(Warning: This profile may contain objective information.) Director: Wrongfully Accused Writer/Cowriter:: High School High Hot Shots! Mr. Magoo Naked Gun "For decades, friends, co-workers, lovers, friends of lovers of co-workers, have all said, 'Why don't you make a movie that has Leslie Nielsen, Kelly Le Brock, Michael York and Richard Crenna in it?' And as luck would have it, the time has come!" "Wrongfully Accused" re-unites Pat Proft and Leslie Nielsen. They combined forces on the hilarious "Police Squad!," which led them to the successful "Naked Gun" series. Proft and Nielsen are back in the loving arms of a genre they love, and within which they feel warm and cozy, and with both feet...actually four feet...planted firmly in a world of sight gags, wordplay and spoofs. Pat Proft, a strapping five-foot-seven of solid muscle, is both writer and director, as well as producer...if you like the movie; if not, the film was written produced and directed by Eduardo Stotts. In Proft's directorial debut, he takes Leslie Nielsen through dozens of current and classic movies, spoofing liberally as they go along. Among them are scenes from a collection of films including "The Fugitive," "Clear and Present Danger," "Mission: Impossible," "Braveheart," "North by Northwest," "Casablanca" and just about every movie Harrison Ford ever appeared in. We've also included television shows such as "Baywatch," which perhaps Harrison Ford watches--it's possible. And there are things in this movie that Proft made up on his own! Pat Proft makes his directorial debut with "Wrongfully Accused." As writer or co-writer, Proft has helped to create some of the modern film era's most memorable comedies, including the famed "Naked Gun" trilogy (starring Leslie Nielsen), "Hot Shots" and its sequel "Hot Shots! Part Deux," with Charlie Sheen and Lloyd Bridges. After launching his feature film writing career with the comedy classic "Police Academy," starring Steve Guttenberg and Kim Cattrall, Proft went on, with writing partner Neal Israel, to create such films as Tom Hanks' "Bachelor Party," "Real Genius" and "Moving Violations." He subsequently executive produced and wrote "Lucky Stiff," a screwball comedy about cannibalism in backwoods America. Other film titles include "Brain Donors" (written for Paramount) and "High School High," which Proft co-wrote for Tri-Star Pictures. Proft honed his comedic skills by writing for some of America's best-loved comedy series, including "The Mary Tyler Moore Comedy Hour," "The Carol Burnett Show," "Van Dyke and Co.," "The Smothers Brothers Show," "Police Squad!," "The Redd Foxx Show," "Fernwood Tonite" and "Welcome Back, Kotter." Born and raised in the Minneapolis, Minnesota suburb of Columbia Heights, Proft's natural sense of humor was fueled by television performers like Red Skelton, the Laurel and Hardy films and many other Hal Roach comedy classics. Right out of high school, Proft wrote for and performed in a comedy revue at Minneapolis' Dudley Riggs Brave New Workshop for several years, then did two years of dinner theater productions at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater. Proft created a successful one-man comedy act, which he performed at dozens of colleges in the late '60s and '70s. After a stint as a disc jockey and play-by-play sportscaster at radio station KBUN in Bemidji, Minnesota, Proft moved to Los Angeles in 1972. He landed at the newly-created Comedy Store, where he continued to perform regularly for the next three years. It was at the Comedy Store that the Smothers brothers saw his act and invited him to write and perform for their show. The Comedy Store also introduced him to Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker, who promptly hired him to perform at their Kentucky Fried Theatre revue. His early association with the ZAZ team eventually led Proft to join them in creating the internationally renowned "Naked Gun" and later, the "Hot Shots" hit films with Jim Abrahams. Married and the father of a 29-year-old son who is also a screenwriter, Proft presently makes his home in Orono, Minnesota with his wife Karen, who, as Karen Philipp, toured and recorded with Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66. So there.

Mr. Cranky:
If you were offered the opportunity to live your life as another film person (actor, director, etc.) who would it be and why?

Pat Proft:
Stan Laurel. My hero. He was a writer, director, comedian. He could sing, dance. It would have been wonderful to start off in vaudeville and Music Hall sketches. Then involved in silent film comedy, which was nothing but sight gags, and then worked on the Hal Roach lot at a time when the Hal Roach studio was the king of film comedy.