Leslie Nielsen: 1926 - 2010   
   9 hours ago | IMDb News   
       
   Leslie Nielsen, the serious young actor who enjoyed far greater fame in a   
   second career as a bumbling, older, comic actor in hits such as Airplane! and   
   the Naked Gun series, has died from complications from pneumonia brought on   
   while battling a staph infection. He was 84.   
       
   Nielsen was born on February 11, 1926 in Regina in the Saskatchewan province   
   of Canada. He was the son of a Canadian Mounted policeman and went on to serve   
   in the Royal Canadian Air Force before becoming a radio announcer and DJ. A   
   scholarship to New York's Neighborhood Playhouse allowed him to study acting   
   with Sanford Meisner and dance with Martha Graham. Bit parts on stage and TV   
   led to leading roles.   
       
   His height and his good looks made him a natural to play the stalwart hero,   
   which he did in films like the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. He then spent   
   two decades in various TV roles, often guest spots, with the odd turn in   
   movies where the role required a serious and commanding presence, as he did as   
   the captain of the doomed ship in The Poseidon Adventure.   
       
   He was doing guest stints on television's "The Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island"   
   when David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams came to call. They wanted Nielsen   
   to play the solemn character he's perfected over the years in their upcoming   
   spoof Airplane! as Dr. Rumack, the practical physician aboard a troubled   
   flight. Nielsen was relieved to be offered something where he wasn't playing   
   the grandfather and the role forever changed his career and the public's   
   perception of him. Nielsen deadpanned some of the best lines in the movie:   
   "Surely you can't be serious." "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley." and   
   "The life of everyone on board depends upon just one thing: finding someone   
   back there who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for   
   dinner. " (That dialogue was taken directly from Zero Hour!, the serious   
   flight disaster film upon which Airplane! was based.)   
       
   Though Airplane was the surprise hit of that summer Nielsen headed back to TV,   
   to star as Lt. Frank Drebin in the short-lived Zucker/Abraham's comedy,   
   "Police Squad." The show failed but it inspired the creative team behind it to   
   make a big screen version with The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!   
   The success of that film in 1988 led to two sequels with Nielsen headlining   
   and the reliable George Kennedy and still comely Priscilla Presley supporting.   
   The series also gave O.J. Simpson another few years of time in front of the   
   movie camera. Several poorer cousins, such as Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Mr.   
   Magoo, Spy Hard and Wrongfully Accused, followed and tainted the goodwill   
   Nielsen had accumulated and the diminishing box office confirmed it. He   
   continued to make cameo appearances in films, almost all spoofs, up until his   
   death.   
       
   Nielsen had been ill for over a week, getting treatment for a staph infection   
   in a hospital in Fort Luaderdale when he contracted the pneumonia. His nephew,   
   Doug Nielsen, confirmed the rumors of his uncle's death by a call-in to a   
   Manitoba radio station, CJOB on Sunday stating that "today at 5:30, with his   
   friends and his wife, Barbaree, by his side, he just fell asleep and passed   
   away."   
       
   Nielsen is survived by Barbaree Nielsen, his fourth wife, and his two   
   daughters, Thea and Maura, whom the actor had with his second wife, Sandy   
   Ullmann.   
       
   - Keith Simanton   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.57   
    * Origin: NCS BBS -Houma, LA- (1:3828/7)