Film director Bob 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, Calif., 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. local time, said Lt. Paul Vernon, a police spokesman. The driver of the other car was under the influence of alcohol and driving without a licence, Vernon said.
The driver, Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, of Los Angeles, remained in hospital 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.
In Clark’s most famous film, all nine-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 leg lamp, a freezing flagpole mishap and some four-letter defiance helped the movie — shot on location in Cleveland, Lindsay, Ont., St. Catharines, Ont., and in a Toronto studio — become a seasonal fixture with It’s A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.
Scott Schwartz, who played Flick in A Christmas Story and kept in touch with Clark, called Clark one of the "nicest, sweetest guys that you’d ever want to come in contact with."
"It’s a tragic day for all of us who knew and loved Bob Clark," Schwartz said.
"Bob was a fun-loving, jelly-roll kind of guy who will be sorely missed."
The director of The Christmas Story House in Cleveland, which was used for several exterior shots in the film, said Clark had been planning to visit in August.
