Director and writer Jim Abrahams is dead

The slapstick genius Jim Abrahams, one of the directors and screenwriters behind comedy hits like “The Naked Gun” and “Airplane!”, is dead. Son Joseph confirmed the filmmaker’s death, according to the industry portals “Variety” and “Hollywood Reporter”. Abrahams was 80 years old.

Abrahams founded the “Kentucky Fried Theater” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his childhood friends, brothers David and Jerry Zucker. The show was a mixture of gags, satire and outrageous nonsense.

The trio, known for short as “ZAZ,” took it to Hollywood, where they sold the “Kentucky Fried Movie” script in 1977. Directed by John Landis, the satirical gags became a cinematic laugh tracker and the “ZAZ” team’s first major box office success in 1977.

Several hits followed, for which all three were responsible for directing and writing, including the film parody “The Incredible Journey in a Crazy Airplane” (1980; original title “Airplane!”) with Leslie Nielsen and the spy slapstick “Top Secret!” (1984) with Val Kilmer. The trio also directed the nonsense flick “The Incredible Kidnapping of Crazy Mrs. Stone”(1986) with Bette Midler and Danny DeVito.

“The Naked Gun” to “Hot Shots!”

Abrahams also provided the script for “The Naked Gun” (1988), with Leslie Nielsen as police idiot Frank Drebin, and he was on board as a producer for the other two episodes of the cult comedy.

Jerry Zucker (74) spoke of Abrahams as “our third brother.” In a statement published by Rolling Stone, Zucker praised his “brilliant and biting sense of humor.” “He was our partner, our friend and our hero.”

Even without the Zucker brothers, Abrahams was successful. As a solo director, he produced comedies such as Two by Two, A Girl Called Dinky and Hot Shots! – The Mother of All Films” on the screen. One of his last projects was the script for the horror comedy “Scary Movie 4” in 2006, which was directed by David Zucker.