got it just right. I first read In God We Trust sitting on bench in a San Bernadino strip mall. I was laughing like a loon, especially about the description of the Old Man's battles with the furnace. I spent many childhood winters listening to my father go rounds with ours. Those things were monsters.

And yes, Clark got it just right, too. Sweet books, sweet movie.

Back when the world was young, he had a late night radio show (in NYC as memory serves) and he'd tell the stories of his childhood, like The Leg Lamp fracas. So, no one better to do the narrative.

Seriously, one of the most perfect films ever made. I never get tired of watching it.

and lives through it. He'll be back on the street within a couple of years. Clark and his son will be gone forever.

The only way to keep a drunk off the street is to keep taking cars away from him, even cars he has borrowed from friends and family.

It's either that or keep breaking his arms so he can't drive. Or drink.

fucking booze...

It wouldn't have happened if the guy had been high on pot or coke...

Decriminalize and use the money saved on the phony "war on drugs" for treatment and therapy...

in a collision with a driver who'd been smoking pot. So, not quite the case.

and local cops - they tell harrowing stories of the drunks and the drug abusers they pull off the highways. The crashes and near crashes they cause. High on drugs is just as impaired as drunk!

And what a terrible loss this damn drunk caused!

in blowing up the case against "drug users" to keep their lucrative, phony drug war going.

It's alcohol that kills on the highway. Alcohol and stupidity...

You use a very bizarre form of logic.

"blowing up the case against "drug users" to keep their lucrative, phony drug war going."

That may ring true for the federal government and for certain asshole cops but by making a blanket statement like that, you make it sound as if drug users aren't to blame.

In my time as a fireman, more than a few of the wrecks I responded to were as a result of people under the influence of drugs. How do I know? I would follow up via reports from the hospital.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

I can tell you of 3 wrecks in particular but I will spare you the gruesome details.

cops could spend their time fighting real crime instead of rousting low level dealers/users.

There would be less "real crime" since the profit motive would be taken out of the drugs trade.

The money could be put into treatment programs to cut down the demand and heal some of the damage.

Without the mindless stigmatizing of "illegal" drugs users, the cocaine, heroin, meth problems could be addressed directly as the public health issues they are.


Believe me, no one wants alcohol abusers (and the few "drugs" users) off the road more than I do. I have spoken about drug/alcohol addiction and recovery at DUI schools. I have led over 1000 recovery meetings (NON AA - AA's a religious cult) and have heard the stories...

But, the statistics support my contention that alcohol is by FAR the greatest danger -- and it's legal. My suggestion about that would be to BAN, utterly BAN any alcohol or drug ads anywhere! Just as it would be stupid to allow cocaine or heroin ads it's stupid to allow alcohol and prescription drugs ads on TV, radio and in print.

Interestingly, lately I've been getting a lot of prescription drug abusers in my meetings. Even more than alcohol or "illegal" drugs. Maybe it's the advertising and kickbacks to Docs, hmmm?

in my area of the state of PA when they don't blow or blood test a .08 said that near 40-50% of the drivers they are pulling over for suspected DUI are not impaired by alchohol but by drugs.

He didn't seem like one of those straight interested in statistics cops but a fairly cool guy just talking to a bunch of citizens who can do didddly to get them grants, money, etc. In fact he seemed more interested in busting them as drivers under the influence than for the drugs.

Impairment is impairment whether stoned on booze or drugs and I sure don't think you should be behind the wheel with the rest of us.

When these clowns the cops pulled over for driving impaired or after the accident, how could the cop know whether it was alcohol or drugs involved till they tested? It was the impaired driving or the accident that got the clowns in trouble.

Not even a Mexican driver's license, which is valid for someone visiting California.

http://www.kfi640.com/pages/ericleonard.html

:mad:

Immigration authorities said Wednesday the man arrested on suspicion of causing the drunken head-on crash on Sunset Blvd. that killed movie director Robert Clark was in the United States illegally.

Clark's 22-year-old son Ariel was also killed in the wreck.

Hector Velazquez-Nava was booked on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and was being held on $100,000 bail.

Police said he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash and was driving without a driver license....

Lock up the drunk driver, and throw away the key.

I hope someone leaves the leg lamp on for him tonight.

His movie has brought us so much joy every Christmas.

RIP

Christmas time, to make things kind of official for me. Even though Mrs. Giant Robot does not like it, I have to watch it. He will be sorely missed.

Driving another fuckin' SUV. Why didn't he have a license? Was he here legally? And of course, this bozo will get off with a wrist slap, or at worst, 6 months in jail.

There is a pretty good chance he'll go to jail here, get fed and housed at the expense of the people of California for a few years, get deported to Mexico, then come right back and begin anew.

Hell, why don't we just give him blanket amnesty and a prezidential pardon? We'll give him a job for 60K that 'mukans won't do.

my boyfriend's sister was killed by one. :mad:

My dear departed dad loved A Christmas Story-think it reminded him of his childhood and growing up back east with lots of snow. I always think of him whenever I see that movie. :cry:

I know I'll get slammed for the following opinion since I have before, but...my mom was killed by a drunk driver and I firmly believe that driving under the influence should be against the law. :(