Leslie Nielsen, best known for his dry, silly performances in comedies like ‘Airplane!’, has died of pneumonia in Florida at the age of 84.
The Canadian was actually a serious actor, having studied at New York City’s Actors Studio, and his dramatic break came in the now classic sci-fi film ‘Forbidden Planet’, itself a futuristic update on Shakespeare‘s The Tempest.
He was also in the original Poseiden Adventure.
But, really, things started happening for him when he hit the screen with the perfect comedy ‘Airplane!’, the funniest film ever made and one which is still unsurpassed 40 years later. The sitcom Police Squad! lead to film such as ‘The Naked Gun’ and the underrated ‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It’, which has a really good blood joke in it.
Nielsen’s output wasn’t perfect – even with the awful ‘Stan Helsing’… but here he is, as we remember him. Whatever his epitaph is, it should be:
DON’T CALL ME SHIRLEY
Leslie Nielson definitely had a knack of obscure/appreciated humor.He really added a flare to the movies he was in…Gone,but definitely not forgotten…His personality will always be remembered….