Jim Abrahams, co-creator of ‘Airplane!’ and ‘The Naked Gun,’ dies at 80
Filmmaker was known for a string of comedy movies made alongside childhood friends David and Jerry Zucker, who he met at synagogue
Film director Jim Abrahams, one of the creators of “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun,” among other comedies, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 80, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
His son, Joseph, told The New York Times that he died in his home in Santa Monica after suffering complications of leukemia.
Abrahams was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin, in 1944. As a child, he developed a friendship with brothers David and Jerry Zucker at the local synagogue. The brothers would later become his partners in the writing and directing of multiple comedies.
The three attended the University of Wisconsin, and Abrahams, who graduated first in 1966, spent a few years working as an insurance adjuster and investigator.
After both Zucker brothers graduated, the three friends moved to Los Angeles, and in 1971 founded the Kentucky Fried Theater, where they acted in various comedy sketches.
Known collectively as ZAZ (Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker), the three wrote their first movie together, “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” in 1977, followed by perhaps their most famous work in 1980, “Airplane!,” which lampooned plane disaster movies.
The trio went on to write and direct many comedies together, the “The Naked Gun” film series. Abrahams also directed some by himself, including “Big Business” (1988), “Hot Shots!,” (1991) and “Hot Shots! Part Deux” (1993).
The three shared the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium, the US Comedy Arts Festival Filmmaker Award, and the ShoWest Convention Filmmakers of the Year Award, the last of which they shared with Robert K. Weiss.
Jim married his wife Nancy Cocuzzo in 1978, and the couple had two sons, Joseph and Charlie, and a daughter, Jamie.
In his youth, Charlie suffered from a seizure disorder which led Jim and Nancy to seek treatment, according to The New York Times. They eventually succeeded in ridding Charlie of the seizures after putting him on a high-fat ketogenic diet for a few years.
In 1993, Jim founded the Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies to help fund research into treatment for epilepsy, and four years later, he directed “First Do No Harm,” which was loosely based on his family’s experience with Charlie.
