Rest In Peace, [Insert Name Here]

WilliamBoyd8

Active member
Jill Clayburgh, who embodied hopeful and determined women in such '70s and '80s
movies as An Unmarried Woman and It's My Turn, died at her Connecticut home on
Friday from chronic leukemia, a disease she quietly battled for 21 years, her
husband, playwright David Rabe, told THE New York Times.
She was 66.

:(
 

WilliamBoyd8

Active member
Leslie Nielsen, RIP

Before he appeared in comedies like "Naked Gun" and "Airplane",
Leslie Nielsen appeared in "Tammy and the Bachelor" with Debbie Reynolds,
and "Forbidden Planet" with Anne Francis.

:)
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Hate to be one of those "I was there" guys but...
I was an extra in Leslie's final film... at this moment titled "Stonerville".
From what I could tell he seemed like a very kind soul.
Very Kind...
and obviously he was a cultural icon.
It always makes me sad to see one of our elders go... the world seems smaller and smaller daily. But even if others don't, I put Leslie on the same pedestal as the other great american actors.

Here is to you Leslie!
 

Stoo

Well-known member
Dr. Gonzo said:
I put Leslie on the same pedestal as the other great american actors.
Hate to break it to you, Gonzo, but Leslie Nielsen was Canadian.;) He was in the Royal Canadian Air Force, his dad was a "mountie" in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and his brother, Erik Nielsen, was Deputy Prime Minister of Canada (equivalent to Vice President)!

Cool that you're in one of his movies, though!:cool:
WilliamBoyd8 said:
Before he appeared in comedies like "Naked Gun" and "Airplane",
Leslie Nielsen appeared in "Tammy and the Bachelor" with Debbie Reynolds,
and "Forbidden Planet" with Anne Francis.
After his success with "Airplane" and (especially) the "Naked Gun" movies, it was kind of sad when he started doing TV commercials as a Frank Drebin-type character. He was once a actor in serious roles but most people these days know him as someone who played a bumbling fool. (That said, who else remembers the short-lived "Police Squad" TV series which was a spin-off of "The Naked Gun"?)

As I mentioned above, his father was in the RCMP and Leslie played a "mountie" more than once such as his recurring character in the TV series, "Due South". However, my favourite of all his roles is his portryal of real-life Major Leif Crozier in the film, "Riel", who fought at the Battle of Duck Lake in Saskatchewan, not too far from Regina where Leslie Nielsen was born.

Crozier_01_small.jpg


R.I.P. Mr. Nielsen. (Tonight, I've going to watch the 1966 version of "Beau Geste" in his honour.)
 

Goonie

New member
Gonna miss Leslie. His older brother lived here in Kelowna, but he passed away two years ago, also at the age of 84. That would explain why Leslie showed up here about 5 or 6 years ago for a charity event. One of Canada's best exports. Thanks for the laughs Leslie.

Some favourite Naked Gun quotes:
"I've finally found someone I can love - a good, clean love... without utensils."
and of course...
"Nice beaver!" (y)
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
Stoo said:
Hate to break it to you, Gonzo, but Leslie Nielsen was Canadian.;)

Sorry about that. Didn't mean to offend anyone if I did. In any case he was a nice guy, even to the lesser actors like us.
All I was trying to say was, for me, Nielsen is up their wit Jack Nicholson and Brando...
maybe why I drunkenly added "American". Very sad.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Stoo said:
That said, who else remembers the short-lived "Police Squad" TV series which was a spin-off of "The Naked Gun"?
I do. Though you got this bass-ackwards. It was the series that came first.

And I see nothing "sad" with Mr. Nielsen being remembered the way he is. It's exactly why he was and will be loved. As the sentiment dating back to Shakespearean days claims: "Drama is hard. Yet comedy is harder." And Leslie Nielsen, he was a master.
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Finn said:
I do. Though you got this bass-ackwards. It was the series that came first.

And I see nothing "sad" with Mr. Nielsen being remembered the way he is. It's exactly why he was and will be loved. As the sentiment dating back to Shakespearean days claims: "Drama is hard. Yet comedy is harder." And Leslie Nielsen, he was a master.

From Esquire's 2008 "What I've Learned" interview with Nielsen:

People ask me, "What would you like to be remembered by?" It really doesn't make any difference. I've done Airplane!, three Naked Guns, Wrongfully Accused, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. The way I look at it, I've built my own little pyramid and it's gonna be around for as long as people have eyes to see.

And from the Times:

In a 1988 interview with The New York Times, Leslie Nielsen discussed his career-rejuvenating transition to comedy, a development that he had recently described as ?too good to be true.?

?It?s been dawning on me slowly that for the past 35 years I have been cast against type,? he said, ?and I?m finally getting to do what I really wanted to do.?

Apparently he did a one-man show as Clarence Darrow in the 1990s, the same one Henry Fonda did back in the 1970s. I hadn't known that.
 
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