Remembering Leslie Nielsen

Of course I am a major fan of Leslie Nielsen’s mainstream endeavors such as Airplane! and the Naked Gun trilogy. I feel it’s necessary to honor the late Leslie Nielsen by pointing out a few of his roles/endeavors that you may not know about.

Leslie Nielsen was actually the antagonist in a skit from the film Creepshow. In this skit, he kidnaps Ted Danson and his female counterpart and buries them across a beach from one another. At the end of the skit, Nielsen’s character is tormeted by the ghosts of the characters he buried alive in the tide. It is actually not intended to be a comedic role at all even though the two lead actors are known for their comedic performances. Nielsen plays a great bad guy, and is seldom remembered for this role. Here are some images from that role:

Leslie Nielsen was also an advocate for the Three Stooges. In the 90’s, as popularity of the Three Stooges hit an all-time low, AMC launched a re-airing of The Three Stooges short films (which are comedy gold). They cast Leslie Nielsen to introduce each short film in a classroom type setting in a school called “NYUK” (acronym for New Yuk University for Knuckleheads – a play on some terms from Three Stooges lore). His introductions to the short films were extremely heartfelt and added a great deal to the viewing experience.

We lost Leslie Nielsen yesterday, but he is sure to live on through his fine legacy of great comedy and acting.