Leslie William Nielsen was born on 11 February 1926 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, the son of Ingvard Eversen Nielsen, a Danish-born officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Mabel Elizabeth (nee Davies), whose family was of Welsh descent. Nielsen spent much of his early childhood in the remote Northwest Territories, where his father was posted, before training as a radio announcer and later studying acting in Toronto and New York.
He built a long career as a dramatic leading man through the 1950s and 1960s, appearing in more than 50 films and dozens of television productions. His best-remembered role from this era was Commander John J. Adams in the science-fiction classic Forbidden Planet (1956), and he later starred in the disaster blockbuster The Poseidon Adventure (1972).
Nielsen's career took an unexpected and hugely successful turn in his fifties, when his deadpan delivery was recast for comedy in the spoof film Airplane! (1980). This led to the cult television series Police Squad! (1982) and, from 1988, the Naked Gun film trilogy, in which he played the bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin, becoming one of the most recognisable comic actors of his generation.
Over a career spanning six decades, Nielsen appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programmes. He died on 28 November 2010 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from complications of pneumonia, survived by his wife Barbaree and family.