Don Ameche
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Don 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
Credits
Trading Places (1983)
as Mortimer Duke
Coming to America (1988)
as Mortimer Duke / Homeless Man #2 (uncredited)
Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)
as Shadow (voice)
Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
as Dr. Wallace Wrightwood
Cocoon (1985)
as Arthur Selwyn
Cocoon: The Return (1988)
as Art Selwyn
Oscar (1991)
as Father Clemente
Corrina, Corrina (1994)
as Grandpa Harry
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
as Henry Van Cleve
Folks! (1992)
as Harry Aldrich
Night of 100 Stars (1982)
as Self
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939)
as Alexander Graham Bell
That Night in Rio (1941)
as Larry Martin / Baron Manuel Duarte
Guest Wife (1945)
as Joseph Jefferson 'Joe' Parker
Things Change (1988)
as Gino
Greenwich Village (1944)
as Kenneth Harvey
Happy Landing (1938)
as Jimmy Hall
In Old Chicago (1938)
as Jack O'Leary
The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender (1997)
as Self (archive footage)
It's in the Bag! (1945)
as Don Ameche
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? (1970)
as Col. Flanders
Sleep, My Love (1948)
as Richard W. Courtland
You Can't Have Everything (1937)
as George Macrae
A Masterpiece of Murder (1986)
as Frank Aherne
The Boatniks (1970)
as Commander Taylor
A Fever in the Blood (1961)
as Senator Alex S. Simon
That's My Man (1947)
as Joe Grange
Girl Trouble (1942)
as Pedro Sullivan
Midnight (1939)
as Tibor Czerny
Hidden Hollywood: Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Film Vaults (1997)
as Self (archiveFootage)
Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1941)
as Lloyd Lloyd
Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1940s: Stars, Stripes and Singing (2009)
as (archive footage)
Sunstroke (1992)
as Jake
Love Is News (1937)
as Martin J. Canavan
Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938)
as Charlie Dwyer
Wing and a Prayer (1944)
as Bingo Harper
Picture Mommy Dead (1966)
as Edward Shelley
Something to Shout About (1943)
as Ken Douglas
Down Argentine Way (1940)
as Ricardo Quintana
One in a Million (1937)
as Bob Harris
Ladies in Love (1936)
as Dr. Rudi Imre
Swanee River (1939)
as Stephen Foster
Moon Over Miami (1941)
as Phil O'Neil (Credits) / Phil 'Mac' McNeil
So Goes My Love (1946)
as Hiram Stephen Maxim
Gidget Gets Married (1972)
as Otis Ramsey
Gateway (1938)
as Dick Court
Fifty Roads to Town (1937)
as Peter Nostrand
Lillian Russell (1940)
as Edward Solomon
Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 8 (1939)
as Don Ameche
Land of Liberty (1939)
as Alexander Graham Bell (archive footage)
Shadow Over Elveron (1968)
as Justin Travers
The Three Musketeers (1939)
as D'Artagnan
Hollywood Cavalcade (1939)
as Mike Connors
Slightly French (1949)
as John Gayle
Confirm or Deny (1941)
as 'Mitch' Mitchell
The Feminine Touch (1941)
as John Hathaway
Happy Land (1943)
as Lew Marsh
Rings Around the World (1967)
as Host/Ringmaster
Love Under Fire (1937)
as Tracy Egan
Josette (1938)
as David Brassard Jr.
The Chinese Typewriter (1979)
as Armand Beller
The Magnificent Dope (1942)
as Dwight Dawson
Our Shining Moment (1991)
as John 'Papa' McGuire Sr.
Pals (1987)
as Art Riddle
Ramona (1936)
as Alessandro
Sins of Man (1936)
as Karl Freyman / Mario Signarelli
Four Sons (1940)
as Chris Bern
Oddball Hall (1990)
as G. Paul Siebriese