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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.
as Self (archiveFootage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Grandpa Harry
as Shadow (voice)
as Jake
as Harry Aldrich
as John 'Papa' McGuire Sr.
as Father Clemente
as G. Paul Siebriese
as Gino
as Art Selwyn
as Mortimer Duke / Homeless Man #2 (uncredited)
as Dr. Wallace Wrightwood
as Art Riddle
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
as Hiram Stephen Maxim
as Joseph Jefferson 'Joe' Parker
as Don Ameche
as Kenneth Harvey
as Bingo Harper
as Lew Marsh
as Henry Van Cleve
as Ken Douglas
as Pedro Sullivan
as Dwight Dawson
as 'Mitch' Mitchell
as John Hathaway
as Lloyd Lloyd
as Phil O'Neil (Credits) / Phil 'Mac' McNeil
as Larry Martin / Baron Manuel Duarte
as Ricardo Quintana
as Chris Bern
as Edward Solomon
as Stephen Foster
as Mike Connors
as Alexander Graham Bell (archive footage)
as Don Ameche
as Alexander Graham Bell
as Tibor Czerny
as D'Artagnan
as Dick Court
as David Brassard Jr.
as Charlie Dwyer
as Jack O'Leary
as Jimmy Hall
as Tracy Egan
as George Macrae
as Peter Nostrand
as Martin J. Canavan
as Bob Harris
as Dr. Rudi Imre
as Alessandro
as Karl Freyman / Mario Signarelli
