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Born May 31, 1908 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Dominic Felix Amichi, known professionally as Don Ameche, the actor was one of eight children and after his 1932 marriage, became the father of six.

Having played in college shows, stock, and vaudeville, Ameche became a major radio star in the early 1930s, which led to the offer of a movie contract from 20th Century Fox in 1935. There the versatile actor became a popular star of comedies, dramas, and musicals.

Ameche made his film debut in an uncredited role as a prisoner in a black hole in 1935โ€™s Clive of India and after two more uncreditable roles, emerged as a star opposite Loretta Young in 1936โ€™s Ramona. By 1938, he was a major star, co-starring with Alice Faye and Tyrone Power in both In Old Chicago and Alexanderโ€™s Ragtime Band. 1939 was an even better year for him. That was the year he starred opposite Claudette Colbert in the classic screwball comedy, Midnight, and played both Alexander Graham Bell in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell with Loretta Young and Henry Fonda in support, and Stephen Foster in Swanee River with Andrea Leeds and Al Jolson in support.

The 1940s began on a high note for Ameche. In 1940 he starred opposite Alice Faye once again in Lillian Russell, starred in Archie Mayoโ€™s remake of John Fordโ€™s silent classic, Four Sons and went Down Argentine Way with Betty Grable and Carmen Miranda. Grable was a last-minute substitute for a pregnant Alice Faye. In 1941, he starred opposite both Faye in That Night in Rio and Grable in Moon Over Miami as well as both Rosalind Russell and Kay Francis in The Feminine Touch.

Ernst Lubitschโ€™s 1943 film, Heaven Can Wait provided Ameche with the best notices of his career. He followed that with dramatic roles in 1943โ€™s Happy Land and 1944โ€™s Wing and a Prayer and then took a back seat to Carmen Miranda in 1944โ€™s musical-comedy, Greenwich Village, regaining lead status opposite Claudette Colbert in 1945โ€™s comedic Guest Wife which added a question mark to its title to placate the censors. From 1946-1951, he starred in the popular radio series The Bickersons opposite Frances Langford, making only four films in that period and one more in 1954. Often in guest-star appearances on TV in the 1950s and 1960s, he also starred in three Broadway musicals from 1955-1967, Silk Stockings, Goldilocks and Henry, Sweet Henry, taking time out to make just two films, 1961โ€™s A Fever in the Blood in which he played a supporting role and 1966โ€™s Picture Mommy Dead in which he was once again the star. He continued to appear regularly on TV in the 1970s.

Ameche re-emerged as a movie star with in his supporting role in 1983โ€™s Trading Places and two years later won an Oscar for his supporting turn in Cocoon.
In constant demand after his late career Oscar, Ameche made another twelve films before his death in 1993 at 85.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

ALEXANDERโ€™S RAGTIME BAND (1938), directed by Henry King

King directed Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Ameche in two big 1938 hits. Earlier in the year Power, Ameche and Tom Brown were the battling Oโ€™Leary brothers raised by their widowed mother, Oscar winner Alice Brady, whose cow started the famous Chicago fire. Faye was Powerโ€™s lover. This one, showcasing the Irving Berlin catalogue, was an even bigger success in which Power disappoints his family by abandoning his classical music career to lead a ragtime band with Faye as his sweetheart who marries his friend Ameche while he is off fighting in the Great War. Ethel Merman co-stars in this smashing entertainment.

THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (1939), directed by Irving Cummings

A huge hit, so huge in fact that the name Ameche became synonymous with the telephone which an entire generation nicknamed โ€œthe Amecheโ€ as in โ€œyouโ€™re wanted on the Ameche.โ€ In it, Ameche is a teacher of the deaf, as well as an inventor, who falls in love with pupil Loretta Young who urges him to finish his invention before they marry. Her parents are played by Charles Coburn and Spring Byington and her three sisters are played by Youngโ€™s siblings, Sally Blane, Polly Ann Young and Georgianna Young (later Mrs. Ricardo Montalban) in her only film. Henry Fonda co-stars as Amecheโ€™s assistant.

HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943), directed by Ernst Lubitsch

Sophisticated comedy at its most elegant with the Lubitsch touch generously applied, the film opens with Laird Cregar as Satan banishing Florence Bates to Hades and then interviewing the recently deceased Ameche who is convinced he belongs there as well. The remainder of the film is told in flashback as we get to make up our own minds about whether he does. Gene Tierney is his lovely wife, Charles Coburn his rascally grandfather, Spring Byington and Louis Calhern his dullish parents, Eugene Pallette his boorish father-in-law, Marjorie Main his long-suffering mother-in-law and Tod Andrews his son. Signe Hasso is the ooh-la-la French maid.

THATโ€™S MY MAN (1947), directed by Frank Borzage

This is the forgotten little black-and-white Borzage film that he made after the disastrous big budget color flops, Magnificent Doll and Iโ€™ve Always Loved You for Republic before getting his reputation back with the following yearโ€™s Moonrise, also for Republic. This unpretentious film features Ameche in one of his best roles as an inveterate gambler who amasses and loses a fortune on and off the racetrack. He and Catherine McLeod meet cute in a cab they share with Amecheโ€™s colt, Gallant Man. Roscoe Karns is the cab driver who becomes their life-long friend.

COCOON (1985), directed by Ron Howard

A huge box-office success, as much on the budding reputation of its director, as it was on its sterling cast, Ameche is one of eight senior citizens who are energized while swimming in a pool containing alien cocoons. The others, delightful curmudgeons all, are Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Jack Gilford, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon and Helen Ware. Ameche received the bulk of the filmโ€™s notices largely for a break dance that was obviously performed by a stunt double, but one in which he emerged from seemingly having had the time of his life. It got him an Oscar on his only nomination!

DON AMECHE AND OSCAR

  • Cocoon (1985) โ€“ Oscar – Best Supporting Actor

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