Don't call him Shirley, but feel free to refer to him as Lt. Frank Drebin.
Comedy star Leslie Nielsen was best known for his later-career spoofs "Naked Gun" and "Airplane!" and a fourth "Naked Gun" installment was reportedly in the works when he died on Sunday at the age of 84.
In an interview with the BBC in May, Nielsen said that he has "heard about" plans to bring back the franchise but was "not involved in it."
The "Naked Gun" film franchise, which debuted in 1988 with "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!," parodied "Police Squad!," a short-lived ABC series starring Nielsen that aired for just six episodes in 1982 and riffed off 1950s police dramas like "M Squad," starring Lee Marvin.
"Naked Gun 4: Rhythm of Evil," the follow up to 1994's "Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult," would have been the first addition to the franchise in 16 years.
Prior to scoring the role of Lt. Frank Drebin, Nielsen made a name for himself as a dramatic TV actor in the 1950s. He soon moved onto the big screen starring in such fare as the 1972 disaster epic "Poseidon Adventure."
But in 1980 – at the age of 54 -- the Canadian actor experienced a career resurgence as Dr. Alan Rumack in the spoof "Airplane!," a parody of the 1957 thriller "Zero Hour!" about a flight that teeters on disaster when its passengers succumb to food poisoning.
The film had Nielsen delivering the most famous line of his career, "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley" when another character asks him, "Surely you can't be serious?"
The line landed Nielsen the #79 spot on the American Film Institute's list of Top 100 movie quotes.
Don't call him Shirley, but feel free to refer to him as Lt. Frank Drebin.
Comedy star Leslie Nielsen was best known for his later-career spoofs "Naked Gun" and "Airplane!" and a fourth "Naked Gun" installment was reportedly in the works when he died on Sunday at the age of 84.
In an interview with the BBC in May, Nielsen said that he has "heard about" plans to bring back the franchise but was "not involved in it."
The "Naked Gun" film franchise, which debuted in 1988 with "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!," parodied "Police Squad!," a short-lived ABC series starring Nielsen that aired for just six episodes in 1982 and riffed off 1950s police dramas like "M Squad," starring Lee Marvin.
"Naked Gun 4: Rhythm of Evil," the follow up to 1994's "Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult," would have been the first addition to the franchise in 16 years.
Prior to scoring the role of Lt. Frank Drebin, Nielsen made a name for himself as a dramatic TV actor in the 1950s. He soon moved onto the big screen starring in such fare as the 1972 disaster epic "Poseidon Adventure."
But in 1980 – at the age of 54 -- the Canadian actor experienced a career resurgence as Dr. Alan Rumack in the spoof "Airplane!," a parody of the 1957 thriller "Zero Hour!" about a flight that teeters on disaster when its passengers succumb to food poisoning.
The film had Nielsen delivering the most famous line of his career, "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley" when another character asks him, "Surely you can't be serious?"
The line landed Nielsen the #79 spot on the American Film Institute's list of Top 100 movie quotes.
Yesterday, the world said goodbye to one of its favorite actors, Leslie Nielsen (aka Enrico Pallazzo, aka Dr. Rumack, aka Detective Frank Drebin). As sports fans, we not only mourn the loss of Nielsen – who passed away Sunday in Fort Lauderdale at the age of 84 of complications from pneumonia – as a fine actor and a fine man, we mourn the loss of Nielsen as the guy who gave us some of the top sports/comedy moments of the past 30 years.
So here’s our video clip tribute to one of the funniest baseball game-crashing, strike-calling, Kareem-dragging movie men we know. Goodbye Mr. Nielsen. We still promise not to call you Shirley.
Now That’s A Strike Call
If this scene from “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” doesn’t make your top three sports movie scenes ever, well, either you’ve never seen the movie (sad) or you just don’t have a very good sense of humor (very sad). In it, Nielsen (aka Detective Frank Drebin) has to go undercover at a baseball game to uncover an assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth. I think we can all agree that, with this performance, Frank becomes America’s favorite umpire. Until Jim Joyce came along, that is.
Oh Say Can You … Ugh
Before Nielsen/Drebin posed as an ump, he posed as a National Anthem singer in this scene from “The Naked Gun.” That’s right. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present … Enrico Pallazzo. The results weren’t any better than his questionable umpiring, but at least Pallazzo Drebin fared better than some other National Anthem singers we know.
He Fit In The Airplane Cockpit?
We all know Kareem gave us some amazing moments in “Airplane” as Roger Murdock, as did Nielsen as Dr. Rumack. But the brief moment that they’re together in the movie is L-O-L funny, too. We can’t find it anywhere online (can anyone?) but go ahead and rent the movie and fast forward to the 39th minute, where Nielsen drags Kareem, all 7-foot-2 of him, out of his pilot seat (and we see he’s been wearing his bball socks and knee pads under his pilot uniform all along). An overlooked, but hilarious, moment, for sure.
Yesterday, the world said goodbye to one of its favorite actors, Leslie Nielsen (aka Enrico Pallazzo, aka Dr. Rumack, aka Detective Frank Drebin). As sports fans, we not only mourn the loss of Nielsen – who passed away Sunday in Fort Lauderdale at the age of 84 of complications from pneumonia – as a fine actor and a fine man, we mourn the loss of Nielsen as the guy who gave us some of the top sports/comedy moments of the past 30 years.
So here’s our video clip tribute to one of the funniest baseball game-crashing, strike-calling, Kareem-dragging movie men we know. Goodbye Mr. Nielsen. We still promise not to call you Shirley.
Now That’s A Strike Call
If this scene from “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” doesn’t make your top three sports movie scenes ever, well, either you’ve never seen the movie (sad) or you just don’t have a very good sense of humor (very sad). In it, Nielsen (aka Detective Frank Drebin) has to go undercover at a baseball game to uncover an assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth. I think we can all agree that, with this performance, Frank becomes America’s favorite umpire. Until Jim Joyce came along, that is.
Oh Say Can You … Ugh
Before Nielsen/Drebin posed as an ump, he posed as a National Anthem singer in this scene from “The Naked Gun.” That’s right. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present … Enrico Pallazzo. The results weren’t any better than his questionable umpiring, but at least Pallazzo Drebin fared better than some other National Anthem singers we know.
He Fit In The Airplane Cockpit?
We all know Kareem gave us some amazing moments in “Airplane” as Roger Murdock, as did Nielsen as Dr. Rumack. But the brief moment that they’re together in the movie is L-O-L funny, too. We can’t find it anywhere online (can anyone?) but go ahead and rent the movie and fast forward to the 39th minute, where Nielsen drags Kareem, all 7-foot-2 of him, out of his pilot seat (and we see he’s been wearing his bball socks and knee pads under his pilot uniform all along). An overlooked, but hilarious, moment, for sure.
We're told occasionally that what goes around comes around to such a degree that going around again and coming around could be called great American indoor sports. In this corner, the unofficial world heavyweight champion: Leslie Nielsen, who was merely a pretty good actor through most of his career and then, in its final couple of decades, became a sprite, a spirit, a tremendously engaging ridiculous presence in such films as "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun."
It was a jolt to learn, as we did Monday, that the Canadian-born Nielsen had attained the age of 84 when he died Sunday in Los Angeles. He not only looked younger, and acted younger, but also seemed to think and dream and be younger. He was young at heart and young in the head, and both of those, in this context, are really just gentle ways of saying he was "nutty as a fruitcake" and as infectious as the measles.
What endeared him most to movie audiences was the fact that he appeared to be having a heck of a good time while doing his best to see that the audience had one, too. His performances were masterful, instinctual satires of modern behavior, and he became the quintessential clueless dork, someone who got it all wrong, whatever "it" was, and never stopped to apologize for his mistakes - usually because he didn't even recognize them as such.
Nielsen's nuttiness was a gift, but it wasn't until fairly late in life that he got to ply it as a trade. In the '50s and most of the '60s, he was vanilla pudding and cast as such - characters on the verge of being dull and dopey. He couldn't really throw heart and soul into these parts because the characters lacked hearts and souls themselves. He could just do his best to hang onto his dignity.
The epitome of sorts was reached in 1957 with "Tammy and the Bachelor," in which Nielsen played the good-looking "older man" on whom perky, quirky Tammy (tolerably adorable Debbie Reynolds) shamelessly doted. Nielsen had no easy time trying to conceal his disdain for the movie, especially because he'd had brush with greatness one year earlier by starring, with Anne Francis and Walter Pidgeon, in "Forbidden Planet," a lavish sci-fi picture from MGM that had its roots in Shakespeare, no less.
As J.J. Adams, commander of an interplanetary cruiser bopping around space in the very distant future, Nielsen gets to romance Francis as Altaira, presumably virginal daughter of Dr. Mobius, who's been running the planet, so to speak, ever since the crew members he arrived with years earlier were all hideously murdered in their beds by a big invisible monster. It sounds a lot sillier than it plays; "Planet" is actually one of the best-looking, more thoughtful of the decade's space-travel pictures.
Still, it's conceivable that Nielsen got the giggles while filming scenes in which he fired his tiny little "blaster" at the big monster, the blaster's destructive ray matted in later by the special effects department. As usual in films like this, Nielsen had to point at objects that weren't really there and shudder in fear at a creature that took its own sweet time about becoming visible.
Nielsen was a reliable pro by this point, having learned his craft, and mastered the fine art of ad libbing when things went wrong, on television. Yes, that. In the '50s, much of prime-time television originated in New York, and theater folk picked up extra bucks by appearing in the ambitious anthology shows that the three major networks all aired regularly (Fox didn't exist at this point). In a 1991 interview in Washington, Nielsen estimated he'd made 1,000 TV appearances when he and the medium were young.
He'd also appeared in 50 movies, he said - yet was almost creepily under-noticed, nearly as invisible as the big, bad monster that ransacked "Forbidden Planet." Perhaps he blended in too well with the furniture. Or maybe he was always-good, never-great, as many a journeyman actor tends to be.
But television, where Nielsen had put in hours and hours of hard labor, would be his deliverer as well - in the 1980s, when the mad and wacky Zucker Brothers cast him in "Police Squad!," a hilarious parody of the old Quinn Martin crime shows that networks loved to buy for their schedules. Each episode of "Police Squad" opened with the evening's guest star being killed, usually in the proverbial hail of gunfire; Robert Goulet, Florence Henderson and several others fell into gutters and died in the opening moments of the program.
Nielsen was the new Deadpan Prince with his portrayal of Lt. Frank Drebin, chief of Police Squad, a "special unit" of the force that seemed utterly unshackled by such niceties as the civil rights of suspects. Nielsen started a new life as a very sly and wily comic actor, a perfect combination of actor and role. Unfortunately, the humor was too quick and smart for the executives at ABC, who canceled the series after its initial order of six episodes had aired.
In 1988, "Police Squad's" files would be reopened for a series of near-riotous motion pictures, starting with "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad." Nielsen's unassuming, understated performance as Drebin worked just as well on the big screen as it had on the small one. The Zucker boys thought of advertising the first movie as coming "from the failed TV series!" - but feared the audience might take that too seriously and stay away.
Nielsen's breakout, breakthrough comic role had come eight years earlier, again courtesy of the Zuckers and their partners in comedy, with "Airplane!," a joke-a-minute spoof of films about travelers in distress; the old "Bridge of San Luis Rey" gambit turned into splendid and sensational farce. From that point on, Nielsen romped and bopped from one spoofy farce to another, always "playing it straight" and yet with a gleam in his eye that seemed a tiny but important bit of actor's inspiration.
Discussing the first two "Naked Gun" films in 1991, and admitting, to the Zuckers' consternation, that the first was better than the second, Nielsen talked about maintaining dignity even in absurd and surreal surroundings. Nielsen concluded the brief dissertation thus: "Then again, if it's funny, then the hell with dignity."
Nielsen was traveling in the company of a whoopee cushion on that press tour and even brought it onto "The Tonight Show" and other such programs, as if he were an obnoxious guest at an otherwise proper cocktail party. In the best traditions of American comedy, from its beginnings through the crash-bang comedies of the 1990s and 2000s, Leslie Nielsen skewered the otherwise proper, did it with mischievous delight and convulsed audiences mercilessly.
He had a good time giving a good time. Life may not get better than that.
We're told occasionally that what goes around comes around to such a degree that going around again and coming around could be called great American indoor sports. In this corner, the unofficial world heavyweight champion: Leslie Nielsen, who was merely a pretty good actor through most of his career and then, in its final couple of decades, became a sprite, a spirit, a tremendously engaging ridiculous presence in such films as "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun."
It was a jolt to learn, as we did Monday, that the Canadian-born Nielsen had attained the age of 84 when he died Sunday in Los Angeles. He not only looked younger, and acted younger, but also seemed to think and dream and be younger. He was young at heart and young in the head, and both of those, in this context, are really just gentle ways of saying he was "nutty as a fruitcake" and as infectious as the measles.
What endeared him most to movie audiences was the fact that he appeared to be having a heck of a good time while doing his best to see that the audience had one, too. His performances were masterful, instinctual satires of modern behavior, and he became the quintessential clueless dork, someone who got it all wrong, whatever "it" was, and never stopped to apologize for his mistakes - usually because he didn't even recognize them as such.
Nielsen's nuttiness was a gift, but it wasn't until fairly late in life that he got to ply it as a trade. In the '50s and most of the '60s, he was vanilla pudding and cast as such - characters on the verge of being dull and dopey. He couldn't really throw heart and soul into these parts because the characters lacked hearts and souls themselves. He could just do his best to hang onto his dignity.
The epitome of sorts was reached in 1957 with "Tammy and the Bachelor," in which Nielsen played the good-looking "older man" on whom perky, quirky Tammy (tolerably adorable Debbie Reynolds) shamelessly doted. Nielsen had no easy time trying to conceal his disdain for the movie, especially because he'd had brush with greatness one year earlier by starring, with Anne Francis and Walter Pidgeon, in "Forbidden Planet," a lavish sci-fi picture from MGM that had its roots in Shakespeare, no less.
As J.J. Adams, commander of an interplanetary cruiser bopping around space in the very distant future, Nielsen gets to romance Francis as Altaira, presumably virginal daughter of Dr. Mobius, who's been running the planet, so to speak, ever since the crew members he arrived with years earlier were all hideously murdered in their beds by a big invisible monster. It sounds a lot sillier than it plays; "Planet" is actually one of the best-looking, more thoughtful of the decade's space-travel pictures.
Still, it's conceivable that Nielsen got the giggles while filming scenes in which he fired his tiny little "blaster" at the big monster, the blaster's destructive ray matted in later by the special effects department. As usual in films like this, Nielsen had to point at objects that weren't really there and shudder in fear at a creature that took its own sweet time about becoming visible.
Nielsen was a reliable pro by this point, having learned his craft, and mastered the fine art of ad libbing when things went wrong, on television. Yes, that. In the '50s, much of prime-time television originated in New York, and theater folk picked up extra bucks by appearing in the ambitious anthology shows that the three major networks all aired regularly (Fox didn't exist at this point). In a 1991 interview in Washington, Nielsen estimated he'd made 1,000 TV appearances when he and the medium were young.
He'd also appeared in 50 movies, he said - yet was almost creepily under-noticed, nearly as invisible as the big, bad monster that ransacked "Forbidden Planet." Perhaps he blended in too well with the furniture. Or maybe he was always-good, never-great, as many a journeyman actor tends to be.
But television, where Nielsen had put in hours and hours of hard labor, would be his deliverer as well - in the 1980s, when the mad and wacky Zucker Brothers cast him in "Police Squad!," a hilarious parody of the old Quinn Martin crime shows that networks loved to buy for their schedules. Each episode of "Police Squad" opened with the evening's guest star being killed, usually in the proverbial hail of gunfire; Robert Goulet, Florence Henderson and several others fell into gutters and died in the opening moments of the program.
Nielsen was the new Deadpan Prince with his portrayal of Lt. Frank Drebin, chief of Police Squad, a "special unit" of the force that seemed utterly unshackled by such niceties as the civil rights of suspects. Nielsen started a new life as a very sly and wily comic actor, a perfect combination of actor and role. Unfortunately, the humor was too quick and smart for the executives at ABC, who canceled the series after its initial order of six episodes had aired.
In 1988, "Police Squad's" files would be reopened for a series of near-riotous motion pictures, starting with "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad." Nielsen's unassuming, understated performance as Drebin worked just as well on the big screen as it had on the small one. The Zucker boys thought of advertising the first movie as coming "from the failed TV series!" - but feared the audience might take that too seriously and stay away.
Nielsen's breakout, breakthrough comic role had come eight years earlier, again courtesy of the Zuckers and their partners in comedy, with "Airplane!," a joke-a-minute spoof of films about travelers in distress; the old "Bridge of San Luis Rey" gambit turned into splendid and sensational farce. From that point on, Nielsen romped and bopped from one spoofy farce to another, always "playing it straight" and yet with a gleam in his eye that seemed a tiny but important bit of actor's inspiration.
Discussing the first two "Naked Gun" films in 1991, and admitting, to the Zuckers' consternation, that the first was better than the second, Nielsen talked about maintaining dignity even in absurd and surreal surroundings. Nielsen concluded the brief dissertation thus: "Then again, if it's funny, then the hell with dignity."
Nielsen was traveling in the company of a whoopee cushion on that press tour and even brought it onto "The Tonight Show" and other such programs, as if he were an obnoxious guest at an otherwise proper cocktail party. In the best traditions of American comedy, from its beginnings through the crash-bang comedies of the 1990s and 2000s, Leslie Nielsen skewered the otherwise proper, did it with mischievous delight and convulsed audiences mercilessly.
He had a good time giving a good time. Life may not get better than that.
When Leslie Nielsen traded in his dramatic chops to star in comedies, he racked up a list of hilarious one-liners.
Some of his most well-known (and often-quoted) lines came from his roles as the hapless Dr. Rumack in 1980's "Airplane!" and as the accident-prone detective Lt. Frank Drebin in "The Naked Gun" comedies.
PICTURES: Leslie Nielsen
Here are some of the late actor's most memorable movie quotes.
From "Airplane!" (1980):
Dr. Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley!
--
Rumack: You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.
Elaine Dickinson: A hospital? What is it?
Rumack: It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.
--
Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?
Captain Oveur: I can't tell.
Rumack: You can tell me. I'm a doctor.
Captain Oveur: No. I mean I'm just not sure.
Rumack: Well, can't you take a guess?
Captain Oveur: Well, not for another two hours.
Rumack: You can't take a guess for another two hours?
--
Rumack: What was it we had for dinner tonight?
Elaine Dickinson: Well, we had a choice of steak or fish.
Rumack: Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna.
--
Rumack: I won't deceive you, Mr. Striker. We're running out of time.
Ted Striker: Surely there must be something you can do.
Rumack: I'm doing everything I can...and stop calling me Shirley!
--
From "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" (1988):
Lt. Frank Drebin: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane: Goodyear?
Frank: No, the worst.
--
Frank: It's true what they say: Cops and women don't mix. It's like eating a spoonful of Drano; sure, it'll clean you out, but it'll leave you hollow inside.
--
Frank: Just think; next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested.
--
Mayor: Now Drebin, I don't want any trouble like you had on the South Side last year, that's my policy.
Frank: Well, when I see five weirdos, dressed in togas, stabbing a man in the middle of the park in full view of a hundred people, I shoot the bastards, that's *my* policy!
Mayor: That was a Shakespeare-In-The-Park production of "Julius Caesar," you moron! You killed five actors! Good ones!
--
Frank: Jane, since I've met you, I've noticed things that I never knew were there before... birds singing, dew glistening on a newly formed leaf, stoplights.
--
From "The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear" (1991):
Frank: Now, Jane, what can you tell us about the man you saw last night?
Jane: He's Caucasian.
Ed: Caucasian?
Jane: Yeah, you know, a white guy. A moustache. About six-foot-three.
Frank: Awfully big moustache.
--
Frank: Oh, it's all right. I'm sure that we can handle this situation maturely, just like the responsible adults that we are. Isn't that right, Mr... Poopy Pants?
--
Frank: That's the red-light district. I wonder why Savage is hanging around down there.
Captain Ed Hocken: Sex, Frank?
Frank: Uh, no, not right now, Ed.
--
Frank: I'm single! I love being single! I haven't had this much sex since I was a Boy Scout leader!
[Music stops playing. Everyone stops talking and stares at him]
Frank: [to everybody] I mean at the time I was dating a lot.
--
President George Bush: Frank, please consider filling a post I'm creating. It may mean long hours and dangerous nights, surrounded by some of the scummiest elements in our society.
Frank: You want me to be in your cabinet?
--
What's your favorite Leslie Nielsen quote? Share yours in the comments.
When Leslie Nielsen traded in his dramatic chops to star in comedies, he racked up a list of hilarious one-liners.
Some of his most well-known (and often-quoted) lines came from his roles as the hapless Dr. Rumack in 1980's "Airplane!" and as the accident-prone detective Lt. Frank Drebin in "The Naked Gun" comedies.
PICTURES: Leslie Nielsen
Here are some of the late actor's most memorable movie quotes.
From "Airplane!" (1980):
Dr. Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it?
Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley!
--
Rumack: You'd better tell the Captain we've got to land as soon as we can. This woman has to be gotten to a hospital.
Elaine Dickinson: A hospital? What is it?
Rumack: It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now.
--
Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?
Captain Oveur: I can't tell.
Rumack: You can tell me. I'm a doctor.
Captain Oveur: No. I mean I'm just not sure.
Rumack: Well, can't you take a guess?
Captain Oveur: Well, not for another two hours.
Rumack: You can't take a guess for another two hours?
--
Rumack: What was it we had for dinner tonight?
Elaine Dickinson: Well, we had a choice of steak or fish.
Rumack: Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna.
--
Rumack: I won't deceive you, Mr. Striker. We're running out of time.
Ted Striker: Surely there must be something you can do.
Rumack: I'm doing everything I can...and stop calling me Shirley!
--
From "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" (1988):
Lt. Frank Drebin: It's the same old story. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day.
Jane: Goodyear?
Frank: No, the worst.
--
Frank: It's true what they say: Cops and women don't mix. It's like eating a spoonful of Drano; sure, it'll clean you out, but it'll leave you hollow inside.
--
Frank: Just think; next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested.
--
Mayor: Now Drebin, I don't want any trouble like you had on the South Side last year, that's my policy.
Frank: Well, when I see five weirdos, dressed in togas, stabbing a man in the middle of the park in full view of a hundred people, I shoot the bastards, that's *my* policy!
Mayor: That was a Shakespeare-In-The-Park production of "Julius Caesar," you moron! You killed five actors! Good ones!
--
Frank: Jane, since I've met you, I've noticed things that I never knew were there before... birds singing, dew glistening on a newly formed leaf, stoplights.
--
From "The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear" (1991):
Frank: Now, Jane, what can you tell us about the man you saw last night?
Jane: He's Caucasian.
Ed: Caucasian?
Jane: Yeah, you know, a white guy. A moustache. About six-foot-three.
Frank: Awfully big moustache.
--
Frank: Oh, it's all right. I'm sure that we can handle this situation maturely, just like the responsible adults that we are. Isn't that right, Mr... Poopy Pants?
--
Frank: That's the red-light district. I wonder why Savage is hanging around down there.
Captain Ed Hocken: Sex, Frank?
Frank: Uh, no, not right now, Ed.
--
Frank: I'm single! I love being single! I haven't had this much sex since I was a Boy Scout leader!
[Music stops playing. Everyone stops talking and stares at him]
Frank: [to everybody] I mean at the time I was dating a lot.
--
President George Bush: Frank, please consider filling a post I'm creating. It may mean long hours and dangerous nights, surrounded by some of the scummiest elements in our society.
Frank: You want me to be in your cabinet?
--
What's your favorite Leslie Nielsen quote? Share yours in the comments.
Leslie Nielsen, whose longtime career as a square-jawed dramatic actor took a sudden turn into comedy with gut-busting spoofs like "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun," has died at age 84, his family said Sunday.
The Canadian-born Nielsen's career reached back into the early days of television, when he made frequent appearances on live drama series like "Goodyear Playhouse."
He played the earnest starship captain in the 1956 science-fiction classic "Forbidden Planet" and made regular appearances on a wide range of TV dramas into the 1970s, including "Hawaii Five-O."
He also played the captain of an overturned ocean liner in the 1972 disaster movie, "The Poseidon Adventure."
Much of that changed in 1980, when he was cast as a doctor aboard an endangered jetliner in the gag-a-minute disaster-movie parody "Airplane!"
Nielsen's deadpan response to the question "Surely, you can't be serious?" with "I am serious -- and don't call me Shirley" helped launch a second career.
The film's producers went on to cast him in their short-lived television series "Police Squad!"
He reprised that show's bumbling lead character, Lt. Frank Drebin, a decade later in three "Naked Gun" movies, in which he shared the screen with O.J. Simpson and Priscilla Presley.
Nielsen appeared in several similar but less-acclaimed spoofs following those films.
Nielsen was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003. The medal is awarded to "Canadian citizens for outstanding achievement and service to the country or to humanity at large."
Nielsen died of complications of pneumonia in a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, surrounded by family and friends, a family statement said.
Doug Nielsen called his uncle's death a "great loss."
"He was extremely funny," the younger Nielsen said in an interview with CNN affiliate Global Network News in Vancouver.
"At all of our family get-togethers, he was always the life of the party and a great-natured guy," Nielsen said. "He was a very good friend to me."
Leslie Nielsen, whose longtime career as a square-jawed dramatic actor took a sudden turn into comedy with gut-busting spoofs like "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun," has died at age 84, his family said Sunday.
The Canadian-born Nielsen's career reached back into the early days of television, when he made frequent appearances on live drama series like "Goodyear Playhouse."
He played the earnest starship captain in the 1956 science-fiction classic "Forbidden Planet" and made regular appearances on a wide range of TV dramas into the 1970s, including "Hawaii Five-O."
He also played the captain of an overturned ocean liner in the 1972 disaster movie, "The Poseidon Adventure."
Much of that changed in 1980, when he was cast as a doctor aboard an endangered jetliner in the gag-a-minute disaster-movie parody "Airplane!"
Nielsen's deadpan response to the question "Surely, you can't be serious?" with "I am serious -- and don't call me Shirley" helped launch a second career.
The film's producers went on to cast him in their short-lived television series "Police Squad!"
He reprised that show's bumbling lead character, Lt. Frank Drebin, a decade later in three "Naked Gun" movies, in which he shared the screen with O.J. Simpson and Priscilla Presley.
Nielsen appeared in several similar but less-acclaimed spoofs following those films.
Nielsen was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003. The medal is awarded to "Canadian citizens for outstanding achievement and service to the country or to humanity at large."
Nielsen died of complications of pneumonia in a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, surrounded by family and friends, a family statement said.
Doug Nielsen called his uncle's death a "great loss."
"He was extremely funny," the younger Nielsen said in an interview with CNN affiliate Global Network News in Vancouver.
"At all of our family get-togethers, he was always the life of the party and a great-natured guy," Nielsen said. "He was a very good friend to me."
Leslie Nielsen, who made audiences laugh with his ridiculous seriousness and deadpan deliveries in the absurd scenes of comedy films like Airplane! and The Naked Gun has died. He was 84.
His agent confirmed that the actor died Sunday near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., surrounded by his "lovely wife and friends" at 5:34 p.m. ET, due to complications of pneumonia.
Nielsen had been hospitalized for nearly two weeks as a result of pneumonia, his agent said.
"Just in this last 48 hours, the infection has gotten too much," his nephew Doug Nielsen told Canadian radio station CKNW. "He just fell asleep and passed away."
Leslie Nielsen, who made audiences laugh with his ridiculous seriousness and deadpan deliveries in the absurd scenes of comedy films like Airplane! and The Naked Gun has died. He was 84.
His agent confirmed that the actor died Sunday near his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., surrounded by his "lovely wife and friends" at 5:34 p.m. ET, due to complications of pneumonia.
Nielsen had been hospitalized for nearly two weeks as a result of pneumonia, his agent said.
"Just in this last 48 hours, the infection has gotten too much," his nephew Doug Nielsen told Canadian radio station CKNW. "He just fell asleep and passed away."