LOS ANGELES --

Howard Zieff, a film and television commercial director whose works included Private Benjamin and My Girl, has died. He was 81.
    Zieff died Sunday of Parkinson’s disease in Los Angeles, said his wife Ronda Gomez-Quinones.
    Zieff was a legendary commercial director before he successfully dovetailed into features. He is credited with helping to change the face of American advertising in the 1960s with such classic, humorous slice-of-life vignette TV spots as Alka-Seltzer’s “Spicy Meatball” and Volkswagen’s “Funeral.” In fact Time magazine described Zieff as being “master of the mini-ha-ha” based on his comedy commercials.  But his work was more than comedy. It was thoughtful wit as reflected in the VW and Alka-Seltzer fare which contributed to the 1960s being dubbed by many as the golden age of advertising.
    Prior to his spotmaking exploits, Zieff was known for his magazine ads, including a memorable series for Levi’s Real Jewish Rye Bread that featured an American Indian, an African-American lad and a Chinese man enjoying a piece of rye bread. Each ad featured the tagline, “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.”
    Goldie Hawn, who received an Oscar nomination for best actress for her role in Private Benjamin in 1980, said Zieff “had a special talent for directing comedies, always a rare gift.”
    “What I remember and cherish most was his humor and love of laughter,” Hawn said in a statement.

  Born in Chicago in 1927, Zieff grew up in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles and was a photographer for the Navy after World War II.
    He moved to New York in the 1950s and worked his way up from a job as a photo assistant to become an influential commercial photographer on Madison Avenue.
    He is survived by his wife and his sister.

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