Danny Thomas

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For other uses, see Danny Thomas (disambiguation).

Danny Thomas (January 6, 1914 [1] – February 6, 1991) was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor of Lebanese Maronite Christian descent.

Danny Thomas was born Amos Alphonsus Muzyad Yakhoob in Deerfield, Michigan to Charles and Margaret Jacobs. He first performed under his Anglicized birth name, Amos Jacobs, before settling on the stage name Danny Thomas. He lived in various cities as a child, including at 813 Ontario St. in Toledo, Ohio and also in Rochester, New York. He attended the St. Francis DeSales School in downtown Toledo.

On the big screen he starred in the 1952 remake of The Jazz Singer and played songwriter Gus Kahn opposite Doris Day in the 1951 film biography I'll See You in My Dreams. But his most famous role was on his television show, Make Room for Daddy (later retitled The Danny Thomas Show to capitalize on Thomas' popularity). Thomas later became a successful television producer, working on many popular shows including The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mod Squad.

Known as a generous philanthropist, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962. The hospital has treated thousands of children for childhood cancers. In 1996, two of its researchers won the Nobel Prize for medicine for their research on the immune system of children.

He was, along with Joe Robbie, one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins, although he sold his share of the team shortly thereafter.

His children are also performers, the most famous being his daughter Marlo, who is married to Phil Donahue. His son Tony Thomas is a noted television producer, and another sister Terre Thomas, is a former actress.

He is sometimes credited for popularizing the use of the spit-take in comedy.

He and his wife, Rose Marie Mantell (neé Cassaniti), were possibly America's most famous Roman Catholic couple at that time[2].Rose Marie was of Italian descent. The Daily Catholic placed him 86 on the list of top 100 Catholics([3]), just above ([4]) the Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi.

He died in 1991 of a heart attack at age 77, and his funeral was at the Church of the Good Shepherd. He had completed filming a commercial for St. Jude's Hospital a few days before his death, and this final commercial aired as a tribute to him.

Danny Thomas and his wife (who died in 2000) are interred in a crypt in a mausoleum on the grounds of the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a posthumous recipient of the 2004 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.