LOS ANGELES — Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, many fondly reminisced about one of the most famous movies ever to depict the monarch.
On social media, hundreds tweeted about a classic scene from the 1988 comedy "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad," starring Leslie Nielsen as Los Angles detective Frank Drebin and Jeannette Charles as the queen of England.
Filmed at Dodger Stadium, the sequence involves a fictional baseball game between the California Angels and the Seattle Mariners attended by none other than the queen.
During the sporting event, an undercover Drebin — disguised as an umpire — is tasked with thwarting an assassination attempt on her majesty, who gracefully nods to her fellow baseball fans, participates in a crowd wave and throws a hell of a first pitch none the wiser. That is, until a freshly hypnotized Reggie Jackson (played by real Angels right fielder Reggie Jackson) brandishes a gun at her while repeatedly muttering in a trance, "I must kill the queen."
In a desperate bid to save her royal highness from the dazed outfielder, Drebin shoots a dart from his cufflinks that strikes a woman in the upper deck, who falls on top of Jackson and prevents him from firing the gun.
After the real Queen Elizabeth II died at age 96 Thursday in Scotland, Jackson jokingly tweeted, "Now we all know I was innocent ! Amen! RIP Queen E !"
Jackson, now a special adviser to the Houston Astros, was far from the only person instantly reminded of director David Zucker's beloved slapstick romp on Thursday afternoon.
"My first real conscious awareness of the Queen existing as a person came via the movie THE NAKED GUN," tweeted Washington Post reporter Mark Berman. "that's it, that's my contribution to the discourse."
"She had an amazing reign filled with grace, dignity and a terrific performance in Naked Gun," tweeted ESPN Radio host Matt Jones.
MLB writer Matt Monagan suggested that someone should interview Charles, 94, who played the queen "in pretty much every movie she's ever been in," according to her IMDb page. Her film and TV credits include "Austin Powers in Goldmember" (2002), "National Lampoon's European Vacation" (1985) and "Saturday Night Live."
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