Leslie Nielson was a versatile actor who never really got a chance to flex his ample talents. I posted this little Creepshow clip just to show that the man had range (his “chapter,” entitled “Something to Tide You Over,” is my favorite of the EC-inspired anthology). In a way, it’s sort of a shame that he became so synonymous with comedy, because he wasn’t really conventionally “good” at it. The reason that he worked so well in Airplane! and The Naked Gun is that he had such a deadpan delivery: he didn’t play the parts much differently than he would have in a straight genre offering. Later in his career, his roles got increasingly silly and were therefore not funny.
Still, though, this man provided many, many laughs over the years. The truly hilarious sequences in the Naked Gun films (the first two, fuck the third) made me laugh as hard as I’ve ever laughed in a movie theater, and for that, Leslie Nielsen will always be fondly remembered. The news of his parting actually makes me a little sad. It’s like I’ve lost my fifth grandparent.
