Nickname Lock | Significant other Jane Spencer Drebin | |
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Aliases Tony De'WonderfulLocksmithBob KellyEnrico PallazzoNick "The Slasher" McGuirk First appearance A Substantial Gift (The Broken Promise) Creators David Zucker, Jim Abrahams Movies and TV shows The Naked Gun: From the Files, Police Squad!, Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult, The Naked Gun 2½: The Smel Similar Captain Ed Hocken, Nordberg, Tanya, Dr Rumack, Dr Meinheimer | ||
Franklin "Frank" Drebin is a fictional character in the Police Squad! series and the Naked Gun movies played by Leslie Nielsen. In 2008, Drebin was selected by Empire Magazine as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. In 2000, TV Guide named him to its list of the 25 greatest TV detectives, ranking him #23. He was also named by UGO.com as one of The 100 Best Heroes of All Time.
Character overview
Frank Drebin is a member of Police Squad, a special department of the police force, where he served for many years. In the original TV series, he is a competent (although extremely strait-laced) police officer, who plays the straight man to the wacky comedy going on around him. In the subsequent films, he is changed to a more comic figure; he is known for being a bumbling fool, causing lots of problems, often more than he solves, but being entirely oblivious to it all. In the TV Series, he treats his colleagues and people that he helps with respect and shows pity for the latter, although he sometimes unintentionally causes them a bit of grief. In the film unlike people such as his friend who he works under, Captain Ed Hocken (Alan North/George Kennedy), he is a very indiscreetly and unsympathetically outspoken man, therefore tending to appear cold and insensitive towards people, not to mention cynical. He just as well lacks having pity and compassion towards struggling individuals when they need it, and having any of it when conversing with officials who confront him about his mistakes. While he works under Ed, in Police Squad, he works with Norberg (Peter Lupus). In the Naked Gun series, he works with Nordberg (O.J. Simpson). Drebin has held the rank of Sergeant and Lieutenant Detective.
He and Ted Olson are the only characters that appeared in both Police Squad! and the Naked Gun films and were portrayed by the same actor.
