David Zucker

Born: October 16 1947
Where: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

The director is best known for light-hearted spoofs such as Airplane! and the Naked Gun series.

Starting out with an old camera, he persuaded his brother Jerry and family friend Jim Abrahams to form the Kentuck Fried Theatre.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1972, their success - based on a mix of filmed and live sketches - led to the interest of major studios.

In 1977, they made the cult classic Kentucky Fried Movie - directed by John Landis - which was followed with Airplane!

The "comedy without comedians" was a runaway success featuring serious actors such as Robert Stack and Peter Graves taking comedy roles.

Next came their TV hit Police Squad! and the movie Top Secret! with Val Kilmer.

Ruthless People starred Bette Midler and Danny De Vito and Zucker took his first turn as a director with The Naked Gun, starring Leslie Nielsen.

After a series of Naked Gun sequels, Zucker branched out into drama, co-producing A Walk in the Clouds and the thriller Phone Booth.

He directed Ashton Kutcher and Terence Stamp in My Boss's Daughter and also helmed Scary Movie 3 with Pamela Anderson and Charlie Sheen.