Duane Clark

Sometimes folks in show business get to follow in the footsteps of their famous parents, but in Duane Clark's case, that wasn't possible: his father, legendary television presenter Dick Clark, remained so beloved and with such staying power that the son had to blaze his own trail in Hollywood. Acting was an early choice, but Clark's first role was in the legendary 1985 action bomb "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins," which didn't exactly set the casting offices abuzz. Clark moved into television writing with the short-lived midlife-romance comedy "A Brand New Life" in 1989, and then broke onto the big screen by co-writing and directing the indie "Shaking the Tree," a Generation X comedy-drama costarring Courteney Cox before "Friends" made her a star. A handful of other feature films followed through the 1990s, including the 1997 festival hit "Soulmates," but by the dawn of the 2000s, Clark had established himself as a reliable television director by helming episodes of hits like the family drama "Providence" and David E. Kelley's quirky dramas "The Practice" and "Boston Public." Clark also maintained a long-term connection with the "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" franchise, directing multiple episodes of the Las Vegas-set original police procedural as well as its Miami and New York spinoffs. The 2008 mystery thriller miniseries "XIII: The Conspiracy" was popular enough that in 2011 Clark began directing and executive-producing a sequel series.