Fleeing an abusive father, he joined the Canadian Air Force and only achieved worldwide fame at age 62, after failing to break through as a dramatic actor.
Leslie William Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, on February 11, 1926, exactly 100 years ago. His mother, Mabel Elizabeth Davies, emigrated to Canada from Wales and his father, Ingvard Eversen Nielsen, was a Danish-born police officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He also had an older brother, Erik Nielsen, who served as a Canadian Member of Parliament and cabinet minister for an extended period, and was Deputy Prime Minister of Canada from 1984 to 1986. Nielsen spent his early childhood in the Arctic, where his father was stationed, and once recounted learning to walk there.
The family patriarch, Ingvard, was reportedly a violent man, frequently abusing his wife and sons.
To escape his troubled childhood, Leslie enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at age 17, despite being legally deaf and requiring a hearing aid since childhood.
“It’s very difficult to be an actor when everything depends on hearing your cues and saying the right lines at the right time, but you can’t hear the cues,” Nielsen once explained. “I can’t advise you how many times I had to ask, ‘What?’ if I didn’t have my hearing aid. So this little gadget is a lifesaver, and it allows me to practice my craft.”
During World War II, he served as an aerial gunner on flying missions. After the war, Nielsen attended the Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto. He then received a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York, where he studied acting and music before landing his first significant television role in 1950 in an episode of the anthology series Studio One.
He Couldn’t Drive a Team
In the early 1950s, he took on numerous minor roles as a handsome extra and supporting actor. With a naturally strong voice, he also worked as a narrator for documentaries and commercials to earn a living. But he aspired to become a major Hollywood star. In 1956, he landed a small part in his first feature film, the romantic musical The Vagabond King. The film was a flop, but producer Nicholas Nayfack liked the young and handsome Nielsen and offered him a role in an upcoming sci-fi film, Forbidden Planet (1956). Nielsen eagerly accepted and became one of the film’s leads. The film – often considered a precursor to Star Trek, reimagining Shakespeare’s The Tempest in space – was a major success, and Nielsen secured a contract with MGM.
After several years of smaller roles and acting struggles, he finally gained recognition. He auditioned for the role of Messala in Ben-Hur (1959), but was unsuccessful, with Stephen Boyd ultimately landing the part. By this time, his contract with MGM had expired, allowing him to work freely elsewhere, and he did.
From the 1960s onward, his enthusiasm for films waned, finding television work more enjoyable. He gave up on his dream of becoming a Hollywood star and moved towards the small screen.
He appeared in numerous television series during this period, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Fugitive, Peyton Place, and The Wild Wild West. Though, he consistently played supporting roles, never the leading man. He returned to where he began in the early 1950s, with smaller and secondary roles, but now on television.
Seriously Foolish
Nielsen was initially regarded as a serious dramatic actor, and was also handsome, but he didn’t receive roles that allowed him to prove his talent and ability. In 1969, he landed a starring role in The Bold Ones: The Protectors, a gritty police procedural, but it didn’t last long, lasting only seven episodes before being canceled. In the 1970s, he returned to smaller roles in series such as The Streets of San Francisco, M.A.S.H., Hawaii Five-O, Kojak, Kung Fu, S.W.A.T., and even made appearances in Columbo in 1971 and 1975. Of course, there were also films, such as the popular disaster film of the decade, The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Day of the Animals (1977) – where he famously fought a bear while half-naked amidst lightning – and City of Ember (1979).
Then came a major breakthrough in 1980! A pair of brothers, David and Jerry Zucker, along with their writing partner, Jim Abrahams (known collectively as ZAZ), achieved great success with their 1977 comedy The Kentucky Fried Movie and wanted to create another unconventional comedy. Popular “Airport” films were trending at the time, and they wanted to rework the little-known 1957 disaster film, Zero Hour!, infusing it with their unique brand of absurd humor.
This resulted in 1980’s Airplane!, in which Leslie Nielsen played Dr. Rumack, arguably the film’s most memorable character. The success of Airplane! helped define a new subgenre of comedy.
Zucker and the others chose him for this role, so different from his previous dramatic work, because he was a great dramatic actor, and they believed that using relatively unknown but recognizable faces would convince audiences that Airplane! was a serious disaster film, making the jokes even funnier when delivered with a straight face. The plan worked.
The King of Parody
Nielsen embraced comedy, and ultimately built a career out of it, becoming one of the most beloved comedic actors of his generation. This led to the creation of Police Squad! in 1982, with Nielsen playing Frank Drebin (known as Drebil in Hungarian dubs), a character specifically created for him. Unlike Airplane!, however, Police Squad! wasn’t a hit on television. Only six episodes were filmed, and only four aired before ABC canceled the series. “What we have is the kind of humor that doesn’t work on television, because you have to pay attention to it,” Nielsen later explained, noting that television viewing was already becoming a background activity.
Fortunately, Police Squad! proved profitable, leading to something even bigger. Paramount acquired the VHS distribution rights and released all six episodes in 1985. The tapes were a hit, and the studio approached Zucker and the others for more. This ultimately led to the 1988 release of The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, a feature-length film adaptation of the canceled TV series.
Nielsen returned as Frank Drebin, marking his first leading role in a film in over 30 years. Audiences loved The Naked Gun, and it became a bigger success than even Airplane! After decades of struggle, Nielsen finally became a global star at age 62.
Following this success, studios commissioned parody films specifically starring Nielsen, leading to the parody film craze of the 1990s. This included Spooky Spoofs (1990), The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), The Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), Camilla (1996), Wrongfully Accused (1998), and the third (2003) and fourth (2006) installments of Scary Movie.
Nielsen was also unpredictable in real life. He frequently appeared on talk shows with his signature prop, a simple whoopee cushion, which he would deploy unexpectedly during interviews.
He never stopped working, making millions laugh worldwide until his death in 2010 at the age of 84.
A Final Toot at the Grave
Nielsen was married four times: to nightclub singer Monica Boyer from 1950 to 1956, to Alisande Ullman from 1958 to 1973, to Bobbye Brooks Oliver from 1981 to 1983, and finally to Barbaree Earl from 2001 until his death. He had two daughters, Thea and Maura, from his second and longest marriage. In his later years, he lived with Barbaree in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In November 2010, Nielsen became ill and was hospitalized at Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale. His nephew, Doug, told Winnipeg radio station CJOB on November 28th that his uncle had passed away at the age of 84, surrounded by family and friends, with pneumonia cited as the cause of death at 5:30 PM Eastern Time. Nielsen’s body was laid to rest at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale on December 7, 2010, where he delivered one last joke: he had previously chosen the inscription “Let ‘er rip” for his tombstone (the original English text has multiple layers of meaning, referring both to the fart joke and to letting him rest in peace). The Naked Gun soundtrack played during the funeral.
