Bob Bondurant, who taught acting techniques for decades at his small-town Southern California race track, died Thursday after his suffering a stroke earlier this month. He was 88.
“He made my profession easier,” Lance Henriksen, who played the vampire Gomorrah on “The X-Files,” told The Chicago Tribune. “And I liked to talk to him a lot. There’s no question he taught me a lot, too.”
In addition to his teaching work, Bondurant produced a number of racers. His races became somewhat of a Hollywood event, like a NASCAR race or a race on Hollywood Blvd.
While working as the race track’s announcer, Bondurant met Piper Laurie, a top actress who grew up in the place that was the hometown of another famous actor, Dennis Miller.
After learning of his acting knack, Bondurant developed the reputation of being “the professor of acting.”
“I saw this guy sitting in the corner in an orange T-shirt and jeans with this beard and then he made an appearance on television and boom,” Henriksen recalled. “I just hooked right on and I knew, ‘This is the guy.’ ”
Born in Glencoe, Ill., in 1924, Bondurant learned to race as a teenager. As a teenager he eventually managed to stop the driver of a Ferrari 250 Modena from winning the Fourth of July Race.
After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Bondurant moved from Lake Geneva, Ill., to Southern California. He worked for a car company before taking over as the promoter of a car track in Riverside County and the driving school at Laguna Seca, Calif.
He eventually sold the car track and opened the McFly Actors Driving School at the former Laguna Seca race track, then became the publicist for the World Race of Champions series, according to several news reports.
In the 1980s, Bondurant helped develop actor Scott Bakula to be the first actor to compete in a modified Indy 500 car. He also wrote two books about acting and writing, called “Making Yourself Available” and “Ages to Affinity: A Memoir.”
In 1996, Bondurant teamed up with Jack O’Brien, the author of the racing book “Hollywood Stars,” to bring a racing star show to the Los Angeles film festival. According to the Guardian, the show featured aspiring drivers of celebrities racing as well as race drivers from all over the world, such as renowned racing driver Ayrton Senna.
Bondurant is survived by his three children, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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