David Zucker - Biography

David Zucker (born October 16, 1947) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter.

Personal life

Zucker was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Charlotte and Burton Zucker, who was a real estate developer. He graduated from Shorewood High School. Zucker is married to Dr. Danielle Zucker, with whom he has two children, Charles and Sarah. His younger brother, Jerry, is his filmmaking partner. The Zucker brothers have a sister, Susan Breslau.

Career

Zucker's movies include The Kentucky Fried Movie in 1977, The Naked Gun in 1988, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear in 1991, BASEketball in 1998, Scary Movie 3 in 2003, its sequel Scary Movie 4 in 2006 and An American Carol in 2008.

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 also 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 four Scary Movies).

Looking back on his career in 2009, Leslie Nielsen said the best film he appeared in was The Naked Gun, and that Zucker 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.' And he kept his word."

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 (who has starred in all four of the Scary Movie series).

In his movies, his mother, Charlotte (March 10, 1921 - September 5, 2007) was often cast in a small bit part (like one of the Lucille Ball impersonators in Rat Race, and Vincent Ludwig's secretary, Dominique, in The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!).

Zucker has stated that his dream project is a Davy Crockett biopic. He mentioned his enthusiasm for the Davy Crockett project during an interview in 2006 for the feature length documentary, "That Guy: The Legacy of Dub Taylor", on the life of Dub Taylor, which has received support from the Taylor Family and many of Dub's previous co-workers, including Bill Cosby, Peter Fonda, Dixie Carter, Don Collier, Cheryl Rogers-Barnett, as well as many others. The project had its World Premiere at Taylor's Childhood Hometown of Augusta, Georgia on April 14, 2007. The project is from Executive Producers Stokes and James Kicklighter from JamesWorks Entertainment and Professor Pauper Productions. Part of his interview is on YouTube.

Politics

A campaign contributions search for Zucker, once a longtime liberal Democrat, shows his first conservative contribution as US$2647 to Club for Growth, which promotes lower taxes and smaller government. The website hosts political videos including his initial video criticizing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. On October 10, 2006, the Drudge Report published a link to a political ad Zucker produced and later appeared on Youtube. In a quote from a Drudge Report exclusive:

On October 23, 2006, a second Zucker video, “The Taxman”, was posted to YouTube. The spot suggests that Democrats, if elected, would raise taxes.

On December 18, 2006, a third was posted, this time with the Iraq Study Group in his sights. This video compares study group's recommendations with that of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II.

While promoting his film An American Carol, Zucker confirmed that he now considers himself a conservative Republican, though still campaigns for better environmental policies. He also said he would have voted for Hillary Clinton or Joe Lieberman, but considers Barack Obama "extremely left-wing."

Recurring cast members

Among all of his directed and/or produced parody films, Zucker almost has cast Leslie Nielsen in for comedic roles.

Filmography

External links

• David Zucker at Discogs
• GreenCine interview
• Jewish Journal interview
• Weekly Standard interview