Leslie Nielsen

Overview

Born
February 11, 1926 · Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Died
November 28, 2010 · Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA (complications from pneumonia)
Birth name
Leslie William Nielsen
Height
6′ 2″ (1.88 m)

Leslie William Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and raised in Tulita (formerly Fort Norman), Northwest Territories. His mother, Mabel Elizabeth (Davies), was Welsh. His father, Ingvard Eversen Nielsen, was a Danish-born Mountie and a strict disciplinarian. Leslie studied at the Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto before moving on to New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. His acting career started at a much earlier age when he was forced to lie to his father in order to avoid severe punishment. Leslie starred in over fifty films and many more television films. One of his two brothers became the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. On October 10, 2002, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in recognition of his contributions to the film and television industries. On November 28, 2010, Leslie Nielsen died at age 84 of pneumonia and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
- IMDb mini biography by: Greg Hardy

Delivering sophomoric punchlines with a deadpan expression
Flatulence gags
Appearing oblivious to everything that's happening around him
Misinterprets what other people say. For example, in The Naked Gun, a character offers him a cigar and says, "Cuban?" Leslie's character replies with "Err, no. Dutch Irish. My father was from Wales."
Deep commanding voice

At age 17, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and trained as an aerial gunner.
May have been the first "Trekkie". According to Star Trek (1966) story editor and screenwriter D.C. Fontana, Nielsen called the production office the morning after the first episode and offered high praise. Star Trek was partially inspired by Nielsen's classic Forbidden Planet (1956).
Film critic Roger Ebert once called him "the Laurence Olivier of spoofs".
Following his death, he was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As a final piece of humor, he chose "Let 'er rip" as his epitaph.
His father, Ingvard Nielsen, was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer for Northwest Territory and Saskatchewan.

Doing nothing is very hard to do... you never know when you're finished.
The reason they call it 'golf' is that all the other four-letter words were used up.
[on the part of his career when he played almost exclusively villains] The best part is always the heavy. And the meaner and crueler and the worse you are, the more vicious you are as the heavy, the better the hero looks when he whips you. So the heavy is liable to be a very dramatic, fine acting part. I told my agent at that time, "I want to play heavies who are really vicious and cruel and terrible. I want them to know that they're terrible and I want them to enjoy it.".
[on his wrestling a "wild grizzly bear" (it was actually a docile honey bear) in Day of the Animals (1977)] I had to weave and play around with a honey bear, and I could wrestle with him a little bit, but there's no way you can even wrestle a honey bear, let alone a grizzly bear that's standing ten feet to eleven feet tall! Can you imagine? But it was fascinating to work that close to that kind of animal.
When people are laughing, they don't beat up on you. You're secure and safe. It's when they stop laughing that it's dangerous.