For The Record

Died

At age 84 of complications from pneumonia, actor Leslie Nielsen, who brought humor to the traditionally humorless practice of umpiring in the 1988 comedy classic The Naked Gun. A leading-man type for much of his career, Nielsen reinvented himself in his 50s as a deadpan white-haired comedian. In the hit 1980 satire Airplane! he played alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and later, in the Naked Gun series, he was paired with O.J. Simpson. In the first Naked Gun film, Nielsen brought his yuks to Anaheim Stadium, with his detective Frank Drebin character pursuing a killer who turns out to be Reggie Jackson. The scene finds Nielsen-as-Drebin first feebly impersonating fictional anthem singer Enrico Pallazzo ("and the rockets' red glare/lots of bombs in the air.... ") and later making an inspired mockery out of umpiring with increasingly elaborate strike calls, including one that incorporated a moonwalk. SI later ranked that bit as one of its 10 favorite sports scenes in nonsports movies (Aug. 4, 2003).