Biography for
Howard Zieff More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

21 October 1927, Chicago, Illinois USA

Date of Death

21 February 2009, Los Angeles, California, USA (Parkinson's disease)

Birth Name

Howard B. Zieff

Spouse

Ronda Gomez-Quinones

(? - 21 February 2009) (his death)

Trivia

Was originally set to direct Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986) but the job was eventually given to Penny Marshall.

Was original choice to direct Punchline (1988) when it was written in the end of 1970s.

Howard Zieff's early ad campaigns were noted for their innovative casting. Breaking from the stereotypical blond-haired, blue-eyed, old Hollywood ideal of perfection, he cast young unknowns with decidedly ethnic, un-Hollywood features, including Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Richard Dreyfuss.

Before going into the movies, he was responsible for many memorable advertising campaigns. Most memorable was the Alka-Seltzer "Spicy Meatball" commercial in which an actor must work through repeated takes for a tomato sauce.

Personal Quotes

On photographing in 1967 for the "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's" ad campaign: We wanted normal-looking people, not blond, perfectly proportioned models. I saw the Indian on the street; he was an engineer for the New York Central. The Chinese guy worked in a restaurant near my Midtown Manhattan office. And the kid we found in Harlem. They all had great faces, interesting faces, expressive faces.

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