Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen is an American Actor who in middle age tossed aside three decades of credibility in dramatic and romantic roles to make a new, far more successful career as a comic actor in films like “Airplane!” and the “Naked Gun” series, died on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84. The actor, who died Sunday, November 28, 2010, at the age of 84, began his career working on television in the 1950s, but he also appeared in several films during that decade.

His most notable early film appearance came with the science fiction classic, Forbidden Planet (1956), in which he played a heroic space ship captain who must unravel the mysteries of a distant and deadly planet. Most movie fans recognize Leslie Nielsen from his roles in wacky comedies like the 1980 Airplane! and the Naked Gun films, but his long career spanned back into the classic Hollywood era, as well.

His best-known roles included the stalwart spaceship captain in the science fiction classic “Forbidden Planet” (1956), the wealthy, available Southern aristocrat in “Tammy and the Bachelor” (1957) and an ocean liner captain faced with disaster in “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972). Nielsen died from complications from pneumonia. His wife Barbaree and friends were at his bedside, his agent John S. Kelly said in a statement.