Leslie Nielsen, RIP. "And don't call me Shirley"
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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Leslie Nielsen, who traded in his dramatic persona for inspired bumbling as a hapless doctor in "Airplane!" and the accident-prone detective Frank Drebin in "The Naked Gun" comedies, died on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.
The Canadian-born actor died from complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home at 5:34 p.m., surrounded by his wife, Barbaree, and friends, his agent John S. Kelly said in a statement.
"We are saddened by the passing of beloved actor Leslie Nielsen, probably best remembered as Lt. Frank Drebin in 'The Naked Gun' series of pictures, but who enjoyed a more than 60-year career in motion pictures and television," said Kelly.
Nielsen came to Hollywood in the mid-1950s after performing in 150 live television dramas in New York. With a craggily handsome face, blond hair and 6-foot-2 height, he seemed ideal for a movie leading man.
Nielsen first performed as the king of France in the Paramount operetta "The Vagabond King" with Kathryn Grayson.
The film -- he called it "The Vagabond Turkey" -- flopped, but MGM signed him to a seven-year contract.
His first film for that studio was auspicious -- as the space ship commander in the science fiction classic "Forbidden Planet." He found his best dramatic role as the captain of an overturned ocean liner in the 1972 disaster movie, "The Poseidon Adventure."
He became known as a serious actor, although behind the camera he was a prankster. That was an aspect of his personality never exploited, however, until "Airplane!" was released in 1980 and became a huge hit.
As the doctor aboard a plane in which the pilots, and some of the passengers, become violently ill, Nielsen says they must get to a hospital right away.
"A hospital? What is it?" a flight attendant asks, inquiring about the illness.
"It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now," Nielsen deadpans.
When he asks a passenger if he can fly the plane, the man replies, "Surely you can't be serious."
Nielsen responds: "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."
Critics argued he was being cast against type, but Nielsen disagreed.
"I've always been cast against type before," he said, adding comedy was what he'd really always wanted to do.
It was what he would do for most of the rest of his career, appearing in such comedies as "Repossessed" (a takeoff on the demonic possession movies like "The Exorcist") and "Mr. Magoo," in which he played the title role of the good-natured bumbler.
Nielsen did play Debbie Reynolds' sweetheart in the popular "Tammy and the Bachelor," a loanout to Universal, and he became well known to baby boomers for his role as the Revolutionary War fighter Francis Marion in the Disney TV adventure series "The Swamp Fox."
Unhappy with his roles at MGM, he asked to be released from his contract. As a freelancer, he appeared in a series of undistinguished movies.
"I played a lot of leaders, autocratic sorts; perhaps it was my Canadian accent," he reasoned.
Meanwhile, he remained active in television in guest roles. He also starred in his own series, "The New Breed," ''The Protectors" and "Bracken's World," but all were short-lived.
Then "Airplane!" captivated audiences and changed everything.
Producers-directors-writers Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker had hired Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges and Nielsen to spoof their heroic TV images in a satire of flight-in-jeopardy movies.After the movie's success, the filmmaking trio cast their newfound comic star as Detective Drebin in a TV series, "Police Squad," which trashed the cliches of "Dragnet" and other cop shows. Despite good reviews, NBC canceled it after only four episodes.
"It didn't belong on TV," Nielsen later commented. "It had the kind of humor you had to pay attention to."
The Zuckers and Abraham converted the series into a feature film, "The Naked Gun," with George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson and Priscilla Presley as Nielsen's co-stars. Its huge success led to sequels "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" and "The Naked Gun 33 1/3."
His later movies included "All I Want for Christmas," ''Dracula: Dead and Loving It" and "Spy Hard."Between films he often turned serious, touring with his one-man show on the life of the great defense lawyer, Clarence Darrow.
Nielsen was born Feb. 11, 1926 in Regina, Saskatchewan.
He grew up 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle at Fort Norman, where his father was an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The parents had three sons, and Nielsen once recalled, "There were 15 people in the village, including five of us. If my father arrested somebody in the winter, he'd have to wait until the thaw to turn him in."
The elder Nielsen was a troubled man who beat his wife and sons, and Leslie longed to escape. As soon as he graduated from high school at 17, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, even though he was legally deaf (he wore hearing aids most of his life.)
After the war, Nielsen worked as a disc jockey at a Calgary radio station, then studied at a Toronto radio school operated by Lorne Greene, who would go on to star on the hit TV series "Bonanza." A scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse brought him to New York, where he immersed himself in live television.
Nielsen also was married to: Monica Boyer, 1950-1955; Sandy Ullman, 1958-74; and Brooks Oliver, 1981-85.
Nielsen and his second wife had two daughters, Thea and Maura.
Copyright ยฉ 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The Sun-Times is a member of Associated Press.
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Dead pan and extremely funny.
There are some film genres I just can't watch and one perfect example would be 70's disaster films. Why? Because I grew up repeatedly watching (a highly edited version) of Airplane on broadcast TV. The damage is done, I will never be able to take the genre seriously.
One the other hand, I can watch science fiction films like the Forbidden Planet till I'm blue in the face. It doesn't take much to see the same structure and formula of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek (another childhood TV standard of mine) in that 1956 classic.
It always seemed a bit odd to me that both should include Leslie Nielsen, but that's just a simple testament to his provoking career.
Thanks for this retrospective and the clip from the Ben Hur screen test is a hoot.
Minir quibble Police Squad was on ABC Network and had six episodes completed not sure if all six aired.
I had the laser disc version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Squad!#Overview
Frank: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girls dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane: Goodyear?
Frank: No, the worst.
RIP.
Such a rare talent. As you said in your review of "Spy Hard", Roger, he's possibly the only actor ever to define a genre all by himself.
Along with Tammy, I fell in love with Leslie Nielsen in 1957.
Nice beaver.....where did you get it stuffed?
Such a huge loss, He was the best Comic Actor and most under-rated one..
Almost all the lines delivered by him even in lesser roles after Airplane make one laugh due to the deadpan delivery...
RIP Mr Nielsen, Shirley you will be missed...
I have always admired his ability to move from drama to comedy and do both well. And any man who can utter a line like "go out there and win one for the Zipper" and get away with it is his own kind of genious.
Another Baby Boomer that fell in love with Leslie Nielsen in Tammy and Swamp fox
As a kid growing up, Leslie Nielsen fulfilled one of my grownup fantasies onscreen. He grabbed Gorbachev by the head (back when Russia was "bad"), wiped his bald head with a handkerchief, rubbed off his red birthmark and said: "I knew it!"
I'll miss him.
ChickaBOOMer: My Heart Will Go On
http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-heart-will-go-on.html
Leslie Nielsen always brought laughter into our home. I always enjoyed his one liners. Airplane was our families favorite movie watching the talented star.
I really liked him as Sgt. Buck Frobisher on Due South. Some of the best episodes where the three that he appeared in...
He will be missed by everyone who enjoys laughter.
thanks for this, roger (not to mention you as well, leslie).
Nielsen is nothing short of iconic in stature, and perhaps also a rare case that spans several genres, with equal vigor.
The night I stayed up and watched Forbidden Planet on the late show - for the very first time - shall remain a watershed moment my entire life. Likewise Airplane.
To have left your mark on so many hearts in so many ways is a wonderful legacy. -gh
Can't forget his memorable roll in "Creepshow" - he could play a diabolical S.O.B. with charm.
Just the other day I was surfing channels and saw part of some old TV show with George Kennedy as a Priest. Nielsen was the guest star, playing a snarky, devil-may-care, ex-con.
It was so unlike anything I had seen him in before I had to watch to the end.
Police Squad! (In Color) is one of the greatest TV shows ever. Waaaay ahead of its time. As Nielsen said, you had to actually pay attention to it.
I attend dozens of baseball games each season, and every single time, when the umpires take the field, I stand up and shout, "Hey! It's Enrico Pallazzo!"
The world is less funny today.
Just when I thought I had run out of Leslie Nielsen movies to watch--and I still haven't even gotten around to seeing any of his serious roles yet...
Thank you for this, Roger. I knew you would not let this great actor's passing go unacknowledged. It's interesting to learn that even before Airplane, he was a comedian at heart.
Finally, as long as we're throwing lines around, I have to contribute my personal favorite Nielsen line, from Naked Gun 33 & 1/3: The Smell of Fear, spoken by Frank Drebin whilst trying to incite a riot in a prison cafeteria:
"You call this slop?! Real slop has chunks of things in it! This is more like gruel! And this Chateau Leblanc '69 is supposed to be served slightly chilled! This is ROOM TEMPERATURE!"
Rest in peace, Leslie. You sure as hell deserve it.
He will be missed. I will always be grateful to the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrams for bringing to light his awesome comedic talents.
There are so many moments in his movies that made me laugh uncontrollably, it is hard to pin down just one, but I loved the part in "The Naked Gun" where he coldcocked Enrico Palazzo and took his place and sang "The Star Spangled Banner" in an absolutely horrible and sublime way, and then proceeded to frisk the entire rosters of the California Angels and the Seattle Mariners. As a fellow Canadian, I was so proud.
I think I'm going to buy a bunch of his movies and make my nieces and nephews watch them in our own private Leslie Nielsen film festival when I get them. Even though they're young, they're really smart and I hope they will laugh like I laughed when I first saw those movies.
Any of us would be lucky to be so fondly remembered and laughed about after they pass. Thanks, Mr. Nielsen.
Before yesterday, I don't remember ever laughing at the news of someone's death, but upon learning of the passing of Leslie Nielsen I began recalling line after line from the Naked Gun movies . . . and found myself helplessly, utterly convulsed.
The last two, I backed over with my car. Fortunately, they turned out to be drug dealers. The man who wrote that line was talented, but the man who delivered itโutterly straight-facedโwas timeless.
Mr. Nielsen's was a rare talent. He revitalized, perhaps even redefined, the comedy genre, and I'm terribly afraid no one can ever fill his shoes.
I remember seeing Leslie Nielson in Day of the Animals. In his final scene he was about to force himself on a young lady until a grizzly bear ruins his plans.
It does show his range as an actor to go from a bear wrestler to Frank Drebin
Thanks for the laughs Leslie.
I liked him. Great actor, great comedian. He maked me really laugh from all my heart.
When I looked up Mr. Nielsen's CV, and saw the dozens of guest roles on dozens of series, I realized that I had seen so many of them. Most of them were "serious" (that is, not intentionally comic), and many were the "evil overlord" - the general / colonel / dictator of whatever backwater the IMF / insert-good-guys-here were liberating this week. I'm just the right age, I guess, with just the right amount of wasted youth. :-)
i will definately remember him forever. especially from ' Dracula; Dead and loving it'
R.I.P. to the FUNNIEST Comedic/Dramatic Actor of all time. Leslie Nielson will always remain my favorite actor. SADLY MISSED BY ALL
He was an actor for a long time. But it was when he was 54 that he found his real niche. The Bachelor who wooed Tammy was stereotypically cute but Frank Drebin and his ilk were pure genius.
Thank you for this article.