By Ryan Broderick
Leslie Nielsen passed away at 84 this week and left behind a legacy of comedy that few can match. In the 80s and 90s he was the face of the parody genre. His deadpan portrayal of Dr. Rumack in Airplane! led to possibly his most famous role as Lt. Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun franchise.
I was first introduced to Leslie Nielsen by my mother when I was in middle school. She took me to a video store (remember those?) and suggested that I might like Airplane!. I did.
It was the movie for me that changed the way I looked and thought about humor. The mix of slapstick and sight gags thrown over deadpan humor was revolutionary for me, even 20 years after it was released.
He had that gift that very few comedic actors had, which was the ability to be funny regardless of the material. His aloof face, his completely straight obliviousness, he was always spot on.
Nielsen started his career as a dramatic actor, in films like Forbidden Planet and later The Poseidon Adventure. But of the chance to play comedies he once told The AP that he had finally found his home.
After his role in Airplane!, Leslie Nielsen became the face of funny. Naked Gun led to more Naked Gun movies, which led to Dracula: Dead And Loving It, which led to Wrongfully Accussed, which led to 2001: A Space Travesty.
As I got older I realized the spoof movies were losing steam, but my love for seeing Nielsen’s familiar face never did. He had already ignited a love of humor in me that has never gone away.
It’s strange to say, but Nielsen went before his time. He had been beaten by the end of the golden age of spoofs and his most recent roles in films like Scary Movie 3, Scary Movie 4 and Superhero Movie denied him the comeback he deserved.
For the man of a million one-liners, spent the end of his career trying to carry the puerile and derivative pieces of filth being passed as spoofs. Movies that eventually evolved into the “blank movie” formula (Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, and the like) created by the enemies of modern comedy Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It’s heartbreaking, it’s not fair and it’s a tragedy.
With every role he’d pop up in was the hope that maybe he’d turn it around and come back to comedy. Maybe the world was ready for smart parody, maybe he’d get the Bill Murray treatment and be given a second chance. Maybe some young filmmakers would realize he was the perfect fit for a new age of parody.
But he never did.
He worked steadily until the end of his life, but never in the spotlight like he had in the 80s and 90s. It’s a shame but now all we can do is celebrate the work he left behind, an astounding amount, over 100 films and 1,500 televisions shows.
Goodbye Mr. Nielsen and it’s terrible to see you go in such a way. Of course, I think he put it better. “A parachute not opening… that’s a way to die. Getting caught in the gears of a combine… having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that’s the way I wanna go!”