- Born on October 16, 1947 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, director/writer/producer David Zucker, along with brother Jerry (Ghost, 1990) Zucker and longtime friend, Jim (Hot Shots, 1991) Abrahams, has established himself among Hollywood's (or at least Wisconsin's) most successful filmmakers.
Starting out after college, with a borrowed video tape deck and camera, the soon to be legendary trio created the Kentucky Fried Theater, on the UW Madison campus, and moved to California in 1972, quickly becoming the most successful small theater group. in Los Angeles history. After parlaying this success into The Kentucky Fried Movie, the three conceived the idea that would create a whole new film genre. Airplane! (1980) broke all conventions, featuring dramatic actors like Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen performing zany jokes with straight-laced sincerity. The spoof became the surprise hit of 1980, beginning a streak of hilarious movies including Top Secret! (1984) and Ruthless People (1986), after which David branched out on his own to direct The Naked Guns (1988, 1991, 1994), BASEketball (1998), Scary Movies 3 (2003), and 4 (2006), and others.
David also found time to produce the successful, but somewhat less hilarious A Walk in The Clouds (1995) and Phone Booth (2002), and recently completed a feature script, The Star of Malta, a comedy set in the Film Noir era, and an international spy thriller, "Counter Intellijence!".
Outside of the entertainment world, David has been a prominent advocate of environmental causes, having served on the board of TreePeople, an LA based organization committed to promoting community based tree planting and ecological solutions. David has worked closely with founder Andy Lipkis, taking a major role in charting the direction of the organization, and while doing so, receiving numerous honors, including the annual Evergreen Award.- IMDb mini biography by: Sheldon Grunwald
- SpouseDanielle Zucker(May 1997 - 2019) (2 children)
- Children
- Parents
- RelativesJerry Zucker(Sibling)Susan Breslau(Sibling)
- Films usually feature puns, slapstick, and visual gags
- Frequently casts Leslie Nielsen and Lloyd Bridges
- David and Jerry's mother is frequently cast in a small role
- Often features serious conversations in the foreground and out-of-focus silly events in the background.
- His surname "Zucker" is German for "sugar".
- Brother of Susan Breslau and Jerry Zucker.
- He worked with Lloyd Bochner in Y a-t-il un flic pour sauver le président ? (1991) and his son Hart Bochner in Prof et rebelle (1996).
- He has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Y a-t-il un pilote dans l'avion ? (1980).
- Son of Charlotte Zucker and Burton Zucker.
- Everything about it worked, and I don't mean just the movie, but in our experience, we realized there's also a component of luck involved in this business. We had absolutely the most competent people in the studio working on the release and ad campaign.
- I don't take reviews very seriously, but in their totality I think they are representative of how the audience feels, and of what their reaction is. There's always one guy who doesn't get it.
- I don't know if I'd want to do that anymore, because you always get bigger laughs on college campuses. So, when the film plays in front of a city audience, you've probably cut too loosely.
- I don't think there has been any increase in sophistication in the audience. When people are aware of a concept that's easy to understand, and there's an actor who will attract them to the theater and it's a movie that's funny three-quarters of the time, it will be successful.
- We're producing a movie now, 'The Onion' Movie, and it's very difficult for me to be on the set. If I'm not right in the trenches, it's very difficult for me to watch another director, because I'm not involved and it's not exciting.
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