LOS ANGELES— from www.avn.com – Veteran adult director David Aaron Clark passed away of a pulmonary embolism at around 4 pm this afternoon at Good Samaritan Hospital in downtown Los Angeles. He was 49.

Clark was taken to the hospital yesterday after complaining that he felt ill. With him at the time of his passing were two of his closest friends, adult actress Aiden Starr and Evil Angel general manager Christian Mann. Mann confirmed Clark’s death to AVN Saturday evening.

Clark’s untimely demise came just three days after he received multiple nominations in the 2010 AVN Awards race for his latest epic, Pure, which also happened to be his very first project for Evil Angel. Among the noms Pure picked up were: Best Actor (Keni Styles), Best Actress (Asa Akira), Best Supporting Actor (Jake Malone), Best Couples Sex Scene, Best Music Soundtrack, Best Special Effects, Best Screenplay, Best Director – Feature and Best Video Feature.

Clark was born Sept. 5, 1960 in Camden, N.J. and earned a degree in journalism from Rutgers University in 1986. After stints at The Bergen Record, the New Brunswick Home News Tribune and the Dow Jones News Service, he became an editor at Genesis magazine, and then at notorious Al Goldstein publication Screw.

He came to Los Angeles in 1998 and got his start directing XXX movies at Cream Studios. He soon established a trademark for himself of shooting only Asian women, often with a bent toward the fetishistic. He won the AVN Award for Best Screenplay – Video in 2002 for Brad Armstrong’s Euphoria (Wicked Pictures), followed in 2004 by Best Ethnic-Themed Release – Asian for Asia Noir 2 (Video Team/Metro).

Mann offered the simple comment about Clark’s death: “I’m just fucking devastated, and I have nothing else to say right now.”