fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Don Ameche (/əˈmiːtʃi/; born Dominic Felix Amici; May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993)[1] was an American actor, comedian and vaudevillian. After playing in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, he became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which led to the offer of a movie contract from 20th Century Fox in 1935.

Don Ameche
Ameche on the set of International Showtime in 1964
Born	Dominic Felix Amici (1908-05-31)May 31, 1908 Kenosha, Wisconsin, US
Died	December 6, 1993(1993-12-06) (aged 85) Scottsdale, Arizona, US
Resting place	Resurrection Cemetery Asbury, Iowa, US
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin
Occupation	Actor comedian vaudevillian
Years active	1935–1993
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Honore Prendergast ​ ​ (m. 1932; died 1986)​
Children	6
Relatives	Jim Ameche (brother) Alan Ameche (cousin)

As a handsome, debonair leading man in 40 films over the next 14 years, he starred in comedies, dramas, and musicals. In the 1950s he worked on Broadway and in television, and was the host of NBC's International Showtime from 1961 to 1965. Returning to film work in his later years, Ameche enjoyed a fruitful revival of his career beginning with his role as a villain in Trading Places (1983) and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Cocoon (1985).

Early life

Don Ameche was born as Dominic Felix Amici on May 31, 1908, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His father, Felice Amici, was a bartender from Montemonaco, Ascoli Piceno, Marche, Italy. His mother, Barbara Etta Hertel, was of Scottish, Irish, and German ancestry.[2][3][4] Ameche was the second-oldest of eight children; he had three brothers, Umberto (Bert), James (Jim Ameche), and Louis, and four sisters, Elizabeth, Catherine, Mary and Anna.[5][6] Ameche attended Marquette University, Loras College, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where his cousin Alan Ameche played football and won the Heisman Trophy in 1954.[7]

Career

Ameche had done well in college dramatics at the University of Wisconsin, and when a lead actor for a stock company production of Excess Baggage did not turn up, a friend persuaded him to stand in for the missing actor. He enjoyed the experience and got a juvenile lead in Jerry For Short in New York, followed by a tour in vaudeville with Texas Guinan until she dropped him from the act, dismissing him as "too stiff".[8]

According to one biography, Ameche then moved to Chicago, where "he began a radio career in 1930 on Empire Builders, a program broadcast from the Merchandise Mart. By 1932, Ameche had become the leading man on two other Chicago-based programs: the dramatic anthology First Nighter and Betty and Bob, considered by many to be the forerunner of the soap-opera genre."[4]

Brought to Hollywood by 20th-Century Fox producer Darryl Zanuck, Ameche played mostly romantic leads paired with many of the top female stars of the era. In 1939, Ameche played the title character in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939). It led to the use of the word "ameche" as juvenile slang for a telephone, as noted by Mike Kilen in the Iowa City Gazette (December 8, 1993): "The film prompted a generation to call people to the telephone with the phrase: 'You're wanted on the Ameche.'"[9] Such an identity between Ameche and the telephone was forged, that in the 1940 film Go West, Groucho Marx proclaims, "Telephone? This is 1870, Don Ameche hasn't invented the telephone yet."

Ameche was Alice Faye's leading man in Hollywood Cavalcade (1939), then played another real-life figure, Stephen Foster, in Swanee River (1939). He did a third biopic, Lillian Russell (1940) with Faye, and was top billed in a war film, Four Sons (1940), and a musical, Down Argentine Way (1940), which helped make stars of Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda. In 1940, he was voted the 21st-most-popular star in Hollywood.[10]

Ameche did Happy Land (1943), Wing and a Prayer (1944), and Greenwich Village (1944). In 1944, he reportedly earned $247,677 for 1943, making him the second highest earner at 20th Century Fox after Spyros Skouras.[11]

Following his appearances as announcer and sketch participant on The Chase and Sanborn Hour, Ameche achieved memorable success during the late 1940s playing opposite Frances Langford in The Bickersons, the Philip Rapp radio comedy series about a combative married couple. It began on NBC in 1946, moving to CBS the following year. He also had his own program, The Old Gold Don Ameche Show, on NBC Red in the early 1940s.[12]

In 1950 Ameche became the star of Holiday Hotel, on ABC-TV.[13]

He earned good reviews for the David Mamet and Shel Silverstein-penned Things Change (1988); The New York Times said that he showed "the kind of great comic aplomb that wins actors awards for other than sentimental reasons."[14]

Personal life

From 1946 to 1949, Ameche, with other Los Angeles entertainment figures including Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, was a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference, a rival to the National Football League.[15] He was instrumental in forming and leading the ownership group the year before play began[16] and initially served as team president.[17]

Ameche was married to Honore Prendergast from 1932 until her death in 1986.[18] They had six children.[18][19] One, Ron Ameche, owned a restaurant, "Ameche's Pumpernickel" in Coralville, Iowa. He had two daughters, Connie and Bonnie. Ameche's younger brother, Jim Ameche, also a well-known actor, died in 1983 at the age of 67.[20]

Ameche was Roman Catholic.[21] A Republican, he supported the campaign of Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election[22] and Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.[23]

Death

On December 6, 1993, Ameche died at his son Don, Jr.'s house in Scottsdale, Arizona, of prostate cancer[24] at age 85.[25][26] He was cremated and his ashes are buried at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery in Asbury, Iowa.[27]

Filmography

Film / TV

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1935	Clive of India	Prisoner in the Black Hole	Uncredited
1935	Dante's Inferno	Man in Stoke-Hold	Uncredited
1936	Sins of Man	Karl Freyman / Mario Signarelli
1936	Ramona	Alessandro
1936	Ladies in Love	Dr. Rudi Imre
1936	One in a Million	Bob Harris
1937	Love Is News	Martin J. Canavan
1937	Fifty Roads to Town	Peter Nostrand
1937	You Can't Have Everything	George Macrae
1937	Love Under Fire	Tracy Egan
1938	In Old Chicago	Jack O'Leary
1938	Happy Landing	Jimmy Hall
1938	Alexander's Ragtime Band	Charlie Dwyer
1938	Josette	David Brassard Jr.
1938	Gateway	Dick Court
1939	The Three Musketeers	D'Artagnan
1939	Midnight	Tibor Czerny
1939	The Story of Alexander Graham Bell	Alexander Graham Bell
1939	Hollywood Cavalcade	Michael Linnett 'Mike' Connors
1939	Swanee River	Stephen Foster
1940	Lillian Russell	Edward Solomon
1940	Four Sons	Chris Bern
1940	Down Argentine Way	Ricardo Quintana
1941	That Night in Rio	Impersonator Larry Martin / Baron Manuel Duarte
1941	Moon Over Miami	Phil O'Neil (Credits) / Phil 'Mac' McNeil (in Film)
1941	Kiss the Boys Goodbye	Lloyd Lloyd
1941	The Feminine Touch	Prof. John Hathaway
1941	Confirm or Deny	'Mitch' Mitchell
1942	The Magnificent Dope	Dwight Dawson
1942	Girl Trouble	Pedro Sullivan
1943	Something to Shout About	Ken Douglas
1943	Heaven Can Wait	Henry Van Cleve
1943	Happy Land	Lew Marsh
1944	Wing and a Prayer	Flight Cmdr. Bingo Harper
1944	Greenwich Village	Kenneth Harvey
1945	It's in the Bag!	as himself	(cameo appearance)
1945	Guest Wife	Joseph Jefferson 'Joe' Parker
1946	So Goes My Love	Hiram Stephen Maxim
1947	That's My Man	Joe Grange
1948	Sleep, My Love	Richard W. Courtland
1949	Slightly French	John Gayle
1954	Phantom Caravan	Lawrence Evans
1961	A Fever in the Blood	Senator Alex S. Simon
1966	Rings Around the World	Himself
1966	Picture Mommy Dead	Edward Shelley
1970	The Boatniks	Commander Taylor
1970	Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came	Col. Flanders
1971	Columbo	Frank Simpson	Episode: "Suitable for Framing"
1983	Trading Places	Mortimer Duke
1985	Cocoon	Art Selwyn	Won Oscar for Best Supporting Actor
1986	A Masterpiece of Murder	Frank Aherne	TV movie
1987	Pals	Art Riddle / Arthur James Van Pelt	TV movie
1987	Harry and the Hendersons	Dr. Wallace Wrightwood
1988	Coming to America	Mortimer Duke	Cameo[28][29][30]
1988	Things Change	Gino
1988	Cocoon: The Return	Art Selwyn
1990	Oddball Hall	G. Paul Siebriese
1990	The Golden Girls	Brother Martin	Episode: "Once in St. Olaf"
1991	Oscar	Father Clemente
1992	Folks!	Harry Aldrich
1992	Sunstroke	Jake
1993	Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey	Shadow	Voice
1994	Corrina, Corrina	Grandpa Harry	Posthumous release

Short subjects

• Screen Snapshots: Stars at the Tropical Ice Gardens (1939)
• Weekend in Hollywood (1947)
• Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Night at 21 Club (1952)

Stage work

• Hazel Flagg (1954)
• Silk Stockings (1955)
• Holiday for Lovers (1957)
• Goldilocks (1958)
• 13 Daughters (1961)
• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1966)
• Henry, Sweet Henry (1967)
• The Moon Is Blue (1972)
• No, No, Nanette (1972)
• Never Get Smart with an Angel (1977)
• Mame (1978)
• Life with Father (1979)
• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1981)
• Our Town (1989) (replacement for Spalding Gray)

Radio appearances

Year	Program	Episode/source
1940	Lux Radio Theatre	Manhattan Melodrama[31]
1947	Family Theater	"Flight from Home"[32]

See also

•  Biography portal

References

Bibliography

• Ohmart, Ben (2007). Don Ameche: The Kenosha Comeback Kid. Albany: BearManor Media. ISBN 978-1-59393-045-5. OCLC 759626448.

External links

• Don Ameche at IMDb
• Don Ameche at the Internet Broadway Database
• Don Ameche at the TCM Movie Database
• Don Ameche at AllMovie
• Don Ameche at Find a Grave

На других языках

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- [en] Don Ameche

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[es] Don Ameche

Dominic Felix Ameche (/əˈmiːtʃiː/) (Kenosha, Wisconsin; 31 de mayo de 1908 - Scottsdale, Arizona; 6 de diciembre de 1993), más conocido como Don Ameche, fue un actor y director de cine estadounidense ganador del Premio Óscar.

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[ru] Амичи, Дон

Дон Амичи (англ. Don Ameche, 31 мая 1908 — 6 декабря 1993) — американский актёр, лауреат премии «Оскар».

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