Don Ameche

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Dominic Felix Ameche (May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an Academy Award-winning American actor and director.

Ameche was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin to Felix Ameche, an immigrant from Italy whose original surname was "Amici", and Barbara, who was of Irish and German descent.[1]

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Ameche began his career in vaudeville with Texas Guinan until Guinan dropped him from the act, dismissing him as "too stiff".[2] He made his film debut in 1935 and, by the late thirties, had established himself as a leading actor in Hollywood. He appeared successfully in such films as Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), as the title character in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939), and Heaven Can Wait (1943) co-starring Gene Tierney.

He was so associated by the public with his role as Bell that for a time, "Ameche" was slang for telephone. By the end of the decade, his films had lost their appeal, and he turned to radio, as the announcer and 'sketch' participant for the show of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. He then achieved great success during the late 1940's and early 1950's playing opposite Frances Langford in The Bickersons.

Ameche enjoyed a substantial Broadway career with roles in Silk Stockings, Goldilocks, Holiday for Lovers, Henry, Sweet Henry, and Our Town.

Between 1961 and 1965, Ameche sat in the grandstand of a different European resident circus each week to serve as host/commentator on International Showtime. The program aired on NBC television.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ameche directed the NBC television drama series Julia, starring Diahann Carroll. For three decades, he was virtually absent from films, until he was cast alongside fellow veteran actor Ralph Bellamy in the film Trading Places in 1983. The actors played rich brothers intent on ruining an innocent man for the sake of a one-dollar bet. The film's great success, and their acclaimed comedic performances, brought them both back into the limelight. In an interview some years later on Larry King Live, co-star Jamie Lee Curtis said that Ameche, a proper old-school actor, went to everyone on the set to apologize ahead of time when he had to say the "f-word" in the film.

Ameche's next role, in Cocoon (1985), won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He continued working for the rest of his life (including a role in the sequel, Cocoon: The Return). His last films were Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993), and Corrina, Corrina (1994), and his final scenes for the film Corrina, Corrina (1994) were completed only days before his death in Scottsdale, Arizona from prostate cancer.

For his contribution to radio, Ameche received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6313 Hollywood Boulevard and a second star at 6101 Hollywood Boulevard for his television work.

He was married to Honore Prendergast from 1932 until her death in 1986, with whom he had six children. One of them, Ron Ameche, owned the restaurant "Ameche's Pumpernickel" in Coralville, Iowa. Ameche's late younger brother Jim Ameche was also an actor.

Ameche died on December 6, 1993. He was buried at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery, also known as St. Philomena Cemetery, in Asbury, Iowa.

  1. ^ http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800039309/bio
  2. ^ Palmer, R. Barton. Don Ameche in Thomas, Nicholas ed. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Vol. 3: Actors and Actresses. Detroit: St. James Press, 1992. p. 9.

Preceded by
Haing S. Ngor
for The Killing Fields		 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1985
for Cocoon		 Succeeded by
Michael Caine
for Hannah and Her Sisters
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/o/n/Don_Ameche_c40e.html"
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