Biography
Jim Abrahams (May 10, 1944 – November 26, 2024) was an American movie director and writer. Abrahams was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin, to a Jewish family, and attended Shorewood High School. He was known for the spoof movies that he co-wrote and produced with brothers Jerry Zucker and David Zucker, such as Airplane! (for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay) and The Naked Gun series. The team of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (also referred to as "ZAZ") really began when the ...
Known For
Complete Filmography
FAT: A Documentary
2019
as Self - Father / Founder, Charlie Foundation / Filmmaker
Weight loss expert Vinnie Tortorich and award-winning filmmaker Peter Pardini want you to join their team to make a hard-hitting documentary film that...
Kareem: Minority of One
2015
as Self
This documentary charts the complexity and genius of the NBA's all-time leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's legendary career, both on and off the cou...
Scary Movie 4
2006
Screenplay
Cindy finds out the house she lives in is haunted by a little boy and goes on a quest to find out who killed him and why. Also, Alien "Tr-iPods" are i...
Jane Austen's Mafia!
1998
Screenplay, Director
Takeoff on the Godfather with the son of a mafia king taking over for his dying father.
...First Do No Harm
1997
Director, Producer
When Lori Reimuller learns that her young son Robbie has epilepsy, she first trusts the judgment of the hospital staff in how best to bring it under c...
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult
1994
Executive Producer
Frank Drebin is persuaded out of retirement to go undercover in a state prison. There he has to find out what top terrorist, Rocco, has planned for wh...
An Introduction to the Ketogenic Diet
1994
Director
An introduction to the Ketogenic Diet, a special high-fat diet used to treat seizures, as a treatment for childhood epilepsy narrated by Meryl Streep....
Hot Shots! Part Deux
1993
Screenplay, Characters, Director
Topper Harley is found to be working as an odd-job-man in a monastery. The CIA want him to lead a rescue mission into Iraq, to rescue the last rescue ...
Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux—A Filmmaker's Apology
1993
As part of the film's promotion, a mockumentary was aired on HBO. Titled Hearts of Hot Shots! Part Deux—A Filmmaker's Apology, the mockumentary parodi...
Brain Donors
1992
Executive Producer
Three manic idiots—a lawyer, a cab driver and a handyman—team up to run a ballet company to fulfil the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics resul...
Hot Shots!
1991
Director, Writer
The gang that created Airplane and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this often hilarious spoof starring Charlie Sheen, who previously only ...
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear
1991
Executive Producer, Original Series Creator
Bumbling lieutenant Frank Drebin is out to foil the big boys in the energy industry, who intend to suppress technology that will put them out of busin...
Oscar
1991
as Postman (uncredited)
Angelo "Snaps" Provolone made his dying father a promise on his deathbed: he would leave the world of crime and become an honest businessman. Despite ...
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael
1990
Director
Movie star Roxy Carmichael is abandoning the bright lights of Hollywood, Calif. and returning to her small Ohio hometown -- at least long enough to de...
Cry-Baby
1990
Executive Producer
A prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her society grandmother's wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
1988
Writer, Executive Producer
When the bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin investigates events following the shooting of his partner, he stumbles upon an attempt to assassinate Queen ...
Coming to America
1988
as Face on Cutting Room Floor
An African prince decides it’s time for him to find a princess... and his mission leads him and his most loyal friend to Queens, New York. In disguise...
Big Business
1988
Director
In the 1940s in the small town of Jupiter Hollow, two sets of identical twins are born in the same hospital on the same night. One set to a poor local...
Ruthless People
1986
Director
Sam Stone hates his wife Barbara so much that he wants her dead. He's ecstatic when she's taken by a duo of kidnappers who want $500,000 ransom in exc...
Top Secret!
1984
as German Soldier in Prop Room (uncredited)
Popular and dashing American singer Nick Rivers travels to East Germany to perform in a music festival. When he loses his heart to the gorgeous Hillar...
Top Secret!
1984
Director, Screenplay, Executive Producer
Popular and dashing American singer Nick Rivers travels to East Germany to perform in a music festival. When he loses his heart to the gorgeous Hillar...
Cocaine Blues
1983
as Himself
A look at the problems associated with cocaine use, including the toll it takes, not only on the users themselves but on society in general.
Airplane!
1980
as Religious Zealot #6
An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
Airplane!
1980
Executive Producer, Director, Writer
An ex-fighter pilot forced to take over the controls of an airliner when the flight crew succumbs to food poisoning.
The Kentucky Fried Movie
1977
as Various
A series of loosely connected skits that spoof news programs, commercials, porno films, kung-fu films, disaster films, blaxploitation films, spy films...
The Kentucky Fried Movie
1977
Writer
A series of loosely connected skits that spoof news programs, commercials, porno films, kung-fu films, disaster films, blaxploitation films, spy films...