Zack Norman, known for his roles in films like “Romancing the Stone” and “Cadillac Man,” and TV shows like “The A-Team” and “The Nanny,” passed away on April 28 in Burbank, California. He was 83 years old. His daughter, Lori Zuker Briller, stated that he died of bilateral pneumonia related to the coronavirus.
Norman was more than just a character actor. He was also a painter, a real estate developer, and an art collector. In the 1980s, he mingled with famous artists like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Starting in the early 1970s, he accumulated nearly 40 acting credits in movies and TV shows. He is well-remembered for his role as Danny DeVito’s sidekick in “Romancing the Stone,” the 1984 adventure comedy directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Fans of indie director Henry Jaglom often saw Norman in many of Jaglom’s films. In “Sitting Ducks” (1980), he played a dimwitted hood who steals from a gambling syndicate. In “Hollywood Dreams” (2006), he portrayed a kindly film producer.
Under his real name, Howard Zuker, Norman produced or financed over 40 movies. Among these was “Hearts and Minds,” a documentary about the Vietnam War that won an Academy Award in 1975. However, a lesser-known film he produced, “Chief Zabu” (1986), became famous for disappearing for three decades.
Howard Jerrold Zuker was born on May 27, 1940, in Boston. He was the older of two children. His father, Sydney Zuker, was a lawyer, and his mother was Evelyn (Bloomberg) Zuker. He grew up in Revere, Massachusetts. Inspired by Lenny Bruce, he started doing stand-up comedy in his late teens. While at Vanderbilt University, he took up acting. After leaving Vanderbilt, he found it hard to make a living as an actor and comedian, so he worked at his cousin’s real estate firm in Boston. He became a millionaire in a year and a half but returned to show business because he realized being rich was not fulfilling.
In 1965, he produced his first Off-Broadway play, “Live Like Pigs.” He later toured Europe as a stand-up comic. Variety magazine once called him “one of the funniest men to ever cross these shores” after a performance at the Playboy Club in London.
Norman continued to finance his career through real estate development and finding bargains in the art world. In the early 1980s, he bought several early works by Basquiat for four-figure sums, long before their value skyrocketed.
“Chief Zabu,” a film Norman wrote, produced, and directed with Neil Cohen, was made on a small budget of $200,000. Norman also starred in the film. The movie, about a real estate mogul and his friend trying to take over a fictional Polynesian island, flopped in a preview and was never released. However, it gained a cult following through “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” a show that mocked bad B-movies.
On the show, whenever a character read a newspaper, the host would say, “Hey, Zack Norman is Sammy in ‘Chief Zabu.’” This line referenced an advertisement for the movie that Norman ran in Weekly Variety every Wednesday for nine years. He said he did it because it brought him joy.
Norman is survived by his wife of 40 years, Nancy Zuker; his sister, Janie Krasker; his sons, Stephen and Michael Aron; his daughters, Lori Zuker Briller and Tracy Aron Brittan; and 14 grandchildren. He was previously married to Norma Blumenthal Sommers.
In 2016, Norman and Cohen released a new cut of “Chief Zabu” and presented it at comedy clubs. They learned of the film’s cult status from “Mystery Science Theater 3000” in the mid-2010s when they met a man wearing a “Zack Norman as Sammy in Chief Zabu” T-shirt. The man was surprised to meet the real Zack Norman.
Norman’s unique career spanned acting, producing, real estate, and art, leaving a lasting impression in various fields.