Bruce Brown
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- December 1, 1937
- Place of birth
- San Francisco, California, U.S.
- Died
- December 10, 2017
Biography
Bruce Brown (born December 1, 1937 - December 10, 2017) was an American documentary film director, known as an early pioneer of the surf film. He is the father of filmmaker Dana Brown.
His surfing films are Slippery When Wet (1958), Surf Crazy (1959), Barefoot Adventure (1960), Surfing Hollow Days (1961), Waterlogged (1962), and his most well known film, The Endless Summer (1964) which received a nationwide theatrical release in 1966. Considered among the most influential in the genre, The Endless Summer follows surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August around the world. Thirty years later Brown would film The Endless Summer II with his son in 1994.
He also made a number of short films including The Wet Set, featuring the Hobie-MacGregor Sportswear Surf Team and one of the earliest skateboarding films, America's Newest Sport, presenting the Hobie Super Surfer Skateboard Team. These short films along with some unused footage from The Endless Summer were included in the DVD Surfin' Shorts, as part of the Golden Years of Surf collection. Brown has gone beyond surfing a few times with the ski film, The Incredible Pair of Skis (1967), a film about motorcycle sport, On Any Sunday (1971) which is held in high regard as one of the best motorcycle documentaries of all time, and a documentary about extreme sports, The Edge (1975), On Any Sunday II (1981) Baja 1000 Classic (1991), and On Any Sunday, revisited (2000) He made a guest appearance in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode SpongeBob vs. The Big One.
Brown was a 2009 inductee into the Surfers' Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach, California.
Movies with Bruce Brown
- The Endless Summer 1966 · ★ 7.2
- Step Into Liquid 2003 · ★ 7.2
- I Am Steve McQueen 2014 · ★ 6.1
- On Any Sunday 1971 · ★ 6.9
- The Endless Summer II 1994 · ★ 7.5
- The Search for Freedom 2015 · ★ 7.2
- SpongeBob vs. the Big One 2009 · ★ 7.0
- The Endless Summer Revisited 2000 · ★ 7.2
- Slippery When Wet 1958 · ★ 4.0
- Barefoot Adventure 1960 · ★ 8.0
- Search for Surf 1961
- A Life of Endless Summers: The Bruce Brown Story 2020
- Birth of The Endless Summer: Discovery of Cape St. Francis 2023
Movies directed by Bruce Brown
- The Endless Summer 1966 · ★ 7.2
- On Any Sunday 1971 · ★ 6.9
- The Endless Summer II 1994 · ★ 7.5
- Surf Crazy 1959 · ★ 7.7
- Slippery When Wet 1958 · ★ 4.0
- Surfing Hollow Days 1961 · ★ 7.0
- Surfin' Shorts 1964 · ★ 7.5
- Barefoot Adventure 1960 · ★ 8.0
- Water-Logged 1962 · ★ 9.0
- America's Newest Sport 1966 · ★ 7.0
- Search for Surf 1961