Leslie Nielsen was a famous American actor and comedian. His net worth is about $20 million at the time of his death. Even though he has worked as an actor and writer for several decades and in many different fields, people will clearly always associate him best with the Naked Gun and the Airplane series of movies.

He was unforgettable and contributed a lot in more than one hundred movies and one hundred and fifty television shows in the entire length of his career playing more than two hundred roles; one of which was the rudely snobbish commercial filmmaker turned killer bear hunter Paul Jenson in William Girdler’s Day of the Animals (1977).

His big break finally came when he was given the role of the deadpan Dr. Shirley Rumack in the biggest hit comedy “Airplane”. (1980). Nielsen starred next in the absurd Police Detective Frank Drebin role on the briefly aired TV series called Police Squad! (1982).

Early Life

Nielsen was born on February 11, 1926 to Soren Ervin Nielsen Sep 10 1891 – Jun 1973, and Christine Marie Nielsen nee Jameson, Feb 9 1897 – Dec 1977 of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His father’s name was Ingvar Nielsen and his mother, Mabel Elizabeth, was from Wales but born in Ohio USA.

In Canada, the father worked for some time as a constable of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Nielsen was born as the second of the three boys that the couple had. His older brother, Erik, also served in the Canadian parliament and then rose to serve as the Deputy Prime Minister.

Nielsen had a terrible childhood; his father treated his mother and siblings cruelly. He then joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on his graduation from Victoria High School at the age of 17.

He was discharged when World War II was over and immediately secured a job at a radio station, also get register at Lorne Greene Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto. At this time, he was awarded a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse which he thereafter transferred to New York City.

Career

Nielsen started acting on television in the 1950s during television’s historian labelled the period as Television’s Golden Age. However, the time was not the most favorable for Nielsen, as most of the place’s offered job positions were not very well paid.

This led him to begin looking for work as a narrator of documentaries and the occasional commercial work. But by the time the 50s were twisting into the 60s, he was headlining movies like Forbidden Planet and Tammy and the Bachelor both of which were by MGM studios.

In 1959 the actor thought it prudent to cease working with MGM and seek employment from other companies. He started getting serious about comedy in the 1980s, though, beginning with the movie “Airplane!”.

He cracked audiences up with those deadpan looks he gave throughout the comedic sequences of that movie. The film stands as the cult one and has been featured on pretty many list of the funniest ever films.