Veteran comic actor Leslie Nielsen has died at the age of 84.
The star of Airplane! and The Naked Gun died in hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was being treated for pneumonia, his agent John Kelly said.
Canadian-born Nielsen started out as a serious actor, but in 1980 his role as a hapless doctor in the disaster spoof film Airplane! made him a comic star, the BBC reports.
He appeared in more than 100 films and had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
Born in Regina in 1926, Nielsen enjoyed an acting career which spanned six decades.
He started as a television actor in New York in 1950, performing in about 150 live dramas.
In the mid-1950s, he moved to Hollywood, where he initially got film roles as a leading man, capitalising on his craggy good looks.
But in 1980, his deadpan delivery in Airplane! marked him out as a gifted clown and it was in this role he became known for the line: "Don't call me Shirley".
The success of Airplane! led to another TV role in the spoof crime show Police Squad where he first played accident-prone detective Frank Drebin.
Nielsen went on to make three films as the same character in the Naked Gun series and continued working into his eighties.
The actor died surrounded by his wife and friends.
