Benjamin Robert Clark (August 5, 1939 – April 4, 2007) was an American film director andscreenwriter. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was responsible for some of the most successful films inCanadian film history such asBlack Christmas (1974),Murder by Decree (1979),Tribute (1980),Porky's (1981), andA Christmas Story (1983).^[1][2][3] He won a trio ofGenie Awards (twoBest Direction and oneBest Screenplay) with two additional nominations.

Clark was born inNew Orleans in 1939,^[4] but grew up inBirmingham, Alabama,^[5] and later moved toFort Lauderdale, Florida. He grew up poor. His father died during his childhood and his mother was abarmaid.^[6]

After attendingCatawba College majoring in philosophy, Clark won afootball scholarship toHillsdale College inMichigan,^[7] where he playedquarterback. Eventually he studied theater at theUniversity of Miami, turning down offers to play professional football.^[8] He did briefly playsemi-pro for the Fort Lauderdale Black Knights.^[7]

Clark's career began withShe-Man: A Story of Fixation (1967), which was released with theexploitation documentaryQueens at Heart. Clark then transitioned into thehorror genre in the early 1970s. His first film,Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972), was a blend of comedy and graphic horror.

Clark and his collaborator for this film, screenwriter and makeup artistAlan Ormsby, would revisit the zombie subgenre in 1972'sDeathdream, also known by its alternative title,Dead of Night, aVietnam War allegory that takes its cue from the classic short story "The Monkey's Paw". Theslasher filmBlack Christmas (1974) was one of his most successful films in this period, and is remembered today as an influential precursor to the modernslasher film genre.^[9] Clark had moved to Canada, then atax haven for Americans, and theseCanuxploitation productions were small by Hollywood standards but made Clark a big fish in the small pond of the Canadian film industry of that era.^[8]

Clark executive-produced themoonshine movieMoonrunners, which was used as source material for the TV seriesThe Dukes of Hazzard. Clark later produced the 2000 TV movieThe Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood. Clark and others suedWarner Bros. over the studio's 2005 movieThe Dukes of Hazzard, winning a $17.5 million settlement just prior to the movie's release.^[10]

Turning toward more serious fare, Clark scored a critical success with theSherlock Holmes filmMurder by Decree, starringChristopher Plummer andJames Mason, which won fiveGenie Awards including Best Achievement in Direction and Best Performance for both leads. He followed this with a movie of theBernard Slade playTribute, starringJack Lemmon reprising his Broadway role, for which Lemmon was nominated for anAcademy Award and 11 Genies including a win for Lemmon's performance.^[8]

Clark returned to hisB-movie roots, though, co-writing, producing, and directingPorky's, a longtime personal project. Clark had a detailed outline based on his own youth in Florida, which he dictated into a cassette recorder due to illness, and collaborator Roger Swaybill said of listening to the tapes, "I became convinced that I was sharing in the birth of a major moment in movie history. It was the funniest film story I had ever heard."^[9]

Though set in the United States, the film would go on to gross more than any other English-language Canadian film.^[8] The film was the third most successful release of 1982 and by the end of the film's lengthy initial release, in 1983,Porky's had secured itself a spot, albeit short-lived, as one of the top-25 highest-grossing films of all time in the US. The film was (also briefly) the most successful comedy in film history.

The overwhelming success ofPorky's is credited as launching the genre of theteen sex comedy^[11] so prevalent throughout the 1980s, and which continued into the millennium in such films as theAmerican Pie series. Clark wrote, produced, and directed the film's first sequel,Porky's II: The Next Day (1983), which did not feature the title character, and introduced two new antagonists with perhaps greater relevance, a blusteringfundamentalist preacher, and a sleazy local politician who cynically caters to his influence, while seducing a teenage girl.

Clark refused involvement with a third film,Porky's Revenge!, which brought Porky and the sexual exploits of the cast back front and center as in the first installment, as well as bringing everything full-circle and bringing the gang's high school rowdy escapades to a close.

He instead collaborated with Jean Shepherd onA Christmas Story, which criticLeonard Maltin described as "one of those rare movies you can say is perfect in every way".^[12] Although not a box-office smash in its theatrical release,A Christmas Story would go on to become a perennial holiday favorite via repeated TV airings andhome video. A joint effort at a sequel in 1994,My Summer Story, did not fare as well; Maltin said that the studio waited too long, and Clark was forced to recast almost the entire film.^[12] Three other film versions of the Parker family had been produced for television byPBS with Shepherd's involvement during the late 1980s, also with a different cast, but without Clark's participation.

Clark continued to stay active in the film industry until his death, with lower-budget fare mixed in with brief runs at higher targets. AThe Hollywood Reporter critic, speaking after his death, described his career as "a very unusual mix of films", because he "at times was a director-for-hire and would do films that, to say the least, aren't stellar".^[12] Some of his last output includedBaby Geniuses andSuperbabies: Baby Geniuses 2.

Clark was nominated twice for theRazzie Awards as "Worst Director", forRhinestone andSuperbabies: Baby Geniuses 2. At the end of his life, he was working withHoward Stern on a remake ofPorky's, and, withBlack Christmas having been remade, two of his other early horror films were slated for expensive remakes:Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things andDeathdream.^[13]

Clark was divorced, and had two sons, Michael and Ariel.^[9]

Clark and his younger son, Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were killed in a head-on car crash on thePacific Coast Highway inPacific Palisades,Los Angeles on the morning of April 4, 2007.^[14] The crash occurred when an SUV crossed the median and struck Clark'sInfiniti I30, causing the closure of the highway for eight hours.^[9] Police determined that the SUV's driver, Héctor Manuel Velázquez-Nava, had ablood alcohol level of three times the legal limit and was driving without a license.^[15] Velázquez-Nava was described by federal authorities as being in the U.S. illegally.^[16] The driver initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of grossvehicular manslaughter,^[17] but changed his plea tono contest in August, and was sentenced to six years in prison under the terms of a plea agreement on October 12, 2007.^[18]

Executive Producer

• Bob Clark atIMDb
• Canadian Film Encyclopedia [A publication of The Film Reference Library/a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group]
• Canuxploitation interviewCanuxploitation Interview: Bob Clark

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