Also we should remember that he starred in Forbidden Planet, one of the great 50s sci-fi movies, as a strong prototype for the *ahem* future Captain Kirk.
But then he wanted us to know that they're counting on us!
If there's anybody who is the poster child for successfully reinventing yourself, it's Leslie Nielsen.
There's a whole generation that knows of him only as a comedic actor, from his body of work since Airplane, Police Squad and the Naked Gun movies based on Police Squad ...
... but don't know his work before then, when he starred in any number of TV dramas, cop shows and Westerns in the '50's and '60s as a strait-laced, granite-jawed do-gooder with a penchant for speechifying. What made Police Squad work so well was that he was playing that exact same character the exact same way he always did, but everything around him was goofy rather than just as straitlaced as he was. With the Naked Gun movies, he started mugging for the camera and was a bit less effective, and did it more and more with more movie roles.
Nielsen was so completely thought of as a comedic actor in his later years that he wound up at the center of a lawsuit between the Adolph Coors Co and the Eveready Battery Co. Coors drafted an ad campaign that featured Nielsen spoofing the Energizer Bunny -- he interrupted a sedate ad for beer by entering the scene wearing rabbit ears and pink rabbit feet with a business suit, pounding a large bass drum sporting the Coors Light logo, and spinning around a few times until he gets dizzy -- which led to an effort by Eveready to block the commercial from airing. The court, calling Nielsen "the master of comedy," held that there was no risk of trademark confusion: "Mr. Nielsen is not a toy (mechanical or otherwise), does not run on batteries, is not fifteen inches tall, is not predominantly pink, does not wear sunglasses or beach thongs, and would probably make a better babysitter than a children’s gift."*
* That's Eveready Battery Co. v. Adolph Coors Co., 765 F. Supp. 440 (N.D. Ill. 1991) if you're inclined to look up the details.
Roger Ebert's obit includes this clip of Nielsen's screen test for Ben Hur.
I have to say, at the risk of taking this discussion a bit astray, that viewing this clip was an edifying experience.
Both Leslie Nielson (in his serious mode, not nearly as much as a comic) and Cesare Denova are two of my favourite actors to watch on screen, and they certainly did a serviceable job portraying Messala and Ben Hur in this screen test. Outside of Nielson delivering his dialogue a bit too fast, it was a perfectly competent scene.
However, I am very familiar with the scene as it aired in the film (Ben Hur is one of those films which I will watch whenever it's on, no matter that I've seen it a dozen times over) and I recall perfectly how it elapsed with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston in the parts. Mind you I am filtering out the natural effect being accustomed to seeing them in the rôles, but I have to say that Boyd and Heston did a better job.
What that informs me is that it is a remarkable skill the casting directors possess. Presumably, they view dozens of screen tests and most of them probably with actors and actresses as competent as Nielson and Denova and Boyd and Heston. And to be able to sort through all of those skillful performances and identify the best ones---without the hindsight of seeing how the audiences react to them---is genuinely a talent.
We watch something like, say, Columbo, and think to ourselves, of course Peter Falk was the perfect actor for the part. How could anyone not see that? But I imagine if we saw the screen tests for Prescription: Murder (the pilot for Columbo)---and without knowing what the show would become with Falk---most of us would have a difficult time deciding which actor performed the best or would be most approved of by the viewers.
Nielson would have made a competent Messala---I remember his serious, stony-faced days very well---but I have to admit Stephen Boyd was better. Mostly because, while Nielson was grim, it was part of his nature and not an indicator of his personal attitude. On the other hand, there was always an aura of unlikeability about Stephen Boyd, an hostility that came through the camera, whether he was playing good guy or bad. Hollywood recognised it, and that's why he usually played the rôle of the cad.
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Man, thanks for sharing this.
Time for a Naked Gun/Airplane marathon of comedy goodness.
Sad news. He was in some seriously funny films.
Elaine Dickinson: Well, we had a choice of steak or fish.
Rumack: Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna.
Completely ridiculous but it kills me every time. He cracked me up no matter what movie he was in.
His first comment: "I'm so disappointed O.J. outlived him."
But then he wanted us to know that they're counting on us!
There's a whole generation that knows of him only as a comedic actor, from his body of work since Airplane, Police Squad and the Naked Gun movies based on Police Squad ...
... but don't know his work before then, when he starred in any number of TV dramas, cop shows and Westerns in the '50's and '60s as a strait-laced, granite-jawed do-gooder with a penchant for speechifying. What made Police Squad work so well was that he was playing that exact same character the exact same way he always did, but everything around him was goofy rather than just as straitlaced as he was. With the Naked Gun movies, he started mugging for the camera and was a bit less effective, and did it more and more with more movie roles.
Nielsen was so completely thought of as a comedic actor in his later years that he wound up at the center of a lawsuit between the Adolph Coors Co and the Eveready Battery Co. Coors drafted an ad campaign that featured Nielsen spoofing the Energizer Bunny -- he interrupted a sedate ad for beer by entering the scene wearing rabbit ears and pink rabbit feet with a business suit, pounding a large bass drum sporting the Coors Light logo, and spinning around a few times until he gets dizzy -- which led to an effort by Eveready to block the commercial from airing. The court, calling Nielsen "the master of comedy," held that there was no risk of trademark confusion: "Mr. Nielsen is not a toy (mechanical or otherwise), does not run on batteries, is not fifteen inches tall, is not predominantly pink, does not wear sunglasses or beach thongs, and would probably make a better babysitter than a children’s gift."*
* That's Eveready Battery Co. v. Adolph Coors Co., 765 F. Supp. 440 (N.D. Ill. 1991) if you're inclined to look up the details.
Love that video, Rich.
I have to say, at the risk of taking this discussion a bit astray, that viewing this clip was an edifying experience.
Both Leslie Nielson (in his serious mode, not nearly as much as a comic) and Cesare Denova are two of my favourite actors to watch on screen, and they certainly did a serviceable job portraying Messala and Ben Hur in this screen test. Outside of Nielson delivering his dialogue a bit too fast, it was a perfectly competent scene.
However, I am very familiar with the scene as it aired in the film (Ben Hur is one of those films which I will watch whenever it's on, no matter that I've seen it a dozen times over) and I recall perfectly how it elapsed with Stephen Boyd and Charlton Heston in the parts. Mind you I am filtering out the natural effect being accustomed to seeing them in the rôles, but I have to say that Boyd and Heston did a better job.
What that informs me is that it is a remarkable skill the casting directors possess. Presumably, they view dozens of screen tests and most of them probably with actors and actresses as competent as Nielson and Denova and Boyd and Heston. And to be able to sort through all of those skillful performances and identify the best ones---without the hindsight of seeing how the audiences react to them---is genuinely a talent.
We watch something like, say, Columbo, and think to ourselves, of course Peter Falk was the perfect actor for the part. How could anyone not see that? But I imagine if we saw the screen tests for Prescription: Murder (the pilot for Columbo)---and without knowing what the show would become with Falk---most of us would have a difficult time deciding which actor performed the best or would be most approved of by the viewers.
Nielson would have made a competent Messala---I remember his serious, stony-faced days very well---but I have to admit Stephen Boyd was better. Mostly because, while Nielson was grim, it was part of his nature and not an indicator of his personal attitude. On the other hand, there was always an aura of unlikeability about Stephen Boyd, an hostility that came through the camera, whether he was playing good guy or bad. Hollywood recognised it, and that's why he usually played the rôle of the cad.