Leslie Nielsen, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 84, was a prolific actor, and one who managed to raise smiles on our faces many, many times in his lifetime.
From The Naked Gun to Repossessed, from Airplane! to Spy Hard, from Mr Magoo to Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Nielsen was able to deliver a one-liner in a way that other actors could only hope to replicate, and gave us dozens of laugh-out-loud moments.
Everyone has a favourite Nielsen film or moment – now we’re having a look back at this brilliant star with some facts about Leslie Nielsen you may not have known. Just don’t call him Shirley.
12. He wasn’t American
Nielsen may have been an icon of American comedy cinema, but he wasn’t actually American. Nielsen was in fact Canadian, born in Regina in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan on 11 February, 1926, and later raised in the Northwest Territories.
Nielsen was born Leslie William Nielsen to Danish father Ingvard Eversen Nielsen and Welsh mother Mabel Elizabeth.
11. He became an American citizen once he was a movie star
In November 1958, Nielsen decided the time was right to become a naturalised United States citizen.
He had already appeared in a number of productions by this point and was starting to make a name for himself.
10. He starred in more than 250 films and TV shows
We all remember Nielsen’s big productions, such as Airplane! and the Naked Gun series, but Nielsen appeared in more than 250 productions in a career spanning seven decades.
They weren’t all classics – Nielsen’s last film, which he completed shortly before dying of pneumonia in 2010, was the low budget comedy Stonerville – but and included the occasional guest spot on TV shows like Columbo and Murder She Wrote.
9. His brother was Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
It wasn’t just Leslie Nielsen in the public eye – his brother Erik Nielsen was a high-ranking Canadian politician who rose to become Deputy Prime Minister in 1984.
8. His aunt and uncle also starred in hundreds of films
Nielsen was not the first big-name actor in his family, as his aunt and uncle, Jean and Via Hersholt were prolific actors themselves, appearing in hundreds of productions between them.
7. He was in the forces in his teens
Leslie Nielsen wasn’t always in the entertainment business; as a younger man – technically a kid, in fact – Nielsen was one of the many soon-to-be-famous folks who would join the military.
At the age of 17, Nielsen joined up and enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force and managed to train up as an aerial gunner, though he later left this career well behind him.
6. His father was a Mountie
Nielsen’s father, Ingvard Nielsen, was a member of the well respected and world-renowned Canadian Mounted Police Force.
5. He didn’t become a comedy actor until much later in life
Believe it or not, 1980’s Airplane! was the first film in which Nielsen really turned his hand to straight comedy, in a career that had begun 25 years prior.
Before Airplane!, Nielsen was considered very much a straight dramatic actor, particularly in his younger years. Up to that point, Nielsen had starred in dozens of non-comedy productions, including the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, 1959 Revolutionary War miniseries The Swamp Fox and the 1972 disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure.
Nielsen was also, for a time, something of a heartthrob in his day, having been cast in his first romantic lead in 1957, opposite Debbie Reynolds in the rom-com Tammy and the Bachelor.
Nielsen continued to play straight roles post-Airplane!, in the likes of the horrors Prom Night (1980) and Creepshow (1982), but so successful was his comedy career that he gave his final dramatic performance in 1987’s Nuts.
4. Roger Ebert christened Nielsen the ‘Laurence Olivier of Spoofs’
Nielsen managed to swap his acting style to dead-pan comedy so well that he starred in many spoof movies, and was even called the ‘Laurence Olivier of Spoofs’ by film critic Roger Ebert.
3. He was the first Trekkie
Nielsen was considered to be possibly the first ever Trekkie, as he contacted the production studio the day after the first show aired to offer praise and say how much he enjoyed the show.
2. He was considered to play Jack Torrance in The Shining
Nielsen was considered for the role of Jack Torrance in the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining, but ultimately lost out on the role to Jack Nicholson – do you think they made the right choice?
1. Two of Nielsen’s co-stars passed away around the same time as him
Nielsen passed away in November 2010, just eight months after Airplane co-star Peter Graves, and one month before Forbidden Planet co-star Anne Francis.