Dom DeLuise

Dominick DeLuise was born on August 1, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian American parents John DeLuise, a public employee, and Vincenza DeLuise, a homemaker. The youngest of three children, he had an older brother, Nicholas, and an older sister, Antoinette. DeLuise was educated at Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts and subsequently attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he majored in biology. He was Roman Catholic throughout his life and maintained a particular devotion to the Virgin Mary.

DeLuise made his paid stage debut at age 18, playing Bernie the dog in the drama Bernie's Christmas Wish. His first sustained professional engagement came as an intern at the Cleveland Play House from 1952 to 1954, where he worked as both a stage manager and actor. His New York stage career began in earnest in 1961 with the off-Broadway musical revue Another Evening with Harry Stoons, a production that ran for nine previews and a single performance and featured a then-19-year-old Barbra Streisand among its cast. That same year he appeared in the off-Broadway play All in Love, which opened on November 10, 1961, at the Martinique Theatre and ran for 141 performances. Additional off-Broadway work followed, including Half-Past Wednesday in 1962 and Around the World in 80 Days in 1963.

DeLuise's Broadway career spanned 1963 to 1969. He appeared in The Student Gypsy and Here's Love, both in 1963, and returned to Broadway in 1969 with Last of the Red Hot Lovers. His first television credit came in 1964 as a regular performer on The Entertainers. That same year, while working in a summer theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts, he met actress Carol Arthur, whom he married in 1965. The couple had three sons — Peter, Michael, and David — all of whom became actors, writers, and directors.

His film career gained early momentum with a supporting role in the Doris Day comedy The Glass Bottom Boat in 1966, a performance that drew specific praise from New York Times critic Vincent Canby, who described DeLuise as the best of the cast despite panning the film overall. An earlier film appearance in Fail-Safe cast him against type as a nervous United States Air Force technical sergeant, demonstrating range beyond his predominantly comedic work. Television producer Greg Garrison brought DeLuise to The Dean Martin Show, where he performed a recurring bit called "Dominick the Great," a comedic magic act gone wrong, with Martin serving as a volunteer from the audience. The segment's success made DeLuise a regular on Martin's program, and Garrison also featured him in hour-long comedy specials for ABC. In 1968, DeLuise hosted his own CBS variety series, The Dom DeLuise Show, taped at The Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami over a 16-week run as the summer replacement for The Jonathan Winters Show. The production featured The June Taylor Dancers, The Sammy Spear Orchestra, and regular appearances by his wife, Carol Arthur. He later starred in the sitcom Lotsa Luck from 1973 to 1974.

DeLuise became closely associated with director Mel Brooks, appearing in The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World Part I, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Brooks's wife, actress Anne Bancroft, directed DeLuise in Fatso in 1980. Beginning in the 1970s, DeLuise also developed a prominent screen partnership with actor Burt Reynolds, co-starring in The End, Smokey and the Bandit II, The Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

From the 1980s onward, DeLuise became a significant presence in animated film, particularly through collaborations with director Don Bluth. He voiced major characters in The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, A Troll in Central Park, and All Dogs Go to Heaven, the last of which also featured Reynolds voicing the lead character Charlie B. Barkin while DeLuise played Charlie's companion Itchy Itchiford. He additionally voiced the character of Fagin in the Walt Disney production Oliver & Company and made guest appearances on several animated television series. His hosting duties extended to the television program Candid Camera from 1991 to 1992, and he was a recurring presence on the CBS series Burke's Law during its 1993–1994 and 1994–1995 seasons.

DeLuise also pursued work in opera, playing the speaking role of the jailer Frosch in Die Fledermaus at the Metropolitan Opera across four separate revivals between December 1989 and January 1996. He portrayed L'Opinion Publique in drag for the Los Angeles Opera's production of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. A dedicated cook, he authored multiple cookbooks, including Eat This ... It Will Make You Feel Better and Eat This Too!, as well as seven children's books, among them Charlie the Caterpillar, Goldilocks, Hansel & Gretel, The Nightingale, King Bob's New Clothes, The Pouch Potato, and There's No Place Like Home. He also appeared as a regular contributor on the syndicated radio program On The House with The Carey Brothers, offering culinary advice to listeners.

DeLuise died in his sleep on May 4, 2009, at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 75. The cause of death was kidney failure. He had been living with cancer for more than a year prior to his death and also had high blood pressure and diabetes.