Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84

Subject: Obit: Leslie Nielson
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Nov 10 - 11:29 PM

Flew off to the airplane in the sky...

Gun finally clothed...

I'll miss him.

Subject: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: bobad
Date: 28 Nov 10 - 11:32 PM

Veteran comic actor Leslie Nielsen, star of Airplane! and The Naked Gun, has died at the age of 84.

He died in hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was being treated for pneumonia, his agent John S Kelly said.

Canadian-born Nielsen started out as a serious actor but in 1980, his role as a hapless doctor in the disaster spoof film Airplane! made him a comic star.

In all, he appeared in more than 100 films and had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

"With his friends and his wife by his side, he just fell asleep and passed away," his nephew Doug Nielsen said, the AFP news agency reported.

Born in the Canadian city of Regina in 1926, Leslie Nielsen enjoyed an acting career which spanned six decades.

He started as a television actor in New York in 1950, performing in about 150 live dramas.

In the mid-1950s, he moved to Hollywood, where he initially carved out a film career as a leading man, capitalising on his craggy good looks and 6ft2in (194cm) height.

Then in 1980 his deadpan delivery in the comedy disaster movie Airplane! marked him out as a gifted clown, says the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani in Los Angeles.

It was in this role that he became known for the line "Don't call me Shirley".

The success of Airplane! led to another TV role in the spoof crime show Police Squad where he first played accident-prone detective Frank Drebin.

He went on to make three films as the same character in the Naked Gun series, starring opposite Priscilla Presley.

He continued working into his eighties.

Nearly two weeks ago - at the age of 84 - Nielsen was taken into hospital in Florida where he lived, suffering from pneumonia.

His condition had worsened over the last two days and relatives said he passed away peacefully, our correspondent says.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Nov 10 - 11:48 PM

Very sad news.........I always found great joy in how his career changed paths and the success he had in later life. I remember him first as the "The Swamp Fox" on Disney when I was a kid......still remember the song too.........................and I just found it and a clip on You Tube!!!! THE SWAMP FOX

A handsome young man who learned how to laugh at himself for the enjoyment of others, he was one of the first older stars to change courses in his career and I am happy for every moment he spent as those ridiculous characters......Don't call him Shirley................

Thanks for the all the entertaining times...............


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 12:31 AM

He was certainly a well-rounded actor, and lived a full life. Well done, Mr. Nielsen. RIP

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: JennieG
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:17 AM

He was in "Tammy and the Bachelor" opposite Debbie Reynolds too.

Hands up if you can still sing the song........

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:21 AM

"Forbidden Planet."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 03:38 AM

' Surely you cant be serious ? '
' yes I am, and don't call me Shirley '

I'm still laughing at that, one of the great comic actors, RIP Leslie.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 05:04 AM

He had a quirky humour style, not always to everyone's liking, but I always admired his talent.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Mr Happy
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 07:00 AM

..........all his cows finally came home to roost!!

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Fiolar
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 08:09 AM

Sadly another great one gone. RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 08:13 AM

>' Surely you cant be serious ? '
' yes I am, and don't call me Shirley '<

Yes I liked this line too and have been saying this until this very day. Such a funny man and a giggler I will miss him. It was genius to turn the run of the mill disaster movies into such good comedy. Leslie Nielsen RIP x

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: gnu
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 08:41 AM

Indeed to all the above. RIP and thanks.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 09:03 AM

A great talent - Buck Frobisher nearly stole scenes from Diefenbaker.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Beer
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 09:18 AM

Certainly will be missed.
Sympathies to his love ones.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: kendall
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 11:08 AM

Does anyone remember his bit in a Twilight Zone episode?
He caught his wife and another man, so he buried them up to their necks in beach sand then just waited for the tide to come in.
It was titled "Something to tide you over."

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 11:39 AM

One of the great pleasures of parenthood is introducing your children to new things. And a lot of those things in recent years were via film. they are hooked on Hitchcock, they like black and white films. And the comedy of Mel Brooks.

When I brought home Airplane I expected them to like it, and the gales of laughter proved me right. I think we also played Forbidden Planet around that time, to give them another side of Nielsen.

I suspect Terry Gross will have an old interview with him that will turn up on Fresh Air this week. It's amazing, all of the people she has interviewed over the years.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 12:02 PM

I have to go to the hospital.

What is it??

It's big building with doctors and nurses, but don't worry about that now...

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: pdq
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 12:08 PM

I remember seeing a re-run of The Untouchables where Nielsen played an argry prisoner. He was big, powerful and rather mean. Good actor. RIP

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:18 PM

I had mixed feelings about those Leslie Nielsen comedy films. There were some genuinely funny scenes in them here and there, yes...but the style of humor used in those movies was relentlessly dumb, crude, and heavy-handed, as is often the case in American comedy films. It's as if the American scriptwriters never even heard of the concept of subtlety...or wit. I much prefer the really clever and nuanced humour in British films such as "A Fish Called Wanda", and such humour gives the actors a great deal more to work with, whereas the kind of crude humor used in the Leslie Nielsen films doesn't require much more than stunned looks, exaggerated reactions, and pratfalls.

Not that any of that is Leslie Nielsen's fault. He had to work with the scripts they gave him.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Crowhugger
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:39 PM

A great loss. So much to enjoy remembering. RIP.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:48 PM

aawww... :-(

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 01:58 PM

Surely, he's at rest now.

Bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: olddude
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 02:14 PM

remembering him as the captain in "forbidden planet". Not only could he do comedy but he was a serious actor also

Rest in Peace and thank you

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 02:28 PM

Well I think Airplane! and those three Naked Gun ones were the funniest things ever (possibly challenged only by the Pink Panther ones). You may conclude that I'm no film buff...

"Look Ed, he's over there in the red light district. I wonder what he's up to?"

"Sex Frank?"

"Err....not now Ed, we've got work to do".

What a pisser!

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 02:32 PM

My votes for funniest ever would be the Pink Panther films, A Fish Called Wanda, and Ruthless People.

The Leslie Nielsen ones did have some great moments, no doubt.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Don Firth
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 03:41 PM

Ever hear of slapstick, LH? Neilsen's comedy films were a form of verbal, and sometimes physical slapstick.

Some of the greatest comedians of all time did slapstick. Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, et al.   Recently, with a few exceptions such as the Nielsen comedies, we seem to have forgotten how. Too "sophisticated," I guess.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: fat B****rd
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 03:45 PM

We watched him in a re-run of Due South only last week. Love Airplane and will watch it as homage.
RIP Mr. N

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Genie
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 06:20 PM

Hawk, I generally agree about slapstick and crude humor, but "Airplane" is more than a cut above most comedies of that sort.   For me, the test is whether I still laugh at a gag the umpteenth time I see or hear it, and most of Leslie Nielsen's comedies (especially "Airplane") are like that.

I first saw him in Tammy And The Bachelor and later in a couple other serious roles, including Forbidden Planet (when it came to TV), but his slapstick, raunchy, comedies were for me the highlight.   Off-screen, Nielsen also was a lover of fart jokes -- he often carried a whoopie cushion or the like, which he could 'detonate' on cue -- and other total silliness that 5th-grade boys love. So did I. LOL

Glad you were here for 84 years, Leslie, and glad you left us such a legacy of laughs.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 06:46 PM

Don Firth - I love slapstick when it's well done and it's in a movie with an intelligent script. The Pink Panther films had a lot of slapstick, and they are among my favorites. A Fish Called Wanda had some neat slapstick too, and so did Ruthless People (An American film). I also LOVE Chaplin, Laurel and Hardie, and some of the other greats of the silent era...but I am not too keen on the Marx Brothers whom I find sort of annoying if not downright obnoxious.

Clearly, Don, I have not become "too sophisticated" to appreciate movies which feature slapstick...my taste in them just doesn't ALWAYS dovetail absolutely perfectly with yours, that's all. I realize that this divergence from the Don Firth Code of Humor Appreciation casts me out into the nethermost darkness, there to dwell amongst vile heathens, lowlifes, and moribund sophisticates of the worst sort...but so be it! ;-)

It isn't slaptick per se that I object to. It's a script which never (or very seldom) manages to achieve anything but "stupid" jokes and crude, dumbass humor which I object to. Most of the films Nielsen was in struck me as that type of script...some funny moments, for sure...but overall something that could never rise above being what I'd call a "B" film. Hollywood figures that that's good enough, and most of their audience agrees. I do not. I want something smarter and wittier than a typical Leslie Nielsen comedy. If it also has some good slapstick...great!

Airplane may be as good as you say, Genie. I've never seen the entire film, so I can't say.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Genie
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 07:03 PM

What can I say, LH?   My 'yardstick' is whether and how much a gag or movie makes me laugh, and I still laugh out loud at "Airplane." If it didn't grab you the same way, that's life.

FWIW, The Pink Panther movies were laugh-out-loud hilarious to me when I first saw them but not so much the second time around, and even less so on subsequent exposure to them. That's also true of parts of "Airplane," but some parts still make me laugh.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 07:24 PM

As I said, Genie, I've never seen all of the movie "Airplane", only bits and pieces of it, therefore I'm not really able to give you my opinion of that one because it isn't formed yet.

I think part of the key to my low interest in the Leslie Nielsen movies was my own personal reaction to Leslie Nielsen as an actor. The man just didn't interest me for some reason. His acting had the same effect on me as that of Lorne Greene or Raymond Burr....no effect at all. Interest level zip! Nada. ;-) Peter Sellers or Chaplin, on the other hand....I really liked those guys and could relate to them. Likewise Johh Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtiss, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Kevin Kline, Clint Eastwood, Danny De Vito, Bette Midler, even the whiny Woody Allen...they are all people whose acting personas I have found interesting in one way or another.

Now Groucho Marx...I actively detest the man! ;-) (going merely by how he came across) I can't even look at Groucho Marx without feeling strongly how much I can't stand him and his whole trip. Needless to say, that tends to ruin my enjoyment of Marx Brothers films.   

But Charlie Chaplin...my heart warms to Chaplin. I love the social idealism and very human feeling he put in his movies.

How much one likes an actor can have a great deal to do with how one relates to a movie the actor is in.

Now in Leslie Nielsen's case I neither liked the man nor disliked him...I just wasn't interested in him at all, one way or another. Not much of a strong motivator for me to watch his movies, was it?

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Genie
Date: 29 Nov 10 - 10:35 PM

Well, Leslie Nielsen was no Charlie Chaplin.

Then again, very few people are. ; D

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 03:32 AM

Little Hawk, this thread is about Leslie Neilson, get it, your posts are about YOU.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 04:14 AM

The true master of the Whoopie cushion - in real everyday life..
He also was decades ahead of TSA regarding gate rape crotch searches in the Naked Gun movies.

His parody of the serious character in the typical hollywood film is and will always be legendary.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: melodeonboy
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 04:20 AM

So he's finally gone to little daddy heaven!

One of the few actors who could consistently make me cry with laughter.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 05:20 AM

He also gave Priscilla Presley a quirkier personality, after seeing her in one of his films I grew warmer towards her instead of her just being Elvis's partner someone who didn't always take herself too seriously. Hope they do a season of his movies soon to mark his passing.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 10:11 AM

Leslie Nielsen (Frank Dreben): "Nice beaver"
Priscilla Presley: "Thank you"

You need to see it in context!!

R.I.P.

Nigel

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: frogprince
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 11:47 AM

Uh-huh; "I just had it stuffed"

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 12:05 PM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/nov/29/leslie-nielsen-career-clips?intcmp=239

Waste half an hour and have a good giggle.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 12:30 PM

Thanks, Dave. RIP, Leslie Nielsen.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Nov 10 - 10:49 PM

Now in Leslie Nielsen's case I neither liked the man nor disliked him...I just wasn't interested in him at all, one way or another.

About the way I felt about him, though I do recognise that many, many really loved his work. Still I hope he is resting in peace and send condolences to his family.

(At the risk of losing my head...I couldn't stand Airplane or any of the Naked Gun shows.:-)

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Dec 10 - 02:44 AM

Sounds like we have very similar taste in comedy movies, Kat. (regarding Airplane, I've only seen some excerpts from it...but those excerpts did not fill me with a strong yearning to see the rest of it, I'd have to say....just not the kind of humor that turns my crank, I guess...)

OMIGOD! I'm talking about myself and my own likes and dislikes again! Sorry, Dave.

Subject: RE: Obit: Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84
From: bubblyrat
Date: 01 Dec 10 - 01:17 PM

Yes, I liked his "Nice beaver" sketch too . And I thought he made a great villain in "The Sheepman" with Glenn Ford.