Hey folks, Harry here with the sad news that reached my ears the second that Yoko & I were finished assembling our now appropriately BLACK Christmas Tree... "Leslie Nielsen has died." I never met him, but I've always known his work. There isn't a moment in my life that I can recall, not loving FORBIDDEN PLANET, my personal favorite science fiction film of all time. I've seen it countless times. And I loved Leslie Nielsen's COMMANDER J.J> Adams... I love how he quarrels with Anne Francis' Altaira, in a playful yet concerned manner. I love how he interacts with his crew, the tone he takes with Walter Pidgeon's Morbius. And I love when he's reprimanded for attempting to make an image with the Krell's children's toy. For me, Leslie Nielsen represented COMMAND in my mind. I had no notion that the future of Space Travel would be Commanded by a Canadian. But that was the case. He came into this world in 1926 in regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was one of many actors that hit the scene at the birth of Television, getting steady work beginning in the Fifties on a variety of acting showcase shows like THE ACTOR'S STUDIO, KRAFT THEATER, STUDIO ONE, THE PHILCO-GOODYEAR TELEVISION PLAYHOUSE... and these shows were awesome. Far more literate and intelligent than our reality TV we're stuck in. If you love FORBIDDEN PLANET, by all means, check out Leslie's work on TALES OF TOMORROW, he was in quite a few episodes and was always extremely solid. From 1950-1956 - Leslie did over 80 parts on Television, then he was cast as the Commander in FORBIDDEN PLANET - First, he was in RANSOM! - a solid thriller which Ron Howard and Mel Gibson remade as RANSOM. His next big break was when Walt Disney picked him to become THE SWAMP FOX for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. I love that theme song, and the show was quite a bit of fun. Then he landed the role of Lt Price Adams on the hardnosed Detective show, THE NEW BREED, which was beloved, but short run. He followed that up with long stints on DR. KILDARE and later PEYTON PLACE. He spent a lot of time on TV - Personally, I loved his recurring role on KUNG FU. But you have to understand, he was constantly working. Then... in the Seventies, his film career started kicking back in... I loved him in the utterly psychotic DAY OF THE ANIMALS... and he's fun in VIVA KNIEVAL!... But it was THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE that foreshadowed his powers as a gag-man. That was nailed home with his Dr. Rumack in AIRPLANE! Then a TV show happened called POLICE SQUAD! and he first played Detective Frank Drebin... which turned into the insanely successful NAKED GUN series - and soon - he was typecast as a buffoon. Right in the midst of that, he played an amazing asshole in CREEPSHOW! But once he began Drebin, the audience couldn't really get enough. This was one of those iconic roles that an actor spends a life trying to find. If only it had been his COMMANDER... I dream of an ongoing series of features produced on the scale of FORBIDDEN PLANET following his crew on their adventures. Alas - it is the fodder of dreams alone. But through all the comedy, he remained for me the Commander in FORBIDDEN PLANET. Working with Robby The Robot, loving Altaira - and living in the vastness of space with not quite 18 surviving competitively selected super-perfect physical specimens with an average age of 24.6... And he was proud of that. He was working right up until his death. Leslie Nielsen was a classic working actor. Incredibly professional and according to everyone I have ever spoken to about him... they felt he was a fantastic person and not at all the buffoon that was Drebin. Farewell Leslie, we loved ya! You made us laugh & gasp. We cheered for you and cried laughing at you. You were one of the great ones and you will always be missed. My god, the gags you could have done out of this TSA deal... could've been genius! See, I miss you already.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some thoughts on Leslie Nielsen's passing.
The Naked Gun was a pivotal movie in my childhood. It was a grown up comedy and I remember my parents having a discussion about whether or not I should see it, if it'd be too much for me. I don't recall if I saw it in the theater or not, but I did watch it at an age too young to get a lot of the humor. I didn't know why my parents were laughing when Leslie Nielsen complimented Priscilla Presley's stuffed beaver, but I laughed along.
Then, as I grew older, I began getting more and more of the humor, beyond the slapstick.
Of course, Nielsen's other '80s work was a big part of my childhood as well, especially Airplane! and Creepshow.
His dry comedic performance in Airplane is one for the textbooks. Frank Drebin of the Police Squad/Naked Gun movies and TV shows is a bit of a goof, always taking pratfalls, being loud and crazy... but Dr. Rumack is not. He's dead serious (and don't call him Shirley) and completely sincere, which makes him so damn funny.
But Nielsen was a dramatic actor before he found fame as a mature funnyman. To be completely fair, he was never a great dramatic actor, but he had a presence that was undeniable, especially in the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet.
When I began collecting 16mm one of the first prints I got (in fact I think it came with the projector) was an obscure little suspense movie from 1964 called NIGHT TRAIN TO PARIS. It's obscure for a reason, kind of a cash in on a James Bond type story with a noir-ish twist and it's not the best put-together film in the world, but once again Nielsen, playing an OSS officer, was the most interesting part of the movie.
I never got to meet the man, but I'll always have warm feeling for him, not just because of what he meant to me as a performer, but because he was once really nice to my mother. She met him at an airport and shared a plane with him. Not only did he give her an autograph and took a photo, but during the flight he'd periodically lean out into the aisle and wave, calling out "Hello, Vicki!" back to her in coach. Her seatmates thought she was hot shit.
The man will be missed. My thoughts are with Mr. Nielsen's friends, family and fans.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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