# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/leslie-nielsen
# Generated: 2026-08-31T13:52:03.931Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/leslie-nielsen"
name: "Leslie Nielsen"
slug: "leslie-nielsen"
description: "He spent decades as a straight-faced dramatic actor in sci-fi and disaster films, then at 54 became comedy's greatest deadpan when the Zucker brothers cast him in Airplane! — a second career built entirely on playing men too serious to notice the chaos around them."
tagline: "Canadian-American actor and comedian (1926–2010)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Leslie_Nielsen.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "Canada"
  isoCode: "CA"
category:
  name: "Actors"
  slug: "actors"
profileType:
  name: "Actor"
  slug: "actor"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q33999"
birthDate: "1926-02-11"
deathDate: "2010-11-28"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           64.43
  momentum:             4.563505766972856
  historical:           28.398352
  currentAttention:     25.0930715749246
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Actors"
    slug: "actors"
  - name: "Actor"
    slug: "actor"
  - name: "Television"
    slug: "television"
  - name: "Movies"
    slug: "movies"
  - name: "Comedy"
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  - name: "Film Directing"
    slug: "film-directing"
  - name: "Voice Acting"
    slug: "voice-acting"
  - name: "Canada"
    slug: "canada"
platforms:
  - platform:  "IMDB"
    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000558/"
    handle:    "nm0000558"
sources:
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    title: "Wikipedia"
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    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
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    title: "ليسلي نيلسن"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Лесли Нилсен"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen"
    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen"
    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen"
    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen"
    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen"
    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%84%DB%8C_%D9%86%DB%8C%D9%84%D8%B3%D9%86"
    title: "لسلی نیلسن"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen"
    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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  - url: "https://musicbrainz.org/artist/b979f65a-b979-40be-823a-b69cc950e93c"
    title: "MusicBrainz"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://www.discogs.com/artist/1200105"
    title: "Discogs"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen"
    title: "Leslie Nielsen"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Leslie William Nielsen was born February 11, 1926, and started acting in 1950, appearing in 46 live television programs that first year alone. His film debut came in 1956 with Forbidden Planet, and through the next two decades he built a reputation in dramas, westerns, and romances — roles in films like The Poseidon Adventure in 1972 cemented him as a serious actor. Then in 1980, Airplane! recast him as oblivious comic relief, and the fit was so perfect that Roger Ebert later called him "the Olivier of spoofs." He ran with it: the short-lived Police Squad! in 1982 became the blueprint for The Naked Gun film series, and Nielsen spent his final decades specializing in characters complicit in their own absurdity. He was inducted onto Canada's Walk of Fame and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001, and died November 28, 2010, after 60 years and more than 220 characters across film and television.