Danny Thomas
Encyclopedia
Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...

 and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy (also known as The Danny Thomas Show). He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a nonprofit medical corporation chartered as a 501 tax-exempt organization under IRS regulations.In...

. He was the father of Marlo Thomas
Marlo Thomas
Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...

, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas.

Early life

Thomas was born in Deerfield, Michigan
Deerfield, Michigan
Deerfield is a village in Lenawee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,005 at the 2000 census. The village is located within Deerfield Township. DeerfieldDeerfield was the birthplace of actor and philanthropist Danny Thomas.-Geography:...

, to Charles Yakhoob Kairouz and his wife Margaret Christen in 1914 (according to imdb). His parents were Maronite Catholic
Maronite Church
The Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See of Rome . It traces its heritage back to the community founded by Maron, a 4th-century Syriac monk venerated as a saint. The first Maronite Patriarch, John Maron, was elected in the late 7th...

 immigrants from Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

. Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...

, attending St. Francis de Sales Church (Roman Catholic), Woodward High School
Woodward High School (Toledo, Ohio)
Calvin M. Woodward High School is a public high school located in the north side of Toledo, Ohio, that was built in 1928. It was named after an early advocate for vocational education...

 and finally The University of Toledo, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon
Tau Kappa Epsilon is a college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899 at Illinois Wesleyan University with chapters in the United States, and Canada, and affiliation with a German fraternity system known as the Corps of the Weinheimer Senioren Convent...

 fraternity. Thomas was confirmed
Confirmation (Catholic Church)
Confirmation is one of the seven sacraments through which Catholics pass in the process of their religious upbringing. According to Catholic doctrine, in this sacrament they receive the Holy Spirit and become adult members of the Catholic Church....

 in the Catholic Church in Toledo by Samuel Stritch who was bishop of Toledo at the time. Stritch, a native of Tennessee, would be Thomas's spiritual advisor throughout his life and subsequently urge him to locate the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis. He married Rose Marie Cassaniti in 1936, a week after his 24th birthday. Thomas first performed under his Anglicized
Anglicisation
Anglicisation, or anglicization , is the process of converting verbal or written elements of any other language into a form that is more comprehensible to an English speaker, or, more generally, of altering something such that it becomes English in form or character.The term most often refers to...

 birth name, "Amos Jacobs Kairouz", before choosing the stage name, "Danny Thomas", which were the names of two of his brothers.

In 1932, Thomas began performing on radio in Detroit at WMBC
WDTK
WDTK, known on the air as NewsTalk 1400, is a conservative-oriented news/talk radio station broadcasting at 1400 kHz on the AM dial in Detroit, Michigan, United States...

 on The Happy Hour Club. After he moved to Chicago in 1940, he went back to performing in night clubs because the salary was better than that of his radio job. Thomas did not want his friends and family to know that finances forced him back into working in clubs, so he decided to invent a name he would use when he worked in them. The result was the name that he would become famous with: Danny Thomas.


Career

Thomas first reached large audiences on network radio in the 1940s, most notably playing shifty brother-in-law Amos in The Bickersons
The Bickersons
The Bickersons was a radio comedy sketch series that began in 1946 on NBC, moving the following year to CBS where it continued until 1951...

, which began as sketches on the half-hour music-comedy show Drene Time
Drene Time
Drene Time was a 30-minute radio variety show starring Don Ameche and singer-actress Frances Langford as co-hosts, airing on NBC's Sunday night schedule in 1946-47....

, co-hosted by Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...

 and Frances Langford
Frances Langford
Julia Frances Langford was an American singer and entertainer who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and also made film appearances over two decades.-Birth:...

. Thomas also portrayed himself as a slightly scatterbrained Lothario on this show. His other network radio work included a stint as "Jerry Dingle" the postman on Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...

's The Baby Snooks Show
The Baby Snooks Show
The Baby Snooks Show was an American radio program starring comedienne and Ziegfeld Follies alumna Fanny Brice as a mischievous young girl who was 40 years younger than the actress who played her when she first went on the air. The series began on CBS September 17, 1944, airing on Sunday evenings...

, and periodic appearances on the legendary NBC variety program, The Big Show
The Big Show (NBC Radio)
The Big Show, an American radio variety program featuring 90 minutes of top-name comic, stage, screen and music talent, was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era alive and well against the rapidly-growing television tide...

, hosted by stage legend Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Bankhead
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an award-winning American actress of the stage and screen, talk-show host, and bonne vivante...

.

In films, he starred in The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer (1952 film)
The Jazz Singer is a 1952 remake of the famous 1927 talking picture, The Jazz Singer. It starred Danny Thomas, Peggy Lee, and Eduard Franz and was nominated for an Oscar in 1953. The film follows about the same storyline as the version starring Al Jolson. It was also distributed by Warner Bros...

, a 1952 remake of the 1927 original
The Jazz Singer (1927 film)
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system,...

 and played songwriter Gus Kahn
Gus Kahn
Gustav Gerson Kahn was a musician, songwriter and lyricist.-Biography:Kahn was born in Koblenz, Germany in 1886. The family emigrated from there to the United States and moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1890...

 opposite Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...

 in the 1951
1951 in film
The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...

 film biography I'll See You in My Dreams.

On January 1, 1959, Thomas appeared with his Make Room for Daddy child stars, Angela Cartwright
Angela Cartwright
Angela Margaret Cartwright is an English-born American actress primarily known for her roles in movies and television...

 and Rusty Hamer
Rusty Hamer
Rusty Hamer was an American television actor best known for his role as Rusty Williams in the popular NBC/CBS situation comedy The Danny Thomas Show also known as Make Room for Daddy.-Career:...

, in an episode of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Ford Show
The Ford Show is a half-hour comedy/variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Tennessee Ernie Ford, which aired in color on NBC television on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956 to June 29, 1961....

.
During his successful 13-year run (1953–1965) on Make Room for Daddy, which was later known as The Danny Thomas Show, Thomas became a successful television producer (with Sheldon Leonard
Sheldon Leonard
Sheldon Leonard was a pioneering American film and television producer, director, writer, and actor.-Biography:...

 and Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...

 among his partners), working on many popular shows including The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....

, The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...

, and The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad
The Mod Squad is a television series that ran on ABC from September 24, 1968, until August 23, 1973. This series starred Michael Cole, Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Tige Andrews...

. Thomas also produced three series for Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan
Walter Brennan was an American actor. Brennan won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor on three separate occasions, which is currently the record for most wins.-Early life:...

: The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys
The Real McCoys is an American situation comedy co-produced by Danny Thomas' "Marterto Productions", in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's "Westgate" company...

, The Tycoon
The Tycoon (TV series)
The Tycoon is a 32-episode American situation comedy television series broadcast by ABC. It starred Walter Brennan as the fictitious businessman Walter Andrews...

and The Guns of Will Sonnett
The Guns of Will Sonnett
The Guns of Will Sonnett is a Western television series set in the 1870s which ran on the ABC television network from 1967 to 1969. The series was the first production collaboration between Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas, who would later go on to produce one of ABC's most-memorable hits, The Mod...

, all on ABC during the late 1950s and 1960s.

He often appeared in cameos on shows he produced, perhaps the most memorable being his portrayal of the tuxedoed, humourlessly droll alien Kolak, from the planet Twilo, in the classic Dick Van Dyke Show science-fiction spoof, "It May Look Like a Walnut."

In the early seventies, he reunited most of his second Daddy cast (Marjorie Lord
Marjorie Lord
Marjorie Lord is an American television and film actress. She played Kathy "Clancy" Williams opposite Danny Thomas on Make Room for Daddy and later Make Room for Granddaddy.-Early life and career:...

, Rusty Hamer
Rusty Hamer
Rusty Hamer was an American television actor best known for his role as Rusty Williams in the popular NBC/CBS situation comedy The Danny Thomas Show also known as Make Room for Daddy.-Career:...

, and Angela Cartwright
Angela Cartwright
Angela Margaret Cartwright is an English-born American actress primarily known for her roles in movies and television...

) for a short-lived update of the show, Make Room for Granddaddy. Premised around Danny and Kathy Williams caring for their grandson by daughter Terry, who was away with her husband on a long business assignment, the show barely lasted a season. After this show, he starred in a sitcom on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 called The Practice, which lasted two seasons before being cancelled.

The last series in which Thomas was a headlining star was One Big Family, which aired in syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 during the 1986–87 season. The situation comedy's premise was set around a semi-retired comedian whose grandchildren were orphaned after their parents were killed in a car accident.

A generous philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, founded in 1962, is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children's catastrophic diseases. It is located in Memphis, Tennessee. It is a nonprofit medical corporation chartered as a 501 tax-exempt organization under IRS regulations.In...

 in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....

, with help from Dr. Lemuel Diggs
Lemuel Diggs
Lemuel Whitley Diggs was a pathologist who specialized in sickle cell anemia and hematology.Diggs was born in Hampton, Virginia, but spent most of his life and did most of his work in Memphis, Tennessee...

, in 1962. The hospital has treated thousands of children for childhood cancers. In 1996, Peter Doherty, Ph.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, was the corecipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on how the immune system kills virus-infected cells. As a "starving actor" Thomas made a vow: If he found success, he would open a hospital dedicated to St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes.

Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

, along with Joe Robbie, though he sold his share soon after purchase. He was also an avid golfer. He claimed a ten golf handicap
Golf handicap
A handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's playing ability based on the tees played for a given course. It is used to calculate a net score from the number of strokes actually played, thus allowing players of different proficiency to play against each other on somewhat equal terms...

 and once competed with Sam Snead
Sam Snead
Samuel Jackson Snead was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for most of four decades. Snead won a record 82 PGA Tour events including seven majors. He failed to win a U.S...

 in a charity event. Thomas developed a close relationship with the PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

, and two PGA tournaments bore his name: the Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic
Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic
The Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour that played from December 4-7, 1969 at south Florida's Diplomat Presidential Country Club located between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Arnold Palmer won the tournament, which earned him $25,000. It was the last event of the year,...

 in south Florida in 1969 and the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic from 1970 to 1984.

Personal life

Thomas's children are also performers, the most famous being his daughter Marlo
Marlo Thomas
Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...

, who is married to Phil Donahue
Phil Donahue
Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...

. His son, Tony Thomas, is a television producer. Daughter Terre Thomas is a former actress.

He was also the son-in-law of Marie "Mary" Cassaniti (1896–1972), a drummer and percussionist. According to Marlo, her grandmother (on her mother's side) had a band called Marie's Merry Music Makers.

A devout Roman Catholic, Thomas was awarded a papal knighthood by Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...

. He was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
Order of the Holy Sepulchre
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem is a Roman Catholic order of knighthood under the protection of the pope. It traces its roots to Duke Godfrey of Bouillon, principal leader of the First Crusade...

 in recognition of his services to both the church and the community. President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

 presented Thomas with a Congressional Gold Medal honoring him for his work with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. According to tradition, he was the first non-Jewish member of the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.

Thomas's co-star interview

Angela Cartwright
Angela Cartwright
Angela Margaret Cartwright is an English-born American actress primarily known for her roles in movies and television...

 played the role of Danny Williams's stepdaughter, Linda Williams, between 1957 to 1964, for 170 episodes. The on-and off-screen chemistry of Thomas and Cartwright was a instant success story of 1960s television. Angela said when asked if she thought he was playing second-fiddle to other actors who later played the role of TV dads, years after him, such as Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....

, Bill Bixby
Bill Bixby
Wilfred Bailey Everett “Bill” Bixby III was an American film and television actor, director, and frequent game show panelist.His career spanned over three decades; he appeared on stage, in motion pictures and TV series...

 and Michael Landon
Michael Landon
Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...

: "I don't think so, I don't think Danny was really thinking about anybody else's series, at the time. I don't know if he reflected on just how much of the big snowball he started in family television. We shot The Danny Thomas Show at Desilu Studios, which was where Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...

 was doing I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...

, which of course is iconic. We had a lot of people on our show with over spin-offs, into their own series: It was Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard
Sheldon Leonard
Sheldon Leonard was a pioneering American film and television producer, director, writer, and actor.-Biography:...

 [that had a production company together] and we had on our show, Andy Griffith
Andy Griffith
Andy Samuel Griffith is an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. He gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan's epic film A Face in the Crowd before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead...

; and that was the spin-off to Mayberry. Andy was the sheriff that arrested Danny when he went [and I'd forgotten what he'd done, he'd done something in this little town of Mayberry, and so, he was arrested]. Let's see, The Joey Bishop Show
The Joey Bishop Show
The Joey Bishop Show is the title of the following shows which starred American comic actor Joey Bishop:* The Joey Bishop Show , American situation comedy, broadcast by NBC and CBS...

was a spin-off from an episode that Joey Bishop
Joey Bishop
Joey Bishop was an American entertainer who was perhaps best known for being a member of the "Rat Pack" with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Dean Martin...

 was in. There was just Bill Bixby, but I think Bill Bixby just became a STAR playing the grocery guy on our show, I think he was picked up for some series, but there were a lot of spin-offs in two different comedy shows, and comedy was really needed at that time. The 1/2 hr. sitcom that was just your whole family could sit down and watch, it was really enjoyable though, Danny had a big part in that in the beginning of [what I like to call] instead of old TV classics."
After her first successful run in the series, she later went on focus on other projects, while gaining greater fame, as a teen actress, in the popular 1960s sci-fi television series, Lost in Space
Lost in Space
Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968...

After the cancellation of Make Room For Granddaddy in 1971, Angela continued to either visit or stay in touch with her TV father. Mary's (Danny's real-life's mother-in-law's) death in 1972, which followed the suicide of Rusty Hamer
Rusty Hamer
Rusty Hamer was an American television actor best known for his role as Rusty Williams in the popular NBC/CBS situation comedy The Danny Thomas Show also known as Make Room for Daddy.-Career:...

 (co-star with Thomas and Cartwright on The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show
The Danny Thomas Show is an American sitcom which ran from 1953-1957 on ABC and from 1957-1964 on CBS...

, eighteen years later), those two deaths became closer between Thomas & Cartwright, as they both delivered their condolences to a relative just years before a co-star, exactly one year before Thomas's own death.

Danny Thomas was responsible for Mary Tyler Moore's
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore is an American actress, primarily known for her roles in television sitcoms. Moore is best known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show , in which she starred as Mary Richards, a 30-something single woman who worked as a local news producer in Minneapolis, and for her earlier role as...

 first "big break" in acting. In 1961, Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show, an acclaimed weekly series based on Reiner's own life and career as a writer for Sid Caesar's television variety show, telling the cast from the outset that it would run no more than five years. The show was produced by Danny Thomas's company, and Thomas himself recommended her. He remembered Mary as "the girl with three names" whom he had turned down earlier. A lengthy search by Thomas through Hollywood photos and records "found" the girl with three names.

Death

Thomas died on February 6, 1991, of heart failure one month after his 79th birthday. He had completed filming a commercial for St. Jude Hospital a few days before his death and this final commercial aired as a tribute to him.

Danny Thomas is interred in a crypt in a mausoleum
Mausoleum
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the...

 on the grounds of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He was a posthumous recipient of the 2004 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award
Bob Hope Humanitarian Award
The Bob Hope Humanitarian Award was established in 2002 by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in recognition of Bob Hope's trailblazing career...

.

External links

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