Jim Abrahams, the writer-director involved with hit comedies Airplane! and The Naked Gun, has died at the age of 80.
According to his son Joseph, who confirmed the news to the Hollywood Reporter, he died of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica.
He worked alongside Jerry and David Zucker on a number of hit spoofs, as co-writer and co-director of Airplane! and co-writer of The Naked Gun.
The team, known as ZAZ, made their big screen debut writing the script for 1977’s The Kentucky Fried Movie, a John Landis-directed sketch comedy film.
“We got our start filming stuff on our own and making spoofs of commercials,” Abrahams said in 2023. “Back then, no one had cell phones, so we were unique – we had a video machine. We could film and edit and show it to other people and get their reactions. That was the school we went to.”
They then made Airplane! in 1980, a disaster comedy that took aim at films such as Zero Hour and Airport 1975. It grossed $171m from a budget of just $3.5m and has since been seen as one of the greatest comedies of all time.
In 2020, the Guardian’s Scott Tobias praised it for the 40th anniversary. “It’s weird. It’s unexpected. It’s absurd,” he wrote. “And it never pauses for a laugh, because there’s always another one coming.”
“We saw how many things were taken seriously, especially in the media and TV and movies,” Abrahams later said. “Our instincts told us we don’t have to take that seriously.”
The team refused to take part in the sequel and instead created the 1982 television series Police Squad!, which starred Leslie Nielsen and took aim at cop procedurals at the time. It was critically acclaimed yet had poor ratings and was cancelled with just six episodes made.
They then collaborated on 1984’s Top Secret!, an action comedy starring Val Kilmer, and then 1986’s Ruthless People, starring Danny DeVito and Bette Midler.
Abrahams directed Big Business, a comedy starring Midler again, by himself before working again with the Zucker brothers on 1988’s The Naked Gun, a film based around Nielsen’s character from Police Squad!
It was a big hit, making $152m from a $12m budget, and was followed by two sequels which did not involve Abrahams. The film is also set to be rebooted with Liam Neeson starring.
Abrahams went on to direct the Winona Ryder comedy drama Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael before creating another spoof franchise in the form of 1991’s Hot Shots!, starring Charlie Sheen. It was a commercial hit and led to a successful sequel.
Abrahams only directed one film since, 1998’s crime spoof Jane Austen’s Mafia!, while he later acted as a co-writer on 2006’s Scary Movie 4.
One of Abrahams’ children, Charlie, had a severe form of epilepsy, which led him to co-found The Charlie Foundation to Help Cure Pediatric Epilepsy with his wife. He also directed Meryl Streep in a 1997 TV movie, First Do No Harm, loosely based on the experience.
• This article was amended on 26 November 2024. The film Airport 1975 had been incorrectly called Airplane 1975. Also The Naked Gun was released in 1988, not 1986 as an earlier version said.
