Comedic star Leslie Nielsen dies at 84

"Surely you can't be serious," an airline passenger says to him in "Airplane!" the 1980 hit that turned the actor from dramatic leading man to comic star.

"I am serious," Nielsen replies. "And don't call me Shirley."

The line was probably his most famous - and a perfect distillation of his career.

Nielsen, the dramatic lead in "Forbidden Planet" and "The Poseidon Adventure," and the bumbling detective in "The Naked Gun" comedies, died Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.

The Canadian native died from complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home, surrounded by his wife, Barbaree, and friends, his agent, John S. Kelly, said in a statement.

Nielsen came to Hollywood in the mid-1950s after performing in 150 live television dramas in New York. With a craggily handsome face, blond hair and 6-foot-2 height, he seemed ideal for a movie leading man.

Nielsen first performed as the King of France in the Paramount operetta "The Vagabond King" with Kathryn Grayson.

The film flopped, but MGM signed him to a seven-year deal.

His first film for that studio was auspicious - as the commander in the science fiction classic "Forbidden Planet." He found his best dramatic role as the captain of an overturned ocean liner in the 1972 disaster movie, "The Poseidon Adventure."

Behind the camera, the actor was a well-known prankster. That aspect of his personality was never exploited, however, until "Airplane!" was released in 1980 and became a huge hit.

As the doctor aboard a plane in which the pilots, and some of the passengers, become violently ill, Nielsen says they must get to a hospital right away.

"A hospital? What is it?" a flight attendant asks, inquiring about the illness.

"It's a big building with patients, but that's not important right now," Nielsen deadpans.

Critics argued he was being cast against type, but Nielsen disagreed, saying comedy was what he intended to do all along.

It was what he would do for most of the rest of his career, appearing in such comedies as "Repossessed" - a takeoff on "The Exorcist" - and "Mr. Magoo."

But it took years before he got to do the comedy he wanted.

He played Debbie Reynolds' sweetheart in 1957's popular "Tammy and the Bachelor," and he became well known to baby boomers for his role as the Revolutionary War fighter Francis Marion in the TV series "The Swamp Fox."

After a series of undistinguished movies and TV shows came "Airplane!", which captivated audiences and changed everything.

After the movie's success, the producers cast their newfound comic star as Detective Drebin in a TV series, "Police Squad," trashing the cliches of "Dragnet" and other cop shows. Despite good reviews, ABC canceled it after six episodes.

Then they converted the series into a feature film, "The Naked Gun," with George Kennedy, O.J. Simpson and Priscilla Presley as Nielsen's co-stars. Its huge success led to sequels "The Naked Gun 2 1/2" and "The Naked Gun 33 1/3."

Nielsen was born Feb. 11, 1926 in Regina, Saskatchewan. He grew up 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle at Fort Norman, where his father was an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

His parents had three sons, but the elder Nielsen was a troubled man who beat his wife and sons, and Leslie longed to escape. As soon as he graduated from high school at 17, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, even though he was legally deaf (he wore hearing aids most of his life.)

After the war, Nielsen worked as a disc jockey at a Calgary radio station, then studied at a Toronto radio school. A scholarship brought him to New York, and live television.

Nielsen was married four times and had two daughters, Thea and Maura.

His deadpan style emerged in 'Airplane!'