David Zucker

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David Samuel Zucker (born October 16, 1947) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Associated mostly with parody comedies, Zucker is recognized for collaborating with Jim Abrahams and his brother Jerry as part of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker, with whom he wrote and directed the 1980 film Airplane! and created The Naked Gun franchise. As a solo filmmaker, Zucker has also directed Scary Movie 3 (2003) and Scary Movie 4 (2006).

Career

Zucker's movies include The Kentucky Fried Movie in 1977, Ruthless People in 1986, The Naked Gun in 1988, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear in 1991, BASEketball in 1998, Scary Movie 3 in 2003, and its sequel Scary Movie 4 in 2006. Of 18 works with which he is associated, Phone Booth, which he produced in 2002 is the only non-comedic film.

He co-directed several films including Airplane! in 1980 and Top Secret! in 1984; along with his brother, Jerry, and Jim Abrahams, the trio make up the ZAZ team of directors. He has worked with Pat Proft (with whom he first teamed up on the Naked Gun show Police Squad!) and Craig Mazin (writer of three of the five Scary Movies). In 1987, both David and Jerry Zucker through Zucker Brothers Productions signed an agreement with Paramount Pictures for a two-year non-exclusive production agreement and development deal with the studio, and the brothers had anticipated on making four comedies for Paramount Pictures during the life of the pact. The first film was a feature film version of the early 1980s television show Police Squad!, which was originally cancelled after six episodes on the air.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

ZAZ and Proft helped develop the parody genre of films, in which jokes are spit out with rapid-fire, using puns, physical humor, wit, and double entendres. Some of the veteran actors of ZAZ's vision of parody include Leslie Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, Charlie Sheen, Julie Hagerty, and Anna Faris (Faris starred in four of the Scary Movie series).

Looking back on his career in 2009, Leslie Nielsen said the best film he appeared in was The Naked Gun, and that David was his favorite director to work with. Nielsen said of him, "He came to me one time and said, 'Leslie, I'll never make you do anything that is not funny.' ... he kept his word."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Most consider his greatest work to be Airplane!, which has brought on many accolades (including preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress).

In his movies, his mother, Charlotte often made cameos (like the lady trying to put on make-up in Airplane! and Vincent Ludwig's secretary, Dominique, in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!).

David Zucker is an aficionado of Davy Crockett and collects memorabilia. He has said that his dream project is to make a biographical film, which he has spent time developing.<ref name=lat>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=holl>Template:Cite news</ref> During the 1990s he regularly hosted a Davy Crockett Rifle Frolic at his ranch in Ojai, California.<ref name=dv/><ref name=holl/> Zucker wrote 11 updated verses to the song "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", which he claimed in 1992 that he had worked harder on those than on any of his scripts.<ref name=dv>Template:Cite magazine</ref> He made a cameo appearance in The Naked Gun 2½ dressed as Crockett.<ref name=lat/>

Zucker began to focus more on politics starting in 2004 when he began working on political ads for the Republican Party.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2008, he made the political parody movie An American Carol.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 2015, he made a video he called Side Effects attacking President Barack Obama for the Iran nuclear deal in the form of a parody prescription drug ad.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2017, Zucker said that he was working on a script for a fourth Naked Gun film with Pat Proft. In 2018 he made a cameo appearance on the hidden camera TV series Impractical Jokers, where he was on FaceTime with cast member James Murray in a sketch trying to make the other person laugh.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 2021, Zucker announced his return to filmmaking with a new spoof film titled The Star of Malta.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life

Zucker was born to a Jewish family<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Charlotte Zucker and Burton C. Zucker, who was a real estate developer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He graduated from Shorewood High School.<ref>"25 years and still laughing: 'Airplane!' maintains its cruising altitude with a non-stop zany attitude" Template:Webarchive, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, June 11, 2005. Accessed September 17, 2007. "The event is in honor of the volunteer service and philanthropy of Louise Abrahams Yaffe and her son Jim Abrahams, who wrote and directed "Airplane!" with fellow Shorewood High School and University of Wisconsin–Madison graduates David and Jerry Zucker."</ref> In 1997, David married Danielle Zucker, with whom he has two children, Charles and Sarah.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He and Danielle were divorced in 2019, although they had been separated for ten years before that.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His younger brother, Jerry, is his filmmaking partner. The Zucker brothers have a sister, Susan Breslau, who along with their parents has had numerous appearances in their films. When asked in a September 2014 interview by the BBC if he believes in God, David replied:

Oh yeah, I believe in God. I think there's much more evidence that there is a God than that there isn't. I don't believe that Mother Teresa and Hitler go to the same place. I believe in justice, maybe not in this life, but there has to be justice. And if there isn't a God, I think it would be very depressing. I'd prefer to believe there is.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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Environmentalism

David Zucker has been an active supporter of TreePeople since 1988 and is now the longest continuously serving board member (1990) in the organization's history.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He has been an advocate of solar-powered and electric cars since the '90s. "I can't complain about the smog in Los Angeles if I'm contributing to it," Zucker said to the Sun Sentinel in 1990.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Recurring cast members

Among all of his directed and/or produced parody films, Zucker had frequently cast the late Leslie Nielsen.

Actor	Airplane!	Ruthless People	Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!	The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear	BASEketball	My Boss' Daughter	Scary Movie 3	Scary Movie 4	An American Carol	Scary Movie 5
Anthony Anderson							Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Carmen Electra						Template:X mark		Template:X mark
Anna Faris							Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Regina Hall							Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Kevin Hart							Template:X mark	Template:X mark
George Kennedy			Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Michael Madsen						Template:X mark		Template:X mark
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	Template:X mark				Template:X mark
Robert Stack	Template:X mark				Template:X mark
Jenny McCarthy					Template:X mark		Template:X mark
Edward Moss							Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Leslie Nielsen	Template:X mark		Template:X mark	Template:X mark			Template:X mark	Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Priscilla Presley			Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Bill Pullman		Template:X mark						Template:X mark
Simon Rex							Template:X mark	Template:X mark	Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Molly Shannon						Template:X mark		Template:X mark		Template:X mark
Charlie Sheen							Template:X mark	Template:X mark		Template:X mark
O. J. Simpson			Template:X mark	Template:X mark
Ed Williams			Template:X mark	Template:X mark

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Functioned as			Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer
1977	The Kentucky Fried Movie	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	with Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker
1980	Airplane!	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Partial
1984	Top Secret!	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Partial
1986	Ruthless People	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
1988	The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Partial
1991	The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
1992	Brain Donors	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Partial
1993	For Goodness Sake	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Short film
1994	[[Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult|Naked Gun Template:Frac: The Final Insult]]	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1995	A Walk in the Clouds	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
1996	High School High	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	For Goodness Sake II	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Partial	Short film
1998	BASEketball	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Also executive music producer
2002	Phone Booth	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2003	My Boss's Daughter	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Also wrote early draft screenplay
	Scary Movie 3	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2006	Scary Movie 4	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2008	An American Carol	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	The Onion Movie	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Superhero Movie	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2013	Scary Movie 5	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Also directed additional scenes
TBA	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role	Note
1977	The Kentucky Fried Movie	Man / Technician #2 / Grunwald
1980	Airplane!	Ground Crewman #2
1984	Top Secret!	German Soldier in Prop Room
1991	The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear	Davy Crockett
1994	[[Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult|Naked Gun Template:Frac: The Final Insult]]	Teleprompter Guy
1995	Your Studio and You	Himself	Short film
1998	BASEketball	Man with Shooting Hot Dog
2006	Scary Movie 4	Zoltar	Voice role
2013	Scary Movie 5	Packer Fan

Other credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	O.J.: Made in America	Himself	Documentary
2019	MOSSAD!	Creative consultant

Television

TV series

Year	Title	Functioned as			Notes
		Creator	Producer	Writer
1976	Big John, Little John	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	writer of episode "Abracadabra" with Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker
1982	Police Squad!	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Template:Yes	director and writer of episode "A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise)" with Jim Abrahams & Jerry Zucker

Other work

Year	Title	Functioned as			Notes
		Director	Writer	Producer
1987	Our Planet Tonight	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Partial	TV movie
2000	H.U.D.	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Unaired TV series pilot
	Absolutely True	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Partial
2019	Late Night Berlin	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Episode "Folge 42"

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role	Note
1972	The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson	Performer	Part as Kentucky Fried Theater in one episode
1974	The Midnight Special
2018	Impractical Jokers	Himself	Episode: "Out of Left Field"
2020	Impractical Jokers: Dinner Party		Episode: "The Soup's On Episode"

Songwriter

• "Spend This Night With Me" (performed by Val Kilmer in Top Secret!, 1984)
• "I Guess I'm Just Screwed" (performed by Colleen Fitzpatrick in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear, 1991)
• "It's Your Birthday" (performed by more actors in High School High, 1996)
  

External links

• [https://www.imdb.com/{{#if: 0001878

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• David Zucker at Discogs
• GreenCine interview
• Jewish Journal interview Template:Webarchive
• Weekly Standard interview