Known For
Directing
Known Credits
15
Gender
Male
Birthday
December 1, 1937 (88 years old)
Place of Birth
San Francisco, California, U.S.
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.
| 2014 | On Any Sunday: The Next Chapter...Executive Producer | |
| 2000 | The Endless Summer Revisited...Executive Producer | |
| 1971 | On Any Sunday...Producer | |
| 1966 | The Endless Summer...Producer |
| 2011 | Lizard Boy...Writer | |
| 1994 | The Endless Summer II...Writer | |
| 1966 | The Endless Summer...Author | |
| 1960 | Barefoot Adventure...Writer | |
| 1958 | Slippery When Wet...Writer |
| 1994 | The Endless Summer II...Director | |
| 1971 | On Any Sunday...Director | |
| 1966 | America's Newest Sport...Director | |
| 1966 | The Endless Summer...Director | |
| 1964 | Surfin' Shorts...Director | |
| 1962 | Water-Logged...Director | |
| 1961 | Surfing Hollow Days...Director | |
| 1961 | Search for Surf...Director | |
| 1960 | Barefoot Adventure...Director | |
| 1959 | Surf Crazy...Director | |
| 1958 | Slippery When Wet...Director |
| 1994 | The Endless Summer II...Editor | |
| 1966 | The Endless Summer...Editor | |
| 1960 | Barefoot Adventure...Editor | |
| 1958 | Slippery When Wet...Editor |
| 1966 | The Endless Summer...Director of Photography | |
| 1960 | Barefoot Adventure...Director of Photography | |
| 1958 | Slippery When Wet...Director of Photography |
| 2023 | Birth of The Endless Summer: Discovery of Cape St. Francisas Self | |
| 2020 | A Life of Endless Summers: The Bruce Brown Storyas Self | |
| 2015 | The Search for Freedomas Self (archive footage) | |
| 2014 | I Am Steve McQueenas Self | |
| 2009 | SpongeBob vs. the Big Oneas Narrator (voice) | |
| 2003 | Step Into Liquidas Himself | |
| 2000 | The Endless Summer Revisitedas Self | |
| 1999 | SpongeBob SquarePantsas Narrator (voice) | |
| 1994 | The Endless Summer IIas Narrator | |
| 1971 | On Any Sundayas Narrator (voice) | |
| 1968 | The Dick Cavett Showas Self - Guest | |
| 1966 | The Endless Summeras Narrator | |
| 1961 | Search for Surfas Self - Narrator | |
| 1960 | Barefoot Adventureas Himself / Narrator | |
| 1958 | Slippery When Wetas Narrator |