Looking back at Bruce Kessler's TV and racing career as he dies aged 88

Prolific TV director and Race car driver Bruce Kessler reportedly passed away, followed by a brief illness, at his home in Marina del Rey, on Thursday, April 4, 2024. His brother and columnist Stephen Kessler confirmed the death to The Hollywood Reporter on April 7, 2024. He was 88 years old.

Bruce Kessler, who directed several TV shows, including I Dream of Jeannie, The Knight Rider, Mission Impossible and The Flying Nun, is survived by his wife, actress Joan Freeman and his brothers Stephen and Rick.

Kessler, who had an avid passion for racing, quit the sport after he was seriously injured at the age of 26. He then ventured into directing shows before circumnavigating the globe in a yacht.

Bruce Kessler is remembered as an acclaimed TV director, Formula One race car driver and yachting captain who spent three years travelling the world by water with a small crew alongside his wife.

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Bruce Kessler was an avid race car driver before becoming a television director

According to an extensive profile in Soundings Magazine, Bruce Kessler, who was born on March 23, 1936 in Seattle, moved to LA, where his parents launched a successful swimwear company. Kessler soon moved to Beverly Hills with his family and began racing when he was 16 with his mom’s Jaguar XK120.

However, after eight years of winning races and setting track records as a professional across the United States and Europe, Kessler, who was involved in three major accidents, was forced to quit the sport.

In a piece for the Santa Cruz Sentinel in March 2024, a few days before Kessler marked his 88th birthday, his younger brother Stephen wrote:

“By 1962, at 26, after a third serious crash, this one at Riverside, he’d retired from racing in the prime of his driving years, having decided not to tempt fate further.”

Stephen revealed that his brother, who was a hero and a close friend with fellow race car enthusiast and actor James Dean, was supposed to ride with the late actor in his silver Porsche in Salinas on the day he died in 1955. However, a last-minute change of plan saved him from the fatal crash.

“Bruce was supposed to ride with Dean in his silver Porsche to the road races in Salinas on the day he died in 1955 but, due to a last-minute change of plan, drove up with another friend.”

After giving up racing, Kessler in his second act in life, began directing and released his first short, The Sound of Speed, at the age of 26. The short film was submitted to the 1962 Cannes International Film Festival.

Shortly after, he began working as a technical adviser and a script supervisor on racing and chase sequences for action movies. Subsequently, he began directing shows, including four first-season episodes of The Monkees in 1966, Four episodes of CHiPS in 1979 and an episode of Mission Impossible in 1989.

His additional credits included The A-Team, American Hustle, The Fall Guy, Riptide and McGyver.

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Bruce Kessler circumnavigated the globe in three years

In the March Sentinel column, Stephen revealed in the 90's his brother spent most of his life at sea as a deep-sea fisherman and boat designer.

“The third act of his (Bruce Kessler) life was as a deep-sea fisherman and boat designer who used the hulls of commercial fishing boats to build a series of yachts with decks at the stern from which to fish for marlin."

Stephen continued that his brother and sister-in-law spent three years circumnavigating the globe by water with a small crew in their boat, 'Zopilote'. Stephen wrote:

“He and his wife, with a small crew, at one point took three years to circumnavigate the globe.”

According to IMDB, Kessler married his wife, retired actress Joan Freeman, in 1976. She is best known for her role as Elvis Presley's love interest in the 1964 musical Roustabout.