"Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun" Cult director Jim Abrahams dies at the age of 80

Jim Abrahams, one of the directors and screenwriters behind comedy hits such as "The Naked Gun" and "Airplane!", has died. His son Joseph confirmed the filmmaker's death. Abrahams was 80 years old.

Together with his childhood friends, the brothers David and Jerry Zucker, Abrahams founded the "Kentucky Fried Theatre" in Milwaukee in the US state of Wisconsin. The show was a mixture of gags, satire and hair-raising nonsense.

The trio, known as "ZAZ" for short, made it to Hollywood, where they sold the script "Kentucky Fried Movie" in 1977. Directed by John Landis, the satirical gags became a box-office hit and the first big box-office success for the "ZAZ" team in 1977.

Several hits followed, in which all three were responsible for the direction and screenplay, including the film parody "The Incredible Journey in a Crazy Airplane" (1980; original title "Airplane!") with Leslie Nielsen and the spy comedy "Top Secret!" (1984) with Val Kilmer.

The trio also directed the goofy flick "The Incredible Kidnapping of Crazy Mrs. Stone" (1986) with Bette Midler and Danny DeVito.

"The Naked Gun" to "Hot Shots!"

Abrahams wrote the screenplay for "The Naked Gun" (1988), starring Leslie Nielsen as police booby Frank Drebin, and was on board as 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 the "Rolling Stone" portal, Zucker paid tribute to his "brilliant and biting sense of humor". "He was our partner, our friend and our hero."

Abrahams was also successful without the Zucker brothers. As a solo director, he brought comedies such as "Two by Two", "A Girl Called Dinky" and "Hot Shots! - The Mother of All Movies" to the big screen. His last projects included the screenplay for the 2006 horror comedy "Scary Movie 4", which was directed by David Zucker.

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