Bob Clark; TV, movie director known for 'A Christmas Story'

LOS ANGELES -- Bob Clark, whose film "A Christmas Story" became a seasonal fixture for its bittersweet cataloguing of holiday dreams and disappointments, was killed Wednesday with his son in a car crash. He was 67.

Mr. Clark and Ariel Hanrath-Clark, 22, were traveling on the Pacific Coast Highway in the Pacific Palisades when they were killed, said Lyne Leavy, Mr. Clark's personal assistant.

Their car was struck head-on by a sport utility vehicle that a drunken driver steered into the wrong lane, police said.

"It's a tragic day for all of us who knew and loved Bob Clark," said Scott Schwartz, who played the flagpole-licking character Flick in "A Christmas Story" and kept in touch with Mr. Clark over the years. "Bob was a fun-lovin', jelly-roll kinda guy who will be sorely missed."

The driver of the other vehicle, Hector Velazquez-Nava, 24, of Los Angeles was arrested and booked for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol and gross vehicular manslaughter.

He was being held on $100,000 bail.

"The initial investigation has concluded that Nava was driving without a license northbound in the southbound lanes while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage," said Lieutenant Paul Vernon, a police spokesman.

Mr. Clark had a prolific movie and television directing career. He specialized in horror movies and thrillers early on, directing such 1970s movies as "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things," "Murder by Decree," "Breaking Point," and "Black Christmas," which was remade last year.

His breakout success came with 1981's sex farce "Porky's," a coming-of-age romp that he followed two years later with "Porky's II: The Next Day."

In 1983, he directed, coproduced, and co-wrote "A Christmas Story," an adaptation of Jean Shepherd's childhood memoir of a boy in the 1940s. The film starred Peter Billingsley as Ralphie Parker, a young boy determined to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.

The film was a modest theatrical success, but critics loved it. It eventually joined "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street" as one of the Christmas films audiences watch year after year.

In 1994, Mr. Clark directed a forgettable sequel, "It Runs in the Family," featuring Charles Grodin, Mary Steenburgen, and Kieran Culkin in a continuation of Shepherd's memoirs.

In recent years, Mr. Clark made family comedies that were savaged by critics, including "Karate Dog," "Baby Geniuses," and its sequel, "Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2."

Among Mr. Clark's other movies were Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton's "Rhinestone," Timothy Hutton's "Turk 182!", and Gene Hackman and Dan Aykroyd's "Loose Cannons."