Jim Abrahams, the writer-director who helped create comedy classics such as “Airplane!,” the “Naked Gun” movies, and the TV series “Police Squad!” has died. He was 80.
Abrahams passed away of natural causes on Tuesday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., his son Joseph Abrahams told The Hollywood Reporter.
Together with his boyhood friends Jerry and David Zucker, Abrahams ushered in a new wave of zany Hollywood comedies beginning with 1977’s sketch-comedy “Kentucky Fried Movie,” directed by John Landis, before he helmed “Animal House.”
One of their most popular films, “Airplane!” — on which all three shared writing and directing credits — hit theaters in 1980.
The trio — aka, “ZAZ,” Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker — would continue to work together throughout the 1980s, partnering for “Top Secret!” (1984), “Ruthless People” (1986) and the “Top Gun” sendups “Hot Shots!” and “Hot Shots! Part Deux.”
Working in the same vein as comedy legend Mel Brooks, Abrahams and the Zucker brothers had a knack for combining absurd situations with deadpan writing.
Lines written by Abrahams and the Zuckers are still quoted by comedy fans to this day, perhaps the most famous of which hails from “Airplane!”:
“Surely, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious … and don’t call me Shirley.”
“Airplane!” (1980)
ZAZ also spurred Leslie Nielsen’s rise to fame. The actor had been working in TV and film for three decades and became the most unlikely of Hollywood leading men.
Nielsen starred in the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker TV show, “Police Squad!,” the cop drama spoof that aired for only one season in 1982 but earned Abrahams and the Zuckers Emmy nominations. The series also launched the “Naked Gun” movies.
The first film, released in 1988, saw Nielsen reprise his role as an LAPD detective and play opposite Priscilla Presley and O.J. Simpson. Nielsen and the writer-director trio went on to release two sequels, “The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear” (1991) and again “The Naked Gun 33⅓” (1994).
A “Naked Gun” reboot directed by Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer and starring Liam Neeson, who steps into Nielsen’s shoes, is slated to arrive in theaters August 2025.
Abrahams’ other notable credits include “Top Secret!,” “Mafia!,” and “Scary Movie 4.”
In addition to his son Joseph, Abrahams is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Nancy Cocuzzo, his son Charlie, his daughter Jamie and three grandchildren.
The Post has reached out to a rep for Abrahams.
