Bruce Kessler

Bruce Kessler was an up-and-coming race car driver--he drove for Porsche at LeMans in 1957--before suffering a head injury at the 1959 Examiner Grand Prix. Doctors said the young driver couldn't race for a year, so the 22-year-old went to Hollywood as a technical adviser, helping movie directors film race footage and stage high-speed chases. (Among those Kessler benefited: Arthur Penn and his 1967 crime classic, "Bonnie and Clyde.") Kessler became an understudy to legendary "Rio Bravo" director Howard Hawks, a race-car driving enthusiast, who gave Kessler the education and connections to direct.

Kessler started off helming B movies such as the draft-dodging comedy "The Gay Deceivers" and "Killers Three," a heist drama starring--no kidding--New Year's Eve icon Dick Clark. Tired of the critical pounding and wanting more time to sail, Kessler, an accomplished seaman, became a full-time television director in the 1970s, where he worked on everything from "The Rockford Files" to "Baywatch Nights" before retiring in 1997.