Read a tribute to the 'Airplane!' and 'Naked Gun' funnyman, who died Sunday at age 84.
By Eric Ditzian
Leslie Nielsen
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Owning a VHS tape of "Airplane!" was utterly pointless. The disaster-flick spoof played on what seemed like a near-constant basic-cable loop, available to feed the insatiable need for a first grader to hear Leslie Nielsen quip, yet again, that while everyone on his ill-fated flight was served steak or fish, he managed to dine on lasagna.
But there was a certain comfort in knowing that I had access to the movie any time I needed a quick fix. And I needed it often. For me, there was simply nothing else like it. I didn't know movies could do what "Airplane!" did. A glue-sniffing, pill-popping air-traffic controller? A little girl who takes her coffee black, just like her men? And what the heck was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar doing there?
(For photos of the late funnyman throughout his career, click here.)
"Airplane!" is a deeply strange movie, and its strangeness had the effect, even after countless viewings, of keeping the film endlessly surprising. How is that even possible? I knew every line and still it felt like anything could happen at any moment. It never got old.
Nor did Nielsen, so it seemed. He remained almost unfairly frozen in time — with that same white helmet of hair, that same doughy-skinned face he sported in "Airplane!," and then later in the "Naked Gun" trilogy. He was a man without a past. It would be decades before I learned of his previous work as a dramatic actor. I knew only what I saw on screen: one of the funniest damn people in the world. And so it was with great sadness that I read of Nielsen's passing on Sunday at the age of 84.
My first encounters with "Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad" were a shock to the system. My thinking went something like, "You mean to tell me there's a funnier movie than 'Airplane?' " As Lieutenant Frank Drebin, Nielsen just slayed me. The scenes where he crashes a major league baseball game, impersonating an opera singer named Enrico Pallazzo and then stepping into the role of call-botching home plate umpire remain some of the funniest stuff I've ever seen.
At least that's the way I remember it. It's been a while since I've seen a "Naked Gun" flick. For that matter, "Airplane!" no longer seems to be on TV constantly. And where that original VHS tape is, I have no idea. But these are movies that are sewn into my pop culture DNA. There's a certain comfort in that.
What are your favorite Leslie Nielsen movie moments? Tell us in the comments.
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