Nov
2010
And Don’t Call Me Shirley
As someone who grew up with Airplane! being one of his favorite movies, it’s hard for me to fathom that Leslie Nielsen was once a leading man. I knew him as a silly, goofy actor with an amazing talent for playing the straight man, or the uber-goofy as he did in The Naked Gun movies. But, it’s true, he was once considered a heart throb, and when you look back at pictures of him as a young man it’s easy to see why.
That being said, he will always be “Shirley” to me.
Mr. Nielsen passed away at the age of 84 on Sunday in a Ft. Lauderdale hospital surrounded by his family. He has been sick for some time, and an infection he was fighting got worse over the past few days until he finally succumbed to it. It sounds as though he passed away peacefully.
He had a long career, and it’s horrible to boil it down to one line, but honestly, I have used this line every chance I get since I first saw this movie in 1980. Believe me, you never want to say “surely” around me.
Good-bye, Mr. Nielsen. You will be missed.
And … how could I not post the video?
