Don Ameche Biography

Don Ameche (May 31, 1908 " December 6, 1993) was an American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.

After touring in vaudeville, he featured in many biographical films, including The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939). He continued to appear on Broadway, as well as on radio and TV, where he was host and commentator for International Showtime, covering circus and ice-shows all over Europe. Ameche remained married to his wife Honore for fifty-four years, and they had six children.

Personal life

Ameche was born Dominic Felix Amici in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His father, Felice Amici, was a bartender from Italy from Montemonaco, Ascoli Piceno, Marche. His mother, Barbara Etta Hertle, was of Scottish, Irish, and German ancestry. He had three brothers, Umberto (Bert), James (Jim Ameche), and Louis, and three sisters. Ameche attended Marquette University, Loras College, and the University of Wisconsin, where his cousin Alan Ameche played football and won the Heisman Trophy in 1954. Ameche had intended to study law, but he found theatricals more interesting and decided on a stage career.

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. He was instrumental in forming and leading the ownership group the year before play began and initially served as team president.

Ameche was married to Honore Prendergast from 1932 until her death in 1986. They had six children. One, Ron Ameche, owned a restaurant, "Ameche's Pumpernickel" in Coralville, Iowa. He had two daughters Connie & Bonnie. Ameche's younger brother, Jim Ameche, was also a well known actor. His brother Bert was an architect who worked for the U.S. Navy in Port Hueneme, California and then the US Postal Service in Los Angeles, California.

Vaudeville and movies

Ameche had done well in college dramatics 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 Guinan dropped him from the act, dismissing him as "too stiff." He made his film debut in 1935 and by the late 1930s, had established himself as a major actor in Hollywood. He appeared in such films as Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), as the title character in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939). It led to the use of the word, "ameche," as slang for telephone in common catchphrases, 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.'" In the 1941 film "Ball of Fire" Barbara Stanwyck's character discusses this slang usage "Do you know what this means: I'll get you on the Ameche." Another highlight was co-starring with Gene Tierney in Ernst Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait in 1943, a film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He later claimed that this was his favourite film of his own. In 1940, he was voted the 21st most popular star in Hollywood.

Ameche played so many roles based on real people that on one of his radio broadcasts Fred Allen joked that "Pretty soon, Don Ameche will be playing Don Ameche." Soon afterwards, in It's in the Bag! (1945), which starred Allen, Ameche indeed played himself in a bit part.

Ameche and fellow veteran actor Ralph Bellamy were eventually cast in John Landis' Trading Places in 1983, playing rich brothers intent on ruining an innocent man for the sake of a one-dollar bet. 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 ahead of time to apologize when he was called to start cursing in the film. The film's success and their comedic performances brought them both back into the Hollywood limelight. 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 in the sequel, Cocoon: The Return. He earned good reviews for the David Mamet / Shel Silverstein penned Things Change; the New York Times said that he showed "...the kind of great comic aplomb that wins actors awards for other than sentimental reasons." In 1990, Ameche appeared in an episode of The Golden Girls as Rose Nylund's father. His last films were Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) and Corrina, Corrina (1994), completed only days before his death.

Radio and television

Ameche was a major radio entertainer, heard on such shows as Empire Builders, The First Nighter Program, Family Theater and the Betty and Bob soap opera. Following his appearances as announcer and sketch participant on The Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy Show, he 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 enjoyed a substantial Broadway career, with roles in Silk Stockings, Goldilocks, Holiday for Lovers, Henry, Sweet Henry and Our Town.

Ameche's best-known television role came between 1961 and 1965, when he traveled throughout Europe with a television videotape unit and camera crew to cover a different European resident circus or ice show that was taped for presentation on a weekly series titled International Showtime on NBC television. Ameche was present at each circus or ice show taped for the series, and was seen as host and commentator. His "anchor position" was in the grandstands at the particular show being taped. Sometimes, when one of the star acts of a particular show spoke English, Ameche would interview him or her and the interview would appear during the program.

He also guest featured in many television series, including NBC's The Polly Bergen Show and ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom and Jack Palance's circus drama, The Greatest Show on Earth, which was broadcast during the 1963-1964 season. In the latter 1960s and early 1970s, Ameche directed the NBC television sitcom Julia, featuring the African American actress Diahann Carroll. He was also a frequent panelist on the 1950s version of To Tell The Truth.

After the release of two 1970 comedies, The Boatniks and Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came?, Ameche was absent from theatrical movies for the next 13 years. His only appearance in cinema during that time was in F For Fake, Orson Welles' documentary on hoaxes, when 20th Century-Fox mistakenly sent Welles newsreel footage of Ameche misidentified as footage of Howard Hughes. Ameche also appeared in an early episode of Columbo entitled "Suitable For Framing" (1971).

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.

Death

Ameche died on December 6, 1993, at his son Don Jr's house in Scottsdale, Arizona of prostate cancer, at the age of 85. He was cremated and his ashes are buried at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery, also known as St. Philomena's Cemetery, in Asbury, Iowa.

Filmography

Features

Year	Title	Role
1935	Clive of India	Prisoner in the Black Hole (uncredited) (unconfirmed)
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	In Old Chicago	Jack O'Leary
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	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!	Don, A Singing Waiter (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
1951	A Fever in the Blood	Senator Alex S. Simon
1954	Phantom Caravan	Lawrence Evans
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: Suitable for Framing	Frank Simpson
1983	Trading Places	Mortimer Duke
1985	Cocoon	Art Selwyn
1987	Harry and the Hendersons	Dr. Wallace Wrightwood
1988	Coming to America	Mortimer Duke
1988	Things Change	Gino
1988	Cocoon: The Return	Art Selwyn
1990	Oddball Hall	G. Paul Siebriese
1991	Oscar	Father Clemente
1992	Folks!	Harry Aldrich
1993	Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey	Shadow (voice)
1994	Corrina, Corrina	Grandpa Harry

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)
• How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1981)
• Our Town (1989) (replacement for Spalding Gray)