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Leslie Nielsen, 1926-2010


Actor Leslie Nielsen died yesterday at the age of 84 from complications due to pneumonia. I’m sure most of us know him as the brilliantly funny star of The Naked Gun movies, Airplane, and other comedies, and that’s certainly what I’ll remember him for (although I might point out that while I love Naked Gun, the actual Police Squad! TV series it was based was a comedy masterpiece, and that’s what the clip above is from). However, we shouldn’t forget that Nielsen also starred in the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Which is actually one of the coolest things about him — he was your standard, Hollywood leading man, tall and good-looking and authoritative — and later in his career he became will to spoof that image and make fun of himself, and it turned out he was terrific at it.
You will surely be missed, Enrico Palazzo. And sorry about calling you Shirley.