Leslie Nielsen

Nielsen was 56 when Frank Drebin first appeared in Police Squad! (1982), later becoming the centre of The Naked Gun films. His move into spoof comedy had already begun with Airplane!, but Drebin gave the deadpan style a recurring identity. The straight-faced confidence is the point: he treats the most foolish situation as if it were a serious police procedural. Photo: Alan Light (CC BY 2.0).