Documentary-Maker Bruce Brown Dies

Bruce Brown pictured during the shooting of his iconic surf film <em>The Endless Summer</em> in the early 1960s. He died on December 11, 2017, at the age of 80.

Legendary surf filmmaker Bruce Brown died today of natural causes at his home in Gaviota. He rose to fame in 1966 with The Endless Summer, which “portrayed the wave as a kind of Holy Grail” at a time where surfers were seen as “buffoons,” his website said in announcing his death. Born in San Francisco in 1937, Brown started surfing when his family moved to Long Beach when he was nine and encountered filmmaking in the U.S. Navy. His first film was titled Slippery When Wet, and he received an Oscar nomination for the motorcycle-racing documentary On Any Sunday, which he made with Steve McQueen. Brown was 80.