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R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen, 84

B

bpatrick

Don't know if you've heard but Leslie Nielsen died yesterday
of pneumonia at his home near Ft. Lauderdale. He was 84.

Although we think of him mainly as a comic actor, as in "Airplane!"
("and don't call me Shirley") and "Police Squad!" (both the series
and the movies), he was a dramatic actor from the '50s to the '70s,
appearing on many of the playhouse shows of the '50s, as well as
such series as "The New Breed," "Bracken's World," and "The Protectors"
segment of "The Bold Ones". And Don Morrow has told me that he replaced
Nielsen as the Shell Answer Man.

Nielsen had a gift for being funny without appearing to be; as Frank Drebin,
for example, he plays it absolutely straight--but he gets the laugh every time.

Another national treasure leaves us for a better place.
 
Right! The whole idea with Airplane! (1980) was to get all the straight men (and Barbara Billingsley) to do comedy. It worked absolutely perfect! No wonder it's my all-time favorite movie! :D
 
I watched all of the 6 episodes of Police Squad ABC. they were brilliant. No disrespect intended to the Naked Gun films - they we're great. But the half-hour format on ABC made the rapid fire humor really great. Especially clever were the scenes with the shoe shine boy, who seemed to know everything:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUx1i38Rco8
 
Leslie Nielsen once said (rightly) that "Police Squad!" didn't
make it as a television series because the viewer had to
actually watch the show (gags might be going on in the
background, on signs, etc.). But it was one of the most
innovative shows ever put in primetime and I, too, count
it among my favorites.
 
The few times I got to see Police Squad I loved it. I'll have to check to see what I can find on You Tube or Netflix.

The earliest thing I can remember seeing Leslie Neilsen doing comedy in was an episode of MASH where he played a colonel that Hawkeye and Trapper were trying to convince he was going insane to get him off the battlefield. It was hilarious.
 
All that I can say is that he was among the great comedic talents of this generation, and a noted serious actor in the golden age of Hollywood. He will truly be missed. :( :'(
 
RIP Leslie. You will be missed as a "comedian" in Airplane and the Naked Gun films.

-crainbebo
 
The earliest thing I can remember seeing Leslie Neilsen doing comedy in was an episode of MASH where he played a colonel that Hawkeye and Trapper were trying to convince he was going insane to get him off the battlefield. It was hilarious.
Click to expand...

Col. Buzz Brighton...Part of Hawkeye and Trapper's ruse was to get Buzz to believe Frank had the hots for him.
 
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