Maybe He'll Just Come Back

Today is a sad day for comedy lovers throughout the world - the great Leslie Nielsen is now the late, great Leslie Nielsen. Sure, in his later career he was known as the president in the third and fourth installment in the execrable Scary Movie franchise, but before that, he was Frank Drebin, Dr. Rumack, The Captain of the original Poseidon Adventure, a guest star on the Golden Girls, and Dracula.



He was the king of spoofing movies before Seltzer/Friedberg ruined the genre entirely; he made the Shirleys of the world self conscious about their name; he saved the Queen of England with complete disregard to her dignity. The world is a colder place without his deadpan sense of humor and bug eyes.

As a child in the nineties, I wasn't interested in the topical, deadpan humor of movies like Airplane! and the Naked Gun series (although I appreciated the sight gags) until I got older, so my first real appreciation of Leslie Nielsen was in Mel Brooks' later work, Dracula Dead and Loving It. Not as classic as, say, Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein, but I could probably quote you the majority of the film from memory and in a variety of accents. To this day, all I have to say to certain of my friends is 'she's nosferatu!' for them to reply, 'she's Italian?!'



Sure its a ridiculous movie, but this was my introduction to both slapstick humor and the awesomeness of Mr. Nielsen. So raise a glass of wine - or whatever it is you drink - in memory of this great comedic talent. He will be missed.