1. Leslie Nielsen Is Cast In Airplane Because He Isn't Funny And Becomes A Comedy Legend
The point of Leslie Nielsen being in
Airplane! was that he wasn't renowned as being a funny guy at all - he was a serious actor, so the Zucker Brothers put him in the movie because the idea of him delivering hilarious lines with a straight man's reputation sounded like it might generate some laughs. What they probably didn't expect, then, was how well Nielsen assumed the role, and how naturalistic his comic chops were. What was supposed to have been a minor role in a comedy movie transformed the star into something of a bonafide comedy legend. It was Nielsen's deadpan delivery that really marked him as a funnyman, which is strange considering how bizarre and off the wall this casting decision must've seemed at the time, and the kind of movies that he had been in up until he appeared as Dr. Rumack in
Airplane!. When his iconic line "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley" became about as famous as he was, Neilson said: "I thought it was amusing, but it never occurred to me that it was going to become a trademark." So for a man who was cast because he was - in the words of Jerry Zucker - "oblivious to the comedy," Neilson did pretty, pretty, pretty darn good, methinks.
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