Doing nothing is very hard to do... you never know when you're finished.
Leslie Nielsen
To be honest, I never, ever thought I'd ever do comedy. I was so frequently cast early on as a high-born young man with... 'problems' and, later, as a heavy, from black-hatted western villains to the corporate raider to bad cops.
I've finally found my home - as Lt. Frank Drebin.
The reason they call it 'golf' is that all the other 4 letter words were used up.
The reason there's a question mark on my front door is just in case I forget my address.
Yes, it's true, I've been called the Laurence Olivier of spoofs. I guess that would make Laurence Olivier the Leslie Nielsen of Shakespeare.
I played a lot of leaders, autocratic sorts; perhaps it was my Canadian accent.
If I couldn't be an actor, I would only consider being an astronaut, a sea otter, or a gynecologist.
I don't have a hard and fast rule about dignity. I'm concerned about being treated with respect, but if I make my own choices and kind of let 'er rip, I will.
I really have to keep an eye on myself, because sometimes I think I might say something important.
In those days, I auditioned for everything MGM made while I was under contract. Not for the roles Elizabeth Taylor eventually got, of course.
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.
The violence or the vaudeville style of comedy is a technique all by itself. You get up there, and you are a comedian, and you're doing one thing. That is, you're going to make the audience laugh.
I've always been part of comedy. One of the things about our family was that if we were reasonably funny with each other, particularly my two brothers and myself, when my father was upset with something you'd want to make sure in some way you made him laugh. Because when he didn't laugh, you were in trouble!
It's not really that I've been an advocate for hearing aids for a long time, it's just that I've been losing my hearing for a long time! So it's actually very important for me because I'm actually hearing impaired and I simply want to hear better!
Shirley! Don't call me Shirley!
There's an old saying that God exists in your search for him. I just want you to understand that I ain't looking.
It was a boy's name first.
I wore that same shirt yesterday playing golf. There goes the Nike account.
I have always loved science fiction. One of my favorite shows is 'Star Trek.' I like the trips, where it drops my mind off, because they give you a premise and all of a sudden, you say, 'Oh!' and I'm fascinated by it.
I like that kind of 'straight-faced' comedy. I like to be straight-faced and outrageous.
I had to weave and play around with a honey bear, you know, and I could wrestle with him a little bit, but there's no way you can even wrestle a honey bear, let alone a grizzly bear that's standing ten feet to eleven feet tall! Can you imagine? But it was fascinating to work that close to that kind of animal.
You know it's very difficult to be an actor, and to have people depending on you to say the right line, at the right time, and to not be able to hear your cues! I can't tell you how many times I would've had to have said What? if I didn't have my hearing aids. So my hearing aids are a life saver, and they allow me to practice my craft.
It's been dawning on me slowly that for the past 35 years I have been cast against type, and I'm finally getting to do what I really wanted to do.
I've produced, but as for directing, that's a dream that'll have to go unfulfilled.
As for honours, I've had a few along the way, and to be honest, I never expected any of them. I made a good living for decades, and that was enough; that, and maybe a good residual cheque from time to time.
