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Comedian Leslie Nielsen dead
Veteran Canadian funnyman Leslie Nielsen has died of complications from pneumonia aged 84.
Nielsen is probably best known for playing the bumbling cop Lt Frank Drebin in The Naked Gun franchise, but enjoyed a movie and television career spanning more than 60 years.
His agent said Nielsen died on Sunday at a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, surrounded by his wife, Barbaree, and friends.
Nielsen’s nephew Doug told a Canadian radio station: “He just fell asleep and passed away.”
Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, the son of a Canadian mounted policeman, Nielsen served in the air force as an aerial gunner before becoming a radio disc jockey.
He went on to study acting in Toronto and then in New York City.
Nielsen got his first big break in 1950 with a Studio One television appearance, before heading to Hollywood in 1954 to star in the film The Vagabond King.
For the first 30 years of his career, Nielsen built his reputation playing authority figures such as the captain of the ill-fated cruise ship in The Poseidon Adventure.
But later generations got to know the silver-haired actor primarily for his deadpan performances in comedies such as 1980’s Airplane! - also called Flying High - and The Naked Gun trilogy, which ran from 1988 to 1994.
Nielsen also appeared in the 1996 spy spoof Spy Hard as Agent WD-40 and in 1998’s Wrongfully Accused, a parody of The Fugitive.
More recent acting roles included the 2003 Hollywood parody Scary Movie 3 and its 2006 sequel.
Nielsen was married four times and had two children from his second marriage, Maura and Thea Nielsen.
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So sad……
Frank Drebbin… police squad!!
<---- LEGEND!
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Surely you can’t be serious……(do I need to finish it?)
RIP Leslie Nielsen
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Leslie will be missed. Laughed myself silly in the Naked Gun series. RIP.
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“Nice Beaver” to you Sir, thanks for the memories.
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Didnt realise he was so old. Loved him
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A great loss, he’s flying his final plane, hope he can land it.
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I am serious…and don’t call me Shirley…
he will be missed
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I heard they were going to make another Naked Gun with Leslie, was looking forward to it
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If anyone hasn’t seen them, I’d thoroughly recommend getting a hold of the Police Squad! TV show that the Naked Gun movies is based on. Nielsen plays it a lot more straight-faced than the movies.