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Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz (January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991), known professionally as Danny Thomas, was an American comedian, actor, singer, producer, and philanthropist. He created and starred in The Danny Thomas Show. In addition to guest roles on many of the comedy, talk, and musical variety programs of his time, his legacy includes a lifelong dedication to fundraising for charity. Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, a leading center in pediatrics with a focus on Childhood cancer. St. Jude has affiliate hospitals in eight other American cities as of early 2020.
Already a successful entertainer, Thomas began his film career in 1947, playing opposite child actress Margaret O'Brien in The Unfinished Dance (1947) and Big City (1948). He then starred in the long-running television sitcom Make Room for Daddy ( The Danny Thomas Show from the fourth season onward) from 1953 to 1964. He played the lead role of Danny Williams. He was the father of Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas.Obituary Variety, February 11, 1991.
Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St. Francis de Sales Church and Woodward High School.
Bishop Samuel Stritch of Toledo confirmed Thomas in the Catholic Church in 1921. Stritch, a native of Tennessee, was a lifelong spiritual advisor to Thomas, and would later advise him to locate the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis.
In 1932, Thomas began performing on radio in Detroit at WDTK on The Happy Hour Club. Thomas first performed under his Anglicisation birth name, "Amos Jacobs Kairouz".
In 1936, a week after his 24th birthday, Thomas married Rose Marie Cassaniti. (She had worked as a singer under the name of Rose Marie Mantel, and can often be found by her stagename.)
In 1940, after he moved to Chicago, Thomas did not want his friends and family to know he had gone back into working clubs where the salary was better, so he came up with the pseudonym "Danny Thomas" (after two of his brothers).
Thomas also had his own radio program, The Danny Thomas Show. The 30-minute weekly variety show was on ABC from 1942 to 1943 and on CBS from 1947 to 1948.Sies, Luther F. (2014). Encyclopedia of American Radio, 1920–1960, 2nd Edition, Volume 1. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 177.
On January 1, 1959, Thomas appeared with his other Make Room for Daddy child stars, Angela Cartwright and Rusty Hamer, in an episode of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.
The show was produced at Desilu Studios, where Lucille Ball was appearing alongside Desi Arnaz in I Love Lucy, and it featured several guest stars who went on to star in their own shows, including Andy Griffith ( The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD), Joey Bishop, and Bill Bixby ( My Favorite Martian and others). He also scored a major success at the London Palladium, in the years when many big American stars appeared there. In 1963, in an episode called "Oh, the Clancys," the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem appeared as Marjorie Lord's Irish cousins and sang "Brennan on the Moor."
In 1970, the program was revived for a season under the title Make Room for Granddaddy.
Angela Cartwright (who spoke about her on- and off-camera relationship with her television stepfather, Danny Thomas, on a groundbreaking ABC TV show, Make Room for Daddy) said: "I thought Danny was hilarious and he was always cracking me up. He was loud and gregarious, nothing like my real dad who is far more reserved than that. So, it was fun to be able to make smart remarks and get away with it. I would never have talked to my real parents that way, but in the make-believe world of the Williams family I got away with that." Cartwright also added that by the time Thomas' show had ended, she wanted to join the cast of The Sound of Music: "I went on an interview for the part of Brigitta. I was still filming The Danny Thomas Show, but I knew the series was coming to an end. After several auditions, I was the first von Trapp cast. I asked Danny Thomas if he would let me out of my contract so I could be in the movie and he was very gracious to let me out of the last show of the season. He didn't have to do that and I am very grateful he did."
Thomas was responsible for Mary Tyler Moore's first "big break" in acting. In 1961, Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show after Thomas personally recommended Moore. Reiner had remembered her as "the girl with three names" whom he had turned down earlier, but rediscovered her after a lengthy search through photos and records.
By the mid-1970s, Thomas' son Tony had become an accomplished television producer. Tony, along with Paul Junger Witt, formed Witt/Thomas Productions in 1975, and was responsible for his father's next three (and ultimately final) starring vehicles. Thomas returned to series TV in the NBC sitcom The Practice, airing from January 1976 to January 1977. Subsequently, he co-starred in I'm a Big Girl Now, which aired on ABC from 1980 to 1981.
Thomas was guest of honor in The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast that aired on December 15, 1976, on NBC. He guest-starred in "In Full Command" (S05 E22), the March 18, 1978, series finale of the long-running detective drama Kojak, as a corrupt superior officer in the police department, in an episode directed by series star Telly Savalas. He also appeared in the TV movie Side by Side (1988), opposite Milton Berle and Sid Caesar.
The last series in which Thomas was a headlining star was One Big Family, which aired in syndication during the 1986–1987 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.
In the early 1950s, after he became a successful actor, his wife joined him, and they began traveling the United States to help raise funds to build St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He fervently believed: "No child should die in the dawn of life."
In 1962, with help from Dr. Lemuel Diggs and close friend Anthony Abraham, an auto magnate in Miami, Florida, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Since its inception, St. Jude has treated children from all 50 states and around the world, continuing the mission of finding cures and saving children.
Thomas was initiated to Freemasonry in Prudence Lodge No. 958, Chicago, passed, and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason at Gothic Lodge No. 270 F&AM.
A Catholic Church, Thomas was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Paul VI in recognition of his services to the church and the community. He was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan presented Thomas with a Congressional Gold Medal honoring him for his work with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins, along with Joe Robbie, but he sold his share soon after the purchase. In addition, he also played golf regularly since his youth.
Two PGA Tour tournaments bore his name: the Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic in south Florida in 1969 and, along with co-founder Vernon Bell, the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic from 1970 to 1984. He was also the first non-Jewish member of the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.
In 1990, Danny Thomas was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
A stretch of roadway in Memphis is locally known as Danny Thomas Boulevard. The road, built in the 1960s to partially reroute U.S. Highway 51 around downtown, runs from E.H. Crump Boulevard (U.S. 70/79/64) to North Parkway/A.W. Willis Avenue (Tennessee State Route 1), passing through St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's campus on a viaduct.
For Thomas' contribution to the television industry, in February 1960 he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6901 Hollywood Boulevard.
Thomas was a posthumous recipient of the 2004 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.
In 1965, Danny Thomas was appointed as a Special Deputy Sheriff by Ben Clark, who was a long-standing Riverside County Sheriff and a recognized "trail blazer" in terms of professionalizing the law enforcement profession in California and the United States.Riverside County Sheriffs Department Museum Archives
On February 16, 2012, the United States Postal Service issued a first-class forever stamp honoring Thomas as an entertainer and humanitarian. The Danny Thomas Forever Stamp shows an oil-on-panel painting depicting a smiling, Black tie-clad Thomas in the foreground and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in the background.
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| 1967 | Cricket on the Hearth | Himself, Caleb Plummer | Voice (Caleb Plummer) |
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