Don Ameche
Birthday: 1908-05-31 | Place of Birth: Kenosha, Wisconsin, USADon Ameche (born Dominic Felix Amici; May 31, 1908 – December 6, 1993) was an American actor and radio entertainer whose career spanned over six decades. Known for his charming, dapper presence and signature mustache, Ameche became one of 20th Century Fox's premier leading men throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to an Italian immigrant father and a mother of European descent, he adapted his family's surname from "Amici" to "Ameche" to preserve its original Italian pronunciation in the United States. He began his entertainment career in vaudeville and radio, where he achieved nationwide fame as the host of popular broadcasts like The Chase and Sanborn Hour. He transitioned to film in 1935, starring in a string of successful musical comedies and dramas, most notably Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939), and Ernst Lubitsch’s classic comedy Heaven Can Wait (1943). As film roles slowed in the 1950s, Ameche worked extensively in live theatre and television. His screen career experienced a celebrated renaissance in the 1980s, beginning with his role as the scheming commodities broker Mortimer Duke in Trading Places (1983). Two years later, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a revitalized retiree in Ron Howard’s Cocoon (1985). In his final years, Ameche introduced himself to a new generation of filmgoers providing the warm, patriarchal voice of Shadow the Golden Retriever in Disney's Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993), before completing his final screen appearance in Corrina, Corrina (1994). Ameche was married to Honore Prendergast from 1932 until her death in 1986; the couple had six children. Ameche died of prostate cancer in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1993 at the age of 85.
Known For
Acting
Role
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archiveFootage)
as Shadow (voice)
as Harry Aldrich
as Jake
as G. Paul Siebriese
as John 'Papa' McGuire Sr.
as Art Selwyn
as Gino
as Art Riddle
as Dr. Wallace Wrightwood
as Frank Aherne
as Arthur Selwyn
as Mortimer Duke
as Self
as Armand Beller
as Otis Ramsey
as Col. Flanders
as Commander Taylor
as Justin Travers
as Host/Ringmaster
as Edward Shelley
as Senator Alex S. Simon
as John Gayle
as Richard W. Courtland
as Joe Grange
