So difficult for someone to follow that. You need someone with the gravitas of a serious actor but with the tiniest of glints in their eye, willing to send themselves up, has to have spot-on timing, and an ability to do slapstick. Closest kind of match I can think of is someone like Steve Carrell, but he's probably not straight enough. I think Nielsen fit that role more perfectly than anyone else possibly could.

Liam Neeson. Known for action/dramatic movies (much like Nielsen pre-airplane) and plays a great straight man.

Great call. He was absolutely hilarious in Life's Too Short: https://vimeo.com/141940661

Oh man I was thinking of him too. Just playing it straight with Police Squad lines.... hilarious.

The straight/sane man is the funniest, to me, character in any kind of comedy.

It wouldn't but that style of humor is sadly been missing for too long.

Time for someone to take a shot.