Leslie Nielsen dead at 84

Leslie Nielsen, the handsome actor who started his screen career playing romantic leads and more serious-than-serious heroes, and ended as one of the most famous cinematic clowns, has died. He was 84.

Nielsen passed away Sunday, November 28, in a hospital near his Fort Lauderdale, Fla. home surrounded by his wife and close friends. He had reportedly been hospitalized for nearly two weeks prior to his death.

From the mid-1950s through the late 1970s, Nielsen portrayed perfectly straight-laced he-man characters, even when he appeared in comedies. With comedic hits "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun", his career path took him nearly exclusively into the world of nonsense comedies and spoofs for three decades.