The great Leslie Nielsen has passed away, at the age of 84.
What a sad way to start a week. We've learned this morning that the great Leslie Nielsen has died, at the age of 84. He died from complications relating to pneumonia.
Nielsen was a rarity amongst actors, having effectively had two careers. The first part of his acting life was dedicated to more serious roles, most notably including the likes of The Poseidon Adventure and Forbidden Planet. In all, he appeared in over 100 films, and 1500 television programmes.
But the ones for which most we'll remember him came in the second wind of his career, starting with 1980's Airplane! David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker cast him for straight delivery of often-insane material, and even though his role in the film was effectively a supporting one, it's one that inevitably springs to mind whenever the film is talked about. Rightly so, too.
Nielsen would find the role that would bring him the most success with the ZAZ team once more, when they cast him as Lt Frank Drebin, in the TV series, Police Squad! Canned after just six shows, it nonetheless planted the seeds that led to the Naked Gun trilogy of movies. Nielsen had always been open to a fourth film, which was being chatted about as recently as the last year or two. But it was never to happen.
Instead, Nielsen enjoyed his newly-found comedy career, starring in a series of spoofs that, in truth, hardly set the world alight. Repossessed, 2001: A Space Travesty, Spy Hard, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Wrongfully Accused, Superhero Movie and the last two Scary Movie films were all added to his resume.
Nielsen kept working right up until this year, and his is a screen presence that'll be very sadly missed. Our thoughts are with his family. And our memories are fond ones.
Here's when we had the honour of interviewing Leslie Nielsen, back in 2008...
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