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Top 10 Facts about Leslie Nielsen

Leslie William Nielsen OC, of Danish ancestry, was born in Regina, in Saskatchewan, Canada, to a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a Welsh mother. His uncle was the celebrated actor Jean Hersholt.

The actor passed away in 2010 at the age of 84, was a prolific actor and managed to raise smiles on many faces.

He was a Canadian-American actor and comedian. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.

Nielsen was relieved from the Air Force and joined the entertainment world as a disc jockey.

Consequently, he received a scholarship from Neighbourhood Playhouse which helped him make a debut on television in 1948.

In a short span, he made more than 50 television appearances. In 1956, he made his entry into the big screen and the rest as they say is history.

Nielsen delivers a serious-faced one-liner in a way that other actors could only hope to replicate.

He gave us dozens of laugh-out-loud moments. Here鈥檚 to 10 more top facts about Leslie Nielsen.

 

 

1.  Leslie Nielsen is a Naturalized American

Nielsen may have been an icon of American comedy cinema, but he wasn鈥檛 actually American.

Nielsen was in fact Canadian, born February 11 1926 in Regina, Saskatchewan and later raised in the Northwest Territories.

The star had Danish and Welsh ancestry: Nielsen was born Leslie William Nielsen to Danish father Ingvard Eversen Nielsen and Welsh mother Mabel Elizabeth.

In his youth, Nielsen suffered from bow-leggedness; he later commented that he never could have been a child star because of this.

In November 1958, Nielsen decided the time was right to become a naturalized United States citizen.

He had already appeared in a number of Hollywood productions by this point and was starting to make a name for himself.

2. Leslie Nielsen Grew up in Arctic Village of 15 people

Leslie Nielsen and Nancy Malone as guest stars on Bonanza.

Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada on February 11, 1926.   His father was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.

The family lived in a small area named Fort Norman, just 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle. 鈥淭here were 15 people in the village, including five of us,鈥�

Nielsen later said of the isolating environment. 鈥淚f my father arrested somebody in the winter, he鈥檇 have to wait until the thaw to turn him in.鈥�

3. His brother, Erik, became Deputy Prime Minister of Canada

Like his brother Leslie Nielsen, Erik Nielsen enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force; however, unlike Leslie, he did find himself in numerous battles during World War II.

Erik flew over 50 missions as an officer pilot.  He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and would stay with the RCAF for six more years before leaving the military. 

Erik would come to the Canadian Parliament in 1957 as a Progressive Conservative. This was the first year that the fairly new Progressive Conservative party won a federal election.

He would serve the Yukon region for 30 years as the voters in the Yukon voted for him on 10 separate occasions.

 “Yukon Erik” was his nickname.

He served as a Deputy Prime Minister from 1984 to 1986 under Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

4. Leslie Nielsen is an O.C. Awardee

Leslie Nielsen is an awardee of an O.C. (Officer of the Order of Canada) on October 10, 2002, for his contribution to entertainment.

The Order of Canada is Canada’s highest civilian honour, with membership awarded to those who exemplify the Order’s Latin motto Desiderantes meliorem patriam, which means “(those) desiring a better country.”

The Order was established to recognize the lifetime contributions made by Canadians who made a major difference to Canada.

Officers of the Order of Canada (post-nominals: OC, in French: Officier de l’ordre du Canada) have demonstrated an outstanding level of talent and service to Canadians.

Upto 64 may be appointed each year, not including those inducted as extraordinary Officers or in an honorary capacity.

There are three grades (levels) of the Canadian Order: Companion (highest), Officer and Member, each with respective post-nominal letters that its members are entitled to use.

Promotions in grade are possible five years after the initial appointment.

5. Leslie Nielsen was Legally Deaf his Whole Life

Leslie Nielsen suffered an illness in childhood which rendered him legally deaf, leading him to wear hearing aids for most of his life.

In an interview at Audiology Online, Nielsen spoke about the active loss of hearing that accompanies the lives of so many.

He talked about the ways in which he attempted to slow down the loss by avoiding loud sounds and not having stereos too loud, among other things.

Nielsen was very clear about how central his hearing aids were to his success as an actor.

Meanwhile, others in the deaf community made it known how important comedians like Nielsen were to them and their families because their physical comedy did not always require hearing for enjoyment.

6. Leslie Nielsen鈥檚 Uncle and Aunt were film Stars

Nielsen was not the first big-name actor in his family, as his aunt and uncle, Jean and Via Hersholt were prolific actors themselves, appearing in hundreds of productions between them.

Jean Pierre Carl Buron, known professionally as Jean Hersholt, was a Danish-American actor. He is best known for starring in the radio series Dr. Christian and in the film Heidi.

Via Hersholt was born on September 20, 1892, in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is known for Cavalcade of the Academy Awards (1940), This Is Your Life (1950) and A Star Is Born World Premiere (1954).

Via and Jean Hersholt were married. She died on June 21, 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

7. Leslie Nielsen was a Golf Fanatic

 

Capitalizing on the success of The Naked Gun series, in 1993 Nielsen appeared in Leslie Nielsen鈥檚 Bad Golf Made Easier, a spoof of golf instructional tapes full of sight gags and puns.

The actor made two follow-up videos, 1994鈥檚 Bad Golf My Way and 1997鈥檚 Stupid Little Golf Video.

Each of the videos feature Nielsen and others being intentionally bad at golf along with numerous forms of physical slapstick comedy (via TV Tropes).

The videos can still be found on YouTube.

Nielsen said of the videos, “We make no significant contribution to golf whatsoever … It is not our intention to instruct or to help anybody other than to have some laughs,” according to The Oklahoman.

8. Leslie Nielsen Starred in more than 250 Films and TV Series

We all remember Nielsen鈥檚 big productions, such as Airplane! and the Naked Gun series, but Nielsen appeared in more than 250 productions in a career spanning seven decades.

Nielsen was 58 by the time that Airplane! reached cinemas, at which point he was already a Hollywood veteran, having already starred in over 160 movies and TV shows.

His hair began to turn white when he was in his 40s, helping him to win an interesting range of older roles, from gangster patriarchs to ageing soldiers.

Nielsen鈥檚 last film, which he completed shortly before dying of pneumonia in 2010, was the low-budget comedy Stonerville.

The roles include the occasional guest spot on TV series like Columbo and Murder She Wrote.

9. Leslie Nielsen Married 4 Times

Leslie Nielsen was married four times throughout his life.

He was married in the ’50s to his first wife Monica Boyar, a Dominican-born nightclub singer and actress.

Known as the “Satin Latin,” she made her first professional experience at La Conga Club in New York City. 

He was married to his second wife Alisande Ullman from the late ’50s to the early ’70s and had two daughters with her.

Nielsen married for the third time in 1981 to Brooks Oliver, but that marriage only lasted until 1983.

He married his fourth and final wife in 2001. Her name is Barbaree Earl, and she had acted in four of his films in the ’90s, including “Dracula: Dead and Loving It.”

He had two daughters with Barbaree as well and was still married to her when he died in 2010.

10. Leslie Nielsen used his Headstone for one Final Joke

Leslie Nielsen loved to fart … er … he, at least, loved the sound of farts and the resulting embarrassment that would take place when someone was blamed for it.

Leslie Nielsen brought a fart machine with him just about every place he went, including when he would show up on late-night talk shows.

The first recording of this prank would be in 1982 on “Late Night with David Letterman” while they were talking about “M*A*S*H” 鈥� which he has been on a few times 鈥� and Nielsen just let the machine go off.

He would go on to do it again on “Wogan,” “GMTV,” and notoriously in the elevators during the filming of “Airplane!” 

Nielsen passed on at age 84 in 2010 from pneumonia.

The actor鈥檚 tombstone in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was engraved with a message near and dear to the actor’s heart.

It鈥檚 a reference to his eternal affection for faux flatulence: 鈥淟et 鈥榚r rip.鈥�

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Nielsen’s career started with dramatic roles on TV shows during “Television’s Golden Age” and he appeared in around 50 live programs in 1950 alone.

Nielsen was originally best-known for his straight-faced leading man roles in films like 1956鈥檚 Forbidden Planet but he experienced a late-career resurgence as a deadpan comic with impeccable instincts with films like 1980鈥檚 Airplane! and The Naked Gun franchise.