Leslie nielsen

Leslie William Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, on February 11, 1926. And legend says that his first performances were performed before his strict father, small lies to avoid the punishment that should follow some prank; indeed, his jokes could take the iron out of his father’s anger. His surname comes from his Danish father, while his mother came from Wales. And when Leslie was still a boy, the family moved to the Arctic Circle, where he contracted rickets, which would influence his characteristic and ungainly gait.

In the family there was someone who was dedicated to films: Jean Hersholt , who had worked on the silent stage of the cinematograph, was his uncle. This and his humorous gifts must have led him to Toronto, where he prepared to work in radio. The next leap was the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York, and this contact with the Method would lead him to meet a legend like Marlon Brando .

Things in the case of Nielsen went little by little, and it is that our actor did not have the characteristics that are supposed to define the big stars. Of good height, thin, with an elongated funny face… what could be his way?

Starting the 50s, he managed to be a regular presence in television series, first in small-time roles; among those in which he intervened there are mythical ones, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents , The Fugitive (1963) , Kojak , The Untouchables , Colombo , The streets of San Francisco , Kung Fu … His debut on the big screen did not take place until 1956, with The Tramp King , and that same year he has a role in Rapture , and in a cult science fiction title, Forbidden Planet .

In the actor’s first films, his performances were serious, as is the case in the western Fury in the Valley (1958), or A Grave at Dawn (1963). Although he would also have a presence in some comedy, like Rosie! (1967).

Surely his presence as a captain in one of the catastrophic film titles par excellence, The Poseidon Adventure (1972), inspired Jim Abrahams , and the brothers David Zucker and Jerry Zucker to summon him for what is undoubtedly his most popular title, and the official beginning of the films that parody films, Land as you can (1980). His character of Dr. Rumack attending to the hysterical passengers of a plane in distress is simply hilarious, and from that moment Nielsen was the indispensable actor for this kind of titles. Attest to this are films like Grab it as you can (1988) and sequels, Dracula. A very content and happy dead man(1995), which he did with Mel Brooks , Camp as You Can (1998), Spy as You Can (1996). That “as you can” became an omnipresent tagline in the Spanish version of any title that Nielsen released on film, often not very funny, and which was only encouraged a little by the funny actor. Nielsen signed up for the Scary Movie saga , and even agreed to intervene in the Spanish version of this type of film, Spanish Movie (2008). As the protagonist, he would be the flesh and blood version of Mr. Magoo (1997), the famous blind-blind cartoon character.

In his personal life, Nielsen went through four marriages, the first three of which ended in divorce. From her third marriage to Alisande Ullman her two daughters, Thea and Maura, were born. He was a UNICEF ambassador to Canada, and, quite a joke, his brother Erik, who died in 2008, went into politics (he was Deputy Prime Minister in Canada), without a doubt that this job also required acting and a little sense of humor . Leslie Nielsen continued to work until his death, as two films remain to be released, the comedy Stonerville and the unfinished animated film The Waterman Movie .