Leslie Nielsen, Inventor of Reinvention

The self-spoofing comedian led the way for other Canadian entertainers like William Shatner and Alan Thicke.

Leslie Nielsen invented the art of reinvention. Without Nielsen – who died Nov. 28 at the age of 84 – there would be no William Shatner. There would be no late-career Alan Thicke.

Without Nielsen, the postmodern idea of subverting one’s own super-serious on-screen persona may have never caught on. It was the bowlegged thespian who opened up a new world of possibilities for the next generation of performers, especially in this nation.

Nielsen’s passing has unleashed an avalanche of accolades because he managed to master so many different types of motion picture. How many actors have as diverse a filmography as Nielsen? He had leading roles in the science-fiction flicks of the 1950s (Forbidden Planet), the disaster films of the 1970s (The Poseidon Adventure), and the lowbrow comedies of the 1990s (Naked Gun 33 1/3). Talk about versatility. And those are just the highlights.

Most importantly, Nielsen’s the one who pioneered the career strategy of spoofing oneself. He’s the one who demonstrated to other Canadian entertainers that there’s money to be made in having a sense of humour about the image that made you famous in the first place.

It must have taken guts for him to take that role in Airplane! in 1980, to agree to subvert everything the moviegoing public knew about him. After all, he had been a “serious” actor for decades. It was a leap of faith that led to a whole new career, as roles in the Naked Gun trilogy and other comedies soon followed. It also opened up a new career path for other actors.

Much has been made lately of the ubiquity of William Shatner, to name the most obvious example. The second phase of Shatner’s career – with its many entertainment and business ventures – can be traced back to the “Get a life” sketch on Saturday Night Live in 1986. That’s when the decades of self-parody started.

But where did Shatner get the idea to spoof himself? The seed had been planted by Nielsen – who else? – four years earlier, when he and Shatner appeared together in Airplane II.

Alan Thicke is also following the trail Nielsen blazed. With roles on TV shows like How I Met Your Mother and jPod and in movies such as Childstar, Thicke has figured out that the best way to revive a career is to aim the comedic barbs at oneself.

The formula goes something like this: you spend the first few decades establishing an iconic image, and then you tear it down as a second act. The only question is whether the ability to morph so fluidly is somehow essentially Canadian – since we’re so good at it.

So consider this: Nielsen's death came just days after that of Montreal’s Pat Burn, the former cop who found great success when he learned how to make himself into a hard-charging NHL coach.

Talk about reinvention!

This article was originally published in the London Free Press.