Leslie Nielsen went down in history as one of the comedy greats, but his life was much more than fart jokes and unconventional golfing. First things first: don't call him Shirley.
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00:00Leslie Nielsen went down in history as one of the comedy greats, but his life was much
00:04more than fart jokes and unconventional golfing.
00:08First things first, don't call him Shirley.
00:11Nielsen suffered an illness in childhood, which rendered him legally deaf, which led
00:15him to wearing hearing aids for most of his life.
00:17In an interview at Audiology Online, Nielsen described the ways he attempted to slow down
00:22the loss by avoiding loud sounds and music.
00:25When asked about his hearing aids, however, he stated,
00:28"'You know, it's very difficult to be an actor, and to have people depending on you
00:32to say the right line at the right time, and to not be able to hear your cues.
00:36I can't tell you how many times I would have had to have said, what, if I didn't have my
00:40hearing aids.
00:41So, my hearing aids are a lifesaver, and they allow me to practice my craft."
00:45Meanwhile, others in the deaf community made it known how important physical comedians
00:49like Nielsen were to them and their families, because their type of comedy didn't always
00:53require hearing to be enjoyed.
00:55"'I am best known for my roles in comedy, but there's one thing I take very seriously.
01:00That's my hearing.'"
01:01In 1993, Nielsen released a fictional autobiography entitled The Naked Truth, co-authored by writer
01:08David Fisher.
01:09The book put forward several clear and obvious fictions, such as Nielsen winning two Academy
01:13Awards, having an affair with actress Elizabeth Taylor, playing a part in the dissolution
01:18of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and that he did a rehab stint for his addiction to, quote,
01:23"'dopey' jokes."
01:24Speaking with the Orlando Sentinel, Nielsen talked about how important Fisher was to the
01:28project, saying,
01:29"'David helped me refresh my memory about things that did not happen.
01:33He gave me new memories, which was like giving my life back to me.
01:36It's like being born again.'"
01:38Nielsen familiarized himself with the details of the fake life story in order to make interviews
01:43that much more absurd.
01:44The book was also made into an album, which would eventually get nominated for a Grammy
01:49for Best Comedy Album in 1994 and a Mockumentary in 2009.
01:54While Nielsen may have lied about his relationship with Taylor, he was no stranger to romance.
01:59The comedian was married four times throughout his life.
02:02"'You've tried marriage, and once or twice?'
02:05"'Well, I'm gonna get it right sooner or later.'"
02:07In 1950, he married his first wife, Monica Boyar, a Dominican-born nightclub singer and
02:12actress who sang in seven different languages and is known as one of the initial people
02:16to bring calypso music to America.
02:19Known as the Satin Latin, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports she first performed professionally
02:23at La Conga Club in New York City when Desi Arnaz was the bandleader.
02:28Nielsen was married to his second wife, Alessandra Ullman, from the late 50s to the early 70s.
02:33Not much is known about their marriage, but the couple had two daughters.
02:36Then, in 1981, he married Brooks Oliver, but that marriage only lasted until 1983.
02:42After that, he married his fourth and final wife, Barbary Earle.
02:46She had acted in several of his projects in the 90s.
02:49The pair were still married when Nielsen died in 2010.
02:53Nielsen was such a golf fanatic that he put out a trilogy of spoof golf instructional
02:57videos titled Bad Golf Made Easy, Bad Golf My Way, and Leslie Nielsen's Stupid Little
03:02Golf Video.
03:03Each of the videos featured Nielsen and others being intentionally bad at golf, along with
03:08numerous forms of physical slapstick comedy.
03:11Speaking with The Oklahoman, Nielsen said of the videos,
03:13"...we make no significant contribution to golf whatsoever.
03:17It is not our intention to instruct or to help anybody other than to have some laughs."
03:21Most people practice to play good golf, but no matter how much we practice, we still end
03:26up playing bad golf.
03:28The year after sharing Bad Golf My Way, Nielsen released The Stupid Little Golf Book.
03:33As the book's promotional material reads, Nielsen has drawn on a lifetime of brilliantly
03:37uninspired play to produce the unique collection of useless wisdom, spurious reminiscences,
03:43and pointless tips that is The Stupid Little Golf Book.
03:46And while neither the videos nor the book were particularly serious, his love of golf
03:50didn't end there.
03:52Nielsen also took part in the celebration of new golf courses around the country.
03:56According to his Oklahoman interview, he attended the 1994 dedication of the Cimarron National
04:01Golf Course outside of Guthrie, Oklahoma, and is friends with golf course designer Duffy
04:06Martin.
04:07Leslie Nielsen famously loved to fart, or at least, he loved the sound of farts and
04:11the resulting embarrassment that would take place when someone was blamed for it.
04:15As countless interviews prove, Nielsen brought a fart machine with him to just about every
04:19place he went, including when he would show up on late-night talk shows.
04:22"...I will do almost anything I can for a laugh."
04:28The first recording of this prank would be in 1982 on Late Night with David Letterman.
04:33While they were talking about his acting experience before Airplane!, the comedian just let the
04:37machine go off.
04:38"...Well, just a little bit."
04:42He would go on to do it again on Wogan, GMTV, and notoriously in the elevators during the
04:48filming of Airplane!.
04:49Even while he was dedicating the Cimarron National Golf Course, the Oklahoman reported
04:54he used his handy gas machine during their interview.
04:57His love of farting went so far as to follow him to the grave.
05:00His epitaph says,
05:01"...Let her rip."
05:03CeCe Fontana, story editor for the original Star Trek, once recalled a phone call she
05:08received the day after the broadcast premiere of the series on September 8, 1966.
05:13She was working as a production secretary at the time, and the call was from Nielsen.
05:17Speaking with NorthJersey.com, Fontana recounted,
05:20"...He said, I saw the show last night and I thought it was wonderful and had a great
05:24future.
05:25I'm paraphrasing him a bit, but he was very effusive about the show."
05:28This compliment was particularly meaningful because Nielsen had starred in the 1956 film
05:33Forbidden Planet, which Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry named as the most direct
05:37influence on the creation of the USS Enterprise, its crew, and their adventures.
05:42In a 1964 letter published in Roddenberry's official autobiography, Roddenberry even directly
05:48references Forbidden Planet as an influence for the series.
05:51"...I think it would be interesting to take another very hard look at the spaceship while
05:55we are still sketching and planning our own."
05:58Please understand, we have no intention of copying either interior or exterior of that
06:03ship, but a detailed look at it again would do much to stimulate our own thinking.
06:08Nielsen grew up in the cold Northwest Territories of Canada with his two brothers, his mother
06:13and his father.
06:14A Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, the Yukon News reports Nielsen's father was posted
06:19in what was then Fort Norman, just 199 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
06:24Dealing with months-long periods of darkness in the winter and summers where the sun never
06:28set, the Nielsen boys grew up speaking more Dogrib, a local First Nations dialect, than
06:34English.
06:35Speaking about living in that secluded environment with the Washington Post, Nielsen reflected,
06:39"...there were 15 people in the village, including five of us.
06:43If my father arrested somebody in the winter, he'd have to wait until the thaw to turn him
06:47in."
06:48Being so isolated probably made for a rather difficult life for the Nielsens.
06:52However, it was made worse by Nielsen's abusive, troubled father who would beat him, his brothers,
06:57and his mother.
06:58The military became an escape from this violent home life for the boys, and Nielsen reportedly
07:03could not wait to leave his home life.
07:05It's hard to believe such a funny man came from such a harsh upbringing.
07:10Both Leslie and his brother Eric enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World
07:14War II.
07:15But while Leslie didn't go overseas, Eric did.
07:18As UConn News reports, Eric flew over 50 missions, 33 of which were bombing missions
07:23as an officer pilot.
07:24For his service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and would stay with the RCAF
07:29for six more years before leaving the military.
07:32Yet what Eric is mostly known for was his political career, which would lead to him
07:36becoming Deputy Prime Minister from 1984 to 1986 under Conservative Prime Minister Brian
07:42Mulroney.
07:43Eric would come to the Canadian Parliament in 1957 as a Progressive Conservative.
07:47This was the first year that the fairly new Progressive Conservative Party won a federal
07:52election.
07:53He would serve the UConn region for 30 years, as the voters in the UConn voted for him on
07:57ten separate occasions.
07:58He was known to be rigorous and vigilant in working for the people of the UConn.
08:02Eric died of a heart attack at his home in British Columbia in 2008.
08:07Nielsen wasn't the first star in his family.
08:09Danish-American actor Gene Herschelt was actually the comedian's uncle and a legend in his own
08:15right.
08:16Herschelt was known most for the 1924 film Greed and played the grandfather in the 1937
08:21version of Heidi.
08:22However, his longest-running character was Dr. Paul Christian, whom he portrayed in a
08:26number of films, a radio series, and a TV show.
08:29Having a famous relative was occasionally awkward, though, and Nielsen once spoke about
08:33the difficulty he had convincing people they were related.
08:36He said,
08:37When I would mention my uncle, people would look at me as if I were the biggest liar in
08:41the world.
08:42Sometimes I would take them home and show them 8x10 glossies, and things changed quite
08:46drastically.
08:47So I began to think that maybe this acting business was not a bad idea, much as I was
08:51very shy about it and certainly without courage regarding it."
08:55Nielsen followed his uncle into Hollywood, but the two never had time to commiserate
08:58about the film industry.
09:00Herschelt died in 1956, while Nielsen was relatively early into his entertainment career.
09:06Leslie Nielsen passed away on November 28, 2010 at a hospital near his home in Fort Lauderdale
09:12due to complications from pneumonia, with friends and family by his side.
09:16He was 84.
09:17Speaking with ESPN, Nielsen's lookalike, NBA coach Del Harris, told a story about the joy
09:23that Nielsen brought to the 1994 Lakers.
09:26Harris recalled that, as players were leaving the court, Nielsen was brought to the exit
09:30tunnel.
09:31Reportedly, the coach thought it'd be a great opportunity to take advantage of their striking
09:35resemblance.
09:36He said,
09:37I said to him, how about going in the locker room and act like you or me and tell them
09:41they played a good game or you are proud of them or whatever you have.
09:44He did it, and the guys loved it.
09:46There could be no more fitting tribute to one of the greatest slapstick comedians of
09:50all time.