Overview
- Tarlochen Thapar, the longtime owner of Leonardo, New Jersey’s Quick Stop and RST Video, died Friday at 90, Kevin Smith said in an Instagram tribute posted Monday.
- Smith recalled being hired in 1989 and said Thapar let him shoot Clerks inside the convenience store at night in 1993.
- He described Thapar’s immigration from India in the 1960s or 1970s and small-business success as integral to his own American dream.
- Clerks was released in 1994 and grew into a cult phenomenon that launched Smith’s career and later sequels and related projects.
- Clerks collaborators Brian O’Halloran and Jason Mewes publicly offered condolences in comments on Smith’s post.