He passed away Sunday, at the age of 84, due to complications from pneumonia.
Leslie Nielsen was born in Skaskatchewan, Canada in 1926. He served in the Canadian Air Force and worked as a disk jockey before taking up acting. He began working in television in 1948 with more than 50 appearances in two years. He later went on to appear in a great many television shows.
He started in films in 1956. His first roles were dramatic. My first and fondest memories of Leslie Nielsen are as Commander Adams in The Forbidden Planet (1956) and the Captain in The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Nielsen gained his biggest fame when he starred in Airplane! (1980) later in The Naked Gun (1988) and it’s sequels. His ability to play a serious character who is oblivious to the absurdity surrounding him brought him a new generation of fan.
Leslie William Nielsen will be missed by all. We, at JBoD, extend our sincerest condolences to his family, friends, and fans.
So sad…. “Forbidden Planet” is one of my childhood favs, and lots of Leslie Nielsen’s films show what a great talent he had for both drama as well as the comedy he became famous for in his latter years.
He’ll be greatly missed by film fans worldwide….
We have a copy of “Forbidden Planet” on the shelf, as it’s one of our favorites. It’s odd, but while I’ve seen “Airplane!”, I never got around to watching the “Naked Gun” movies. 🙂 I supposed I should, eventually. He will definitely be missed.
The “Naked Gun” films let Leslie finally shed the image people had of him as only being a dramatic actor or a leading man and let him show what a truly funny and “real” person he could be.
In a way, they almost typecast him as that sort of goofy guy for the last portion of his career though…. a shame people can’t just accept a talented actor as more than one or two roles.