Bruce Brown

Brown explored motorcycling, another sometimes obsessive pastime, in his next documentary feature, "On Any Sunday" (1971). The charismatic presence of ultra-cool movie star Steve McQueen helped make this another solid box-office success for the part-time filmmaker. With a nest egg rumored to amount to $49 million, Brown took off the next few decades before returning behind the camera. He wrote, directed, and narrated the unexpected follow-up, "Endless Summer II" (1994), wherein he followed a new young surfing duo along much of the same route taken by his original stars. Perhaps somewhat less innocent, the $3.5 million sequel utilized a professional crew and state-of-the-art 35mm underwater cameras to display the 56 year-old Brown's undying passion for awesome scenes of surfing.