Thank television for developing the talents of the late, great Leslie Nielsen
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U.S Online News: We're told occasionally that what goes around comes around to such a degree that going around again and coming around could be called great American indoor sports. In this corner, the unofficial world heavyweight champion: Leslie Nielsen, who was merely a pretty good actor through most of his career and then, in its final couple of decades, became a sprite, a spirit, a tremendously engaging ridiculous presence in such films as "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun."
It was a jolt to learn, as we did Monday, that the Canadian-born Nielsen had attained the age of 84 when he died Sunday in Los Angeles. He not only looked younger, and acted younger, but also seemed to think and dream and be younger. He was young at heart and young in the head, and both of those, in this context, are really just gentle ways of saying he was "nutty as a fruitcake" and as infectious as the measles.
What endeared him most to movie audiences was the fact that he appeared to be having a heck of a good time while doing his best to see that the audience had one, too. His performances were masterful, instinctual satires of modern behavior, and he became the quintessential clueless dork, someone who got it all wrong, whatever "it" was, and never stopped to apologize for his mistakes - usually because he didn't even recognize them as such.
Nielsen's nuttiness was a gift, but it wasn't until fairly late in life that he got to ply it as a trade. In the '50s and most of the '60s, he was vanilla pudding and cast as such - characters on the verge of being dull and dopey. He couldn't really throw heart and soul into these parts because the characters lacked hearts and souls themselves. He could just do his best to hang onto his dignity.
Read More: Thank television for developing the talents of the late, great Leslie Nielsen
It was a jolt to learn, as we did Monday, that the Canadian-born Nielsen had attained the age of 84 when he died Sunday in Los Angeles. He not only looked younger, and acted younger, but also seemed to think and dream and be younger. He was young at heart and young in the head, and both of those, in this context, are really just gentle ways of saying he was "nutty as a fruitcake" and as infectious as the measles.
What endeared him most to movie audiences was the fact that he appeared to be having a heck of a good time while doing his best to see that the audience had one, too. His performances were masterful, instinctual satires of modern behavior, and he became the quintessential clueless dork, someone who got it all wrong, whatever "it" was, and never stopped to apologize for his mistakes - usually because he didn't even recognize them as such.
Nielsen's nuttiness was a gift, but it wasn't until fairly late in life that he got to ply it as a trade. In the '50s and most of the '60s, he was vanilla pudding and cast as such - characters on the verge of being dull and dopey. He couldn't really throw heart and soul into these parts because the characters lacked hearts and souls themselves. He could just do his best to hang onto his dignity.
Read More: Thank television for developing the talents of the late, great Leslie Nielsen
