Don Ameche

Personal

Vocation

Lifestyle

Notable

Traits

Family

American actor in vaudeville and radio with some 50 films from 1936. He retired in 1950 comfortably on his investments. His films included "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell," 1939. Ameche remarked that acting was never a consuming interest. He was an avid reader and enjoyed the social exchange of dining with friends, usually people outside of show business. The son of an immigrant Italian coal miner who changed the spelling of the family name, Ameche got into college theater while studying law. By 1929 he moved to New York for vaudeville and, noted for his resonant voice, radio and stage roles. Moving into movies seven years later, he seemed destined for casting as the honorable, slightly stuffy gentleman who lost the girl to a livelier rake. After his success in the Bell biography, he usually wound up winning the girl, and was exposed to a greater variety of roles, including that of elegant comedy. He rose to the top of film ranks during the years 1936-45. During the '40s he matured into a gracious leading man. He married in 1932; both Catholic, they had four sons and two adopted daughters. No scandal or indiscretion every touched him, however he and his wife separated in 1967. Deeply proud of his kids, he noted that all six turned out well and in his later years, one or more called him every day. In 1950 he moved his family to New York, a decision that may have cost him his film career. He did television, Broadway and dinner theater but the studios virtually ignored him until 1983, he made a comeback to stardom at age 75 in "Trading Places," followed two years later by "Cocoon," for which he won the best-supporting actor Oscar on 25 March 1986. He demonstrated old-school charm and gentlemanly grace combined with acerbic wit and physical fitness and energy. Ameche died of prostate cancer on 6 December 1993 at age 85 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Link to Wikipedia biography