" Leslie Nielsen Dies at 84 "

Nielsen, the dramatic lead in "Forbidden Planet" and "The Poseidon Adventure" and the bumbling detective Frank Drebin in  "The Naked Gun" comedies, died on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84. The Canada native died from complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home, surrounded by his wife, Barbaree, and friends, 

Nielsen was born Feb. 11, 1926 in Regina, Saskatchewan.

He grew up 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle at Fort Norman, where his father was an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The parents had three sons, and Nielsen once recalled, "There were 15 people in the village, including five of us. If my father arrested somebody in the winter, he'd have to wait until the thaw to turn him in."

May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.

Celebrities stars pay their tribute to Nielsen.............................................................................. "

It is hard to think of an abundance of things that would unite Ryan Seacrest, Roger Ebert, Brooke Burke, Josh Groban, Kevin Pollak, Marlee Maitlin, Nia Vardalos, and Slash. But it’s hard to think of many people with quite the universal appeal of Leslie Nielsen, whose passing today at the age of 84 has moved all of the aforementioned to pay their respects via Twitter.

Predictably, many of those who marked the Naked Gun star’s death are comedians—including Russell Brand, David Wain and Patton Oswalt—and many tipped a hat to the late Nielsen’s instruction from Airplane! not to call him a certain woman’s name (

Maitlin, an acquaintance of Nielsen, described him as “a lovely, funny, talented man,” while legendary film critic Roger Ebert referred his followers to a quartet of Nielsen-featuring clips, including the actor’s ultimately unsuccessful screen test for Ben-Hur.