Hollywood just lost two great talents, and well as unique names you hardly see for men anymore.
I will avoid the Airplane quotes that many other will be using, and just say that Leslie Nielsen was able to do both serious and silly work in his true, two act career. Aside from The Naked Gun series, the Canadian actor was also in Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure - to look at his career you'd be shocked at the variety and versitility of his films. He died at 84 from complications from pneumonia (though mostly contracting pneumonia).
Irvin Kershner may not be as familiar a name, but nerds everywhere know him as the director of The Empire Strikes Back. Kersh - as he was known, was also the next-door neighbor of Famous Dad for many years in the canyons above Los Angeles! He passed at 87 after a long illness (probably not bullemia). After graduating USC film school, He made U.S. government informational films in Greece, Turkey and the Middle East during the 1950s. Like many others his first professional feature work was with Roger Corman. He would go on to work with Hollywood legends Sean Connery, Joanne Woodward, George C. Scott, George Segal, Eva Marie Saint, and Faye Dunaway before taking on the Star Wars sequel. Kirshner would later make the Bond revamp Never Say Never Again and Robocop 2.
I will avoid the Airplane quotes that many other will be using, and just say that Leslie Nielsen was able to do both serious and silly work in his true, two act career. Aside from The Naked Gun series, the Canadian actor was also in Forbidden Planet and The Poseidon Adventure - to look at his career you'd be shocked at the variety and versitility of his films. He died at 84 from complications from pneumonia (though mostly contracting pneumonia).
Irvin Kershner may not be as familiar a name, but nerds everywhere know him as the director of The Empire Strikes Back. Kersh - as he was known, was also the next-door neighbor of Famous Dad for many years in the canyons above Los Angeles! He passed at 87 after a long illness (probably not bullemia). After graduating USC film school, He made U.S. government informational films in Greece, Turkey and the Middle East during the 1950s. Like many others his first professional feature work was with Roger Corman. He would go on to work with Hollywood legends Sean Connery, Joanne Woodward, George C. Scott, George Segal, Eva Marie Saint, and Faye Dunaway before taking on the Star Wars sequel. Kirshner would later make the Bond revamp Never Say Never Again and Robocop 2.
2 comments:
Thanks for the post. I was reading Nielsen's obituary in the guardian by some woman who had obviously never seen Forbidden Planet but felt qualified to label it a standard B-movie offering. I'd been reading interviews of Kirshner recently where he spoke of his estrangement with Lucas over the latter's decision to choose sales of ewoks over artistic integrity. What a shame he produced such a sublime, unexpected Sci-Fi masterpiece so that someone so unworthy as to force the Phantom Menace and Star Wars revamps over a traumatised generation...
Most people only think of them as one-note talents, but they really had an impact beyond their pop culture buzz.
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