Do you like gladiator movies? Leslie Nielsen dead at age 84

[FrankenFretter***]

The star of Airplane (from which I quoted in the headline), Naked Gun, and dozens of other movies that made me laugh is dead at age 84. He died of complication from pneumonia. RIP Mr. Nielsen, you made us laugh and you will be missed.

[Jimi75]

I loved his kind of humor. Sad news, but I guess he had a wonderfully fulfilled life.

R.I.P. Leslie

[R_of_G]

Hey look! It's Enrico Pallazzo!



Sad news indeed.

Incidentally, his passing is the seed of several trending topic threads on Twitter this morning and while I wasn't surprised to see that few people knew he was a dramatic actor for a large part of his career, I was quite surprised at how many people who claimed to love the man and be saddened by his passing went on to misspell his last name.

[Commodore 64***]

Have you ever been held captive in a Turkish prison?

[Tig***]

He was in one of my favorite old sci-fi movies.

[deeaa*]

Airplane! is probably the biggest comedy classic for me, ever. Likely I have seen all the films Nielsen ever acted in. Including Forbidden Planet :-)

[Brian Krashpad]

I'm a huge fan. Watched Airplane! on AMC tonight even though I have it on DVD and have seen it countless times.

RIP!

[Tig***]

Airplane! is probably the biggest comedy classic for me, ever. Likely I have seen all the films Nielsen ever acted in. Including Forbidden Planet :-)

There are only two movies that made my brother and I to laugh so hard, our bellies were still hurting afterward. "Airplane" and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (premiere night).

[player***]

Was he in Forbidden Planet? have not seen FP in long time.remember the invisi creature and Robbie the robot in it but not Leslie.
ah ha he was the stud in it now I remember.RIP Leslie Nielson you made a lot of us laugh.Shirley, you will be missed

[deeaa*]

Yeah...I just watched FP a little while back and noticed him. Haven't seen Lost in Space I think.

Yeah, 'crazy humor' always worked well for me. Also Top Secret was mighty funny. LOved the Pythons as well...Life of Brian, Holy Grail, Meaning of Life, the entire BBC series, just priceless! There's so many jokes/skits there I'll never forget, from the Expired Parrot to Middle of the Film in ...life...makes me smile even remembering that stuff. And airplane...

Flight two-zero-niner, you are cleared for takeoff.
Roger.
Huh?
L.A. departure frequency two-point-niner.
Roger.
Huh?
Request vector...over.
What?
Flight two-zero-niner, cleared for vector three...two four.
We have clearance, Clarence.
Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
Tower radioed clearance, over.
That's Clarence Oveur...over.
Roger.
Huh?
Roger, over.
What?!
Huh?

[tunghaichuan***]

He's so attached to comedies that I had to double check to believe it was really him in a serious role in "Forbidden Planet" (1951 movie).

I seem to remember that up until Airplane, he was mostly known for dramatic roles, and was often the villain:

[on the part of his career when he played almost exclusively bad guys] 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."

From IMDB

Not to be pedantic, but the Gladiator movie bit was Peter Graves (who does look a bit like Leslie Nielsen.)