Bob Clark

The warm and personable director behind such seminal films as "A Christmas Story" and "Porky's," Bob Clark masterfully combined warm sentiment with a sharp edge. What other sex romp had such a sense of innocence; what other holiday classic conjured up such a vivid image of the f-word without actually uttering the phrase? Clark started in low-budget horror films, and was also credited with jump-starting the slasher movie craze with his darkly comic, "Black Christmas" - his other less-than-jolly yuletide movie. While later efforts like "Baby Geniuses" failed to live up to his earlier output, Clark was in the middle of a revival of his early hits, with a remake of "Black Christmas" already on DVD and, with the help of radio mogul Howard Stern, a planned remake of "Porky's" in the works. All this came to a shocking end on April 4, 2007, the 67-year-old director was tragically killed in an automobile accident, along with his 22-year-old son along the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles.