FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Leslie Nielsen, who went from a dramatic actor to a man beloved for his slapstick comedy, has died. He was 84.
Nielsen was surrounded by his wife, Barbaree, and friends when he passed away Sunday at a hospital near his Fort Lauderdale, Fla. home, his agent told the Associated Press. He had been suffering from pneumonia.
The Canada native launched his Hollywood career in the mid-1950s. He was initially cast as the hero and leading man thanks to his height and good looks. His first notable film was the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet.
Nielsen landed his best dramatic role as the captain of an overturned ocean liner in the 1972 disaster movie, The Poseidon Adventure. However, his career would make a dramatic change eight years later when he was cast in Airplane! as an incompetent doctor on an ill-fated flight. The comedy was a huge hit and led to Nielsen turning into a comic star.
In 1982, the men behind Airplane! — Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker — cast Nielsen as bumbling detective Frank Drebin in the televison comedy Police Squad. The series lasted just six episodes, but it was turned into hit at the movies with 1988's The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, which co-starred George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson and Priscilla Presley. The film's success led to the The Naked Gun 2 1/2 and The Naked Gun 33 1/3.
In a 1982 interview with People magazine, Jerry Zucker recalled an early encounter with Nielsen that convinced him the man was meant for comedy.
"Leslie kept emitting gas in a very loud and embarrassing manner," he explained. "We just assumed he'd been to Mexico or something. Then we found out he has this little rubber gadget that makes these terrible noises. And we realized that what we had here was a 10-year-old dipstick parading around as a genteel 50-year-old."
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