Robert Hays Says He Looked Up to 'Airplane!' Costar Leslie Nielsen: 'That Was My Hero'

Robert Hays and Leslie Nielsen shared the screen in the 1980 comedy classic Airplane!, but Hays' admiration for his legendary costar began long before they worked together.

Now touring the country with fellow Airplane! star Julie Hagerty as part of Airplane! Live, Hays recently reflected on working alongside Nielsen, who famously transitioned from dramatic roles to become one of Hollywood's most beloved comedy stars.

Nielsen got his start in the 1950s playing stern and stentorian authority figures in such films as Forbidden Planet. It was his role as Revolutionary War leader Francis Marion that caught the attention of a young Hays.

“When I was a little kid, I knew him as The Swamp Fox, a Disney series,” he told AARP's Movies for Grownups. “To me, he was like, that was my hero.”

Nielsen was a veteran of dead-serious disaster films such as The Poseidon Adventure when he was cast in Airplane!. Co-directors Jim Abraham, Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker famously cast drama veterans such as Nielsen, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges and instructed them to treat the material completely straight.

“I think it was that thing that when we were doing Airplane!, that was one of the most important ingredients, and it was play this thing seriously,” Hays said.

Hays said Nielsen loved the experience and credited the directors with setting off his second act as a comedy legend. “He told me, ‘You know, I always wanted to do this zany, wacky stuff, but I just didn’t have the nerve,'" he said. “‘It’s like I walked up to the door and I opened the door to peek in, but it was the boys that pushed me through.’ Now, when they think of Leslie Nielsen, they think of loony.”

Hays said Nielsen was a cutup on the set as well. “He had a little thing that a doctor friend of his had invented, and it was like a whoopee cushion but in his hand. And so he would make f--- sounds,” Hays said.

Nielsen’s talent for comedy made it hard for Hays to stay in character.

“His constant lines he was feeding me, it sounded like, ‘Captain Striker, can, can you land this plane?’ And I had to keep a straight face the entire time,” Hays said. “And that is very difficult when you think that that’s funny… That was the hardest thing in the whole film. But I did. I held it together.”

Nielsen’s delivery got him too: “It was that voice of his… that deep mellifluous voice, so when he would say something and it was silly and it was straight… I just was on the floor.”

Hays also praised the camaraderie of the cast and crew: “We just all loved each other, and we worked together so well, including the crew. It was just great. It was just great.”

Hays said talking about the movie around the nation has shown him it’s a generational experience. “There are people in their twenties or teens,” he said. “They bring their kids along. It’s really fun to see people laughing still after all this time.”