Don Ameche
Ameche on the set of International Showtime in 1964
Born	Dominic Felix Amici (1908-05-31)May 31, 1908 Kenosha, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	December 6, 1993(1993-12-06) (aged 85) Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.
Resting place	Resurrection Cemetery Asbury, Iowa, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin
Occupations	Actor comedian vaudevillian
Years active	1928–1993
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Honore Prendergast ​ ​ (m. 1932; died 1986)​
Children	6
Relatives	Jim Ameche (brother) Alan Ameche (cousin)

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, stocks, and vaudevilles, 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.

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). He 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, the others being: brothers Umberto (Bert), James (Jim Ameche), and Louis, and 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 and Carmen Miranda in That Night in Rio (1941)

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]

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, the latter 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, he played a lead character in comedy film Midnight (1939). He also played the title character in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939) which 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). He also starred in two popular musicals, Down Argentine Way (1940), which helped make stars of Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda, and Moon Over Miami (1941), also with Grable. In 1940, he was voted the 21st-most-popular star in Hollywood.^[10]

Ameche did Heaven Can Wait (1943), 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]

Ameche in 1946

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]

Ameche appeared regularly in films until 1970, as he shifted to television and the stage. He returned to films after thirteen years with Trading Places (1983), where he was cast when director John Landis had someone in mind from the 1930s and 1940s who had not played many villainous roles and came upon Ameche (after Ray Milland was passed over due to not being able to pass the insurance physical). After having to track him down in Santa Monica, California due to not being able to reach him through the Screen Actors Guild, who said that his royalty payments were going to his son in Arizona, Ameche took on the role. This started a comeback where Ameche would appear more regularly in films,^[14] including Cocoon (1985, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Harry and the Hendersons (1987), Coming to America (1988), and Cocoon: The Return (1988).

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."^[15] His later credits included an episode of The Golden Girls (1990), the films Oscar (1991), Folks! (1992), and the voice of Shadow in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993). His final appearance was in the film Corrina, Corrina (1994), which was released posthumously.

Personal life

From 1946 to 1949, together with other Los Angeles entertainment figures including Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, Ameche owned the Los Angeles Dons of the All-America Football Conference, a rival to the National Football League.^[16] He was instrumental in forming and leading the ownership group the year before play began^[17] and initially served as team president.^[18]

Ameche was married to Honore Prendergast from 1932 until her death in 1986.^[19] They had six children.^[19][20] One of their sons, Ron Ameche, owned a restaurant, "Ameche's Pumpernickel" in Coralville, Iowa. They 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.^[21]

Ameche was Roman Catholic^[22] and a Republican who supported the campaign of Thomas Dewey in the 1944 United States presidential election^[23] and Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.^[24]

Death

On December 6, 1993, Ameche died at his son Don Jr.'s house in Scottsdale, Arizona, of prostate cancer^[25] at age 85.^[26][27] He was cremated and his ashes are buried at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery in Asbury, Iowa.^[28]

Filmography

Ameche in the 1938 film Alexander's Ragtime Band

Ameche in Down Argentine Way (1940)

Short subjects

Jack Haley (left), Alice Faye (center), Don Ameche and Tyrone Power (right) in a trailer for Alexander's Ragtime Band.

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

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Don Ameche.

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