Leslie Nielsen dies at 84

Best known for his deadpan spoof comedy in films such as Airplane! and the Naked Gun series, actor Leslie Nielsen died of complications caused by his pneumonia at his Florida home last Sunday. He was 84. While he’s most commonly know for playing one-note comedic characters – who are ignorant to the absurd situations they find themselves in – Nielsen has an impressive CV dating back to the 50s and numbering hundreds of roles in a wide range of genres. Starting off his career in television in the late 40s – commonly referred to as the ‘Golden Age’ of American TV – Nielsen branched out into cinema with the commercially unsuccessful musical The Vagabond King. A more prominent role was in the offing soon after however, when he appeared in the now-classic science fiction adventure Forbidden Planet (1956) and scored a long-term contract with its studio, Metro-Goldwyn Meyer, which led to a string of further films with the studio. But it was in the 80s that the Nielsen we all know today was born. With the release of Airplane! (1980) – a send-up of air-bound thrillers such as Zero-Hour and Airport – his trademark dim-witted, deadpan protagonist won both audiences and critics, with Roger Ebert describing him as the “[Lawrence] Olivier of spoofs.” The Naked Gun trilogy (1988, 1991, 1994) gave Nielsen the opportunity to capitalise on the success of Airplane! in which he played hapless detective Frank Deblin. After the success of Naked Gun, however, Nielsen’s career began to sag, particularly his foray into family-friendly comedy with features such as Surf Ninjas (1993) and Mr Magoo (1997), while further spoofs including Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), and 2001: A Space Travesty (2001), only achieved middling success on video. Nielsen made a minor comeback with cameo roles in the Scary Movie series, where he played the American president in the third and fourth instalments of the horror blockbuster spoof. Nielsen remained active throughout his eighties, appearing on stage and television. In an interview with the Vancouver Sun, he commented on the urge to carry on working: “I'm afraid if I don't keep moving, they're going to catch me ... I am 81 years old and I want to see what's around the corner, and I don't see any reason in the world not to keep working. But I am starting to value my down time a great deal because I am realizing there might be other things to do that I am overlooking.” Nielsen is survived by his wife Barbaree Earl – whom he married in 2001 – and two daughters from his second marriage, Maura and Thea.