For those fans of spoof films such as the The Naked Gun series and Airplane! it will be sad news to hear that the star, Leslie Nielsen has died from pneumonia complications aged 84. He was surrounded by family and friends at the time of his death and his family have released a statement through his rep saying 'We are sadden by the passing of beloved actor Leslie Nielsen, probably best remembered as Lt. Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun series of pictures, but who enjoyed a more than 60-year career in motion pictures and television'
Born Feb. 11, 1926, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada he moved to Hollywood in the mid 50's after appearing in many New York TV dramas. Though many people see him mainly as a comedy figure he initially appeared in such films as Forbidden Planet and The Vagabond King (1956) which he would jokingly refer to as 'The Vagabond Turkey' due to its poor box office reception. He was however signed on for a seven year contract with MGM which he eventually left after a series of disappointing films and went on to appear in more TV shows including The Swamp Fox.
The biggest change in his career was when he appeared in 1980's spoof Airplane in which he played the deadpan and incompetent Dr. Rumack. Perfect for the role and a hit with audiences, writing/ directing team Jim Abrams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker took the success of Airplane and hired him again to play detective Frank Drebin in the TV series Police Squad!. The show was short lived but paved the way for the ridiculously funny and oft-quoted Naked Gun series, a spoof much more worthy of attention than the recent slew of parodies Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and Vampires Suck.
With these roles many critics claimed he was being cast against type, but Nielsen disagreed stating: 'I've always been cast against type before,' explaining that comedy is what he'd always wanted to do.
He certainly achieved his aim and will be sadly missed. Our thoughts are with his family.
Source: Screenrush
