Jim Abrahams, writer-director of “Airplane!,” “Police Squad!” and the third leg of the Zucker Brothers trio that brought zany/deadpan comedy to screens and infinite dialogue quotes among the millions of friends who saw them, has died. He was 80.
Abrahams died Tuesday at his Santa Monica home of natural causes, THR reported Tuesday, according to his son Joseph.
With the brothers Jerry and David Zucker, his childhood friends from Wisconsin, Abrahams wrote the sketch-comedy “Kentucky Fried Movie” in 1977, directed by John Landis. The cult hit was also a modest box-office success with over $7 million, and the three were off to the races.