Farewell Leslie Nielsen

It seems like only last week that I was writing a brief obit for another Canadian personality, Maury Chaykin ... and today is sad, because we farewell a Canadian legend, never mind a personality. Leslie Nielsen passed away at the age of 84, of pneumonia. He was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1926, and and the first time I saw him he was on another planet ... a forbidden planet, in fact.

Across more than 40 years I saw him in more movies than I can count, but I'll always remember him as Buck Frobisher in Due South. The show's folk lore says that the film crew didn't even know how to lace Constable Benton Fraser's Mountie boots up right, till Leslie showed 'em how when he guest-starred in an early first season episode. Turns out, his dad had been a Mountie!

Farewell, Leslie Nielsen. You will definitely be missed by about three generations of movie and TV fans. Here's the whole story on IMDB, in far more depth than I could hope to approximate here.

Goodbye, Maury

If your only interest in movies is for hot bods and sexy action, you're probably going to say, "Maury who?" But if you appreciate great performances from rock-solid character actors, you'll more than likely have known Maury Chaykin since Dances With Wolves, and that's a loooong time ago. Or maybe you saw him in several Canadian movies he made with Paul Gross (including, but not limited to the wonderful Buried on Sunday). Or perhaps you saw him as the XXXL outsized Goa'ould on Stargate SG-1, who departed the Earth with a wheelie-suitcase of cupcakes! Or you might recall him in Mystery Alaska, with Russell Crowe. He made a career out of being out-sized and trading on not being physically beautiful!

Yes, you have him now! Wonderful actor who could make you laugh or chill you (for example, in Cold Comfort, also with Paul gross). He's a character actor, and a Canadian, of extraordinary ability...

Maurie Chaykin died in a Toronto hospital last Tuesday. He'd been suffering from kidney problems. He was 61. Here's the full story, if you can somehow endure the stupid, intrusive, aggravating interface at CinemaBlend.com. And here is Maury's IMDB page ... what a list of credits!

Goodbye, Maury. We'll miss you.