The Canadian born actor Leslie Nielsen died today at age 84. The Social Shuttle worked twice with the actor when he visited Sydney and Melbourne on promotional trips. In 1998 and 2001.
Our photograph shows Nielsen with Meatloaf at a party thrown by Pepsi Cola at the Sydney Intercontinental Hotel.
When we took our snap Nielsen wheeled around with his arm in the air to illustrate a point to Meatloaf and clipped a passing waiter with a tray of drinks. The waiter's tray flew in the air and the drinks and glasses crashed to the floor.
As the waiter temporarily tried to steady the tray he lost his balance and slipped, went down and landed on his backside.
Nielsen , now wide-eyed turned to look at the fallen waiter, bent down to help but then straightened up as 2 guests went to the waiter's aid. As Nielsen stood up he threw his arms in the air in a sort of "well I don't what happened ?" gesture and clipped another waiter with a tray of hourves dourves which went flying.
Nielsen grabbed Meatloaf's arm and said "let's got to the bar !".
He was a charming man and always a gentleman. His wife Barbaree was a joy to be around. Later we found out he slipped both waiters $100 each.
