Route Resolved ✅
Package: @imdb/name
Pattern: /name/[nconst]
Params: {"nconst":"nm0001123"}
SSR Data
{
"nconst": "nm0001123",
"name": {
"id": "nm0001123",
"nameText": {
"text": "Dom DeLuise"
},
"birthDate": {
"dateComponents": {
"year": 1933,
"month": 8,
"day": 1
}
},
"deathDate": {
"dateComponents": {
"year": 2009,
"month": 5,
"day": 4
}
},
"bio": {
"plainText": "As might be said for the late and great comedians Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn, it seems that Mel Brooks was the only director on the planet who knew how to best utilize this funnyman's talents on film. Brooks once remarked that, whenever he cast Dom in one of his films he'd add an extra two days to the shooting schedule because of delays between takes due to the constant laughter from cast and crew at Dom's improvisations.\n\nThe lovable, butterball comedian was a mainstay on 1960s and '70s TV variety as a \"second banana,\" or comic-relief player. While his harsher critics believed his schtick would be better served in smaller doses, Dom nevertheless went on to find some range in a few moving, more restrained projects. Those few glimpses behind all the mirth and merriment revealed a dramatic actor waiting to be unleashed. As they say, behind every clown's smile, one finds tears.\n\nHe was born Dominick DeLuise on August 1, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents John, a sanitation engineer, and Vicenza (DeStefano) DeLuise, both Italian immigrants. A natural school-class clown, his irrepressible sense of humor helped Dom fit in at school, and he started drawing belly laughs fairly young in his very first school play that had him portraying an inert copper penny! He later attended New York's High School of Performing Arts, but when it came to college, he decided to major in biology at Tufts University, outside Boston. That decision failed to expunge the idea of being a comedian from his head and heart, however, and that determination finally prevailed.\n\nDom's formative years as an actor were spent apprenticing at the Cleveland Playhouse, where which he gamely played roles in everything from contemporary shows like \"Guys and Dolls\" and \"Stalag 17\" to classics like \"The School for Scandal\" and even \"Hamlet.\" He earned his first professional paycheck playing the titular Bernie the dog in \"Bernie's Last Wish.\" Dom also got a taste of what it was like in front of the camera in Cleveland, appearing on the local TV kiddie's show \"Tip Top Clubhouse.\"\n\nBack in NYC, he took over the lead role of Tinker the toymaker in another children's local program, Tinker's Workshop (1954), for one season in 1958. He also started making noise on the off-Broadway scene. Appearing in the plays \"The Jackass\" and \"All in Love,\" he became part of the featured ensemble of the 1961 musical revue \"An Evening with Harry Stoones,\" which included 19-year-old Barbra Streisand. More outlandish musical roles came his way in the early 1960s with \"Little Mary Sunshine\" (as Corporal Billy Jester) and \"The Student Gypsy, or the Prince of Liederkrantz\" (his Broadway debut as Muffin T. Raggamuffin). While appearing in the lighthearted summer stock spoof \"Summer & Smirk\" in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Dom met fellow performer Carol Arthur (née Carol Arata). They married on November 23, 1965. Their three sons, Peter DeLuise, Michael DeLuise and David DeLuise all eventually found their way into show business. In 1971, Dom returned successfully to Broadway in a perfectly-suited Neil Simon vehicle, \"The Last of the Red Hot Lovers.\"\n\nDom was first noticed on the smaller screen, creating the sketch character of Dominick the Great, a magician who tries in vain to mask his inept prestidigitations with feigned dignity on Garry Moore's popular show. The comedian truly thrived in this TV variety atmosphere and soon began popping up seemingly everywhere: (The Hollywood Palace (1964), The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967), The Jackie Gleason Show (1966)). Balding, blushing, dimpled and moon-faced (comparisons to a ripe tomato were not wide of the mark), he was readily equipped with a high-wattage, Cheshire Cat smile that became his trademark. At his best, looking embarrassed or agitated, the laughs usually came at his own expense, whether playing a panic-stricken klutz or squirming nervous-Nelly type. Dom took his magician character to the ensemble comedy show The Entertainers (1964), which also showcased Carol Burnett and Bob Newhart, and found more regular employment as a bumbling private eye in puppeteer Shari Lewis' daytime children's program, and as a foil for Dean Martin on the entertainer's regular and summer replacement shows. Dom again repeated his Dominick the Great character on Martin's show and received great reception. He later found himself part of Martin's \"in-crowd\" of comedians on his \"celebrity roasts.\"\n\nDom's obvious comic genius was more readily evident, and succeeded better, in tandem with other performers than it was on its own. Hosting duties for his very first comedy/variety program The Dom DeLuise Show (1968), which featured wife Carol as part of the regular roster, lasted only one summer. The sitcom Lotsa Luck! (1973), which showcased Dom as bachelor Stanley Belmont having to contend with a live-in mother (a harping Kathleen Freeman) and sister (an ungainly Beverly Sanders), was canceled after its first season. He gave it a rest for awhile before trying once again with the sketch-like sitcom The Dom DeLuise Show (1987), but it, too, quickly faded. Another brief stint was as host of a revamped Candid Camera (1991).\n\nWhile Dom made an unlikely film debut as a high-strung Air Force technician in the gripping nuclear drama Fail Safe (1964) starring Henry Fonda, it was in zany, irreverent comedy that he found his true calling. Appearing in support of others such as Sid Caesar and Mary Tyler Moore, respectively, in the so-so comedies The Busy Body (1967) and What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968), he proved a delight as an inept, dim-witted spy in the Doris Day caper The Glass Bottom Boat (1966).\n\nMel Brooks first cast Dom as the miserly Russian Orthodox priest, Father Fyodor, in his film The Twelve Chairs (1970), and found plenty of room for the comedian after that -- as campy director Buddy Bizarre in Blazing Saddles (1974), the silly-ass director's assistant in Silent Movie (1976), Emperor Nero in History of the World: Part I (1981), the voice of the cheese-oozing Pizza the Hutt in the \"Star Wars\" parody Spaceballs (1987), and as Sherwood Forest's very own puffy-cheeked Godfather, Don Giovanni, in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993).\n\nA very close friend of action star Burt Reynolds, Dom romped through a number of Reynolds' freewheeling films as well, including Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). One of his finest scene-stealing film roles, in fact, was as Reynolds' schizo pal in The End (1978). Dom went on to direct a number of stage productions for his close friend at the Burt Reynolds Theatre in Jupiter, Florida -- among them \"Butterflies Are Free,\" \"Same Time, Next Year\" (starring Burt and Carol Burnett), \"Brighton Beach Memoirs\" (starring son Peter), and the musical \"Jump\" (featuring wife Carol). Still another comic buddy, Gene Wilder, handed Dom the roles of the indulgent opera star in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) and harassed movie mogul Adolf Zitz in The World's Greatest Lover (1977). Dom later joined Wilder once again, along with Wilder's wife Gilda Radner, in the leaden comedy Haunted Honeymoon (1986), a clumsy haunted-house spoof that even Dom, in full drag, could not salvage.\n\nChange-of-pace roles were few and far between. One that did come Dom's way was the compulsive-eating protagonist in Fatso (1980). Directed by and co-starring Brooks' wife Anne Bancroft, Dom managed to mix comedy with pathos. Obesity was also a chronic, real-life problem for the comedian and, at one point in 1999, it was reported that he had tipped the scales at 325 lbs. On a positive note, this passion for food actually fed into a more lucrative sideline -- as a respected chef and culinary author (\"Eat This\" and \"Eat This Too\") in which he appeared all over the tube cooking and demonstrating his favorite recipes. He also found time to write children's books on the side.\n\nDom tackled broad comedy films with great abandon -- a wallflower he was not -- but they were hit-or-miss. Some of his biggest misses were the Mae West disaster Sextette (1977), the Dudley Moore showcase Wholly Moses! (1980) (although Dom was arguably the best thing in it), Loose Cannons (1990), in which he appeared as portly pornographer Harry \"The Hippo\" Gutterman, Driving Me Crazy (1991), which filmed far away in Germany, and The Silence of the Hams (1994), a parody on the horror genre in which he played Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza.\n\nFilms could also be a family affair. True to life, Dom played a sympathetic kiddie show host in the moving TV-movie Happy (1983). Also the executive producer, he was joined by wife Carol and all three sons in the cast. In addition, Dom offered a cameo in Between the Sheets (2000), a film written by Peter, directed, edited and executive-produced by Michael, and featuring roles for the rest of the family.\n\nDom's voiceover skills did not go untapped, either, in films including the animated features The Secret of NIMH (1982), An American Tail (1986) and All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), plus all of their offshoots. The heavily-bearded DeLuise even displayed scene-stealing antics on the operatic scene, once playing the speaking part of Frosch the Jailer in Johann Srauss II's operetta \"Die ,\" at the Metropolitan Opera.\n\nSuffering from various physical ailments in later years, some of which were exacerbated by his chronic obesity and diabetes, Dom's health declined, and he died in 2009 at age 75. His wife and three children survive him, as do three grandchildren."
},
"bioHtml": "As might be said for the late and great comedians\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0466327/\">Harvey Korman</a> and\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0001404/\">Madeline Kahn</a>, it seems that\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000316/\">Mel Brooks</a> was the only director on\nthe planet who knew how to best utilize this funnyman's talents on\nfilm. Brooks once remarked that, whenever he cast Dom in one\nof his films he'd add an extra two days to the shooting schedule because of delays between takes due to the constant laughter from cast and crew at Dom's improvisations.<br/><br/>The lovable, butterball comedian was a mainstay on 1960s and '70s TV\nvariety as a "second banana," or comic-relief player. While his harsher\ncritics believed his schtick would be better served in smaller doses, Dom\nnevertheless went on to find some range in a few moving, more\nrestrained projects. Those few glimpses behind all the mirth and\nmerriment revealed a dramatic actor waiting to be unleashed. As they\nsay, behind every clown's smile, one finds tears.<br/><br/>He was born Dominick DeLuise on August 1, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York,\nto parents John, a sanitation engineer, and Vicenza (DeStefano)\nDeLuise, both Italian immigrants. A natural school-class clown, his irrepressible sense of humor helped Dom\nfit in at school, and he started drawing belly laughs fairly young in his very first school play that had him portraying an inert copper penny! He later attended New York's High School of Performing Arts, but\nwhen it came to college, he decided to major in biology at Tufts\nUniversity, outside Boston. That decision failed to expunge the idea of being a comedian from his head and heart, however, and that determination finally prevailed.<br/><br/>Dom's formative years as an actor were spent apprenticing at the\nCleveland Playhouse, where which he gamely played roles in everything from\ncontemporary shows like "Guys and Dolls" and "Stalag 17" to classics like "The School for Scandal" and\neven "Hamlet." He earned his first professional paycheck playing the titular Bernie the\ndog in "Bernie's Last Wish." Dom also got a taste\nof what it was like in front of the camera in Cleveland, appearing on the local TV kiddie's show "Tip\nTop Clubhouse."<br/><br/>Back in NYC, he took over the lead role of Tinker the toymaker in\nanother children's local program,\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0828329/\">Tinker's Workshop (1954)</a>,\nfor one season in 1958. He also started making noise on the\noff-Broadway scene. Appearing in the plays "The Jackass" and "All in\nLove," he became part of the featured ensemble of the 1961 musical\nrevue "An Evening with Harry Stoones," which included 19-year-old\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000659/\">Barbra Streisand</a>. More outlandish\nmusical roles came his way in the early 1960s with "Little Mary\nSunshine" (as Corporal Billy Jester) and "The Student Gypsy, or the\nPrince of Liederkrantz" (his Broadway debut as Muffin T. Raggamuffin).\nWhile appearing in the lighthearted summer stock spoof "Summer &\nSmirk" in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Dom met fellow performer\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0217935/\">Carol Arthur</a> (née Carol Arata). They\nmarried on November 23, 1965. Their three sons,\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0217938/\">Peter DeLuise</a>,\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0217937/\">Michael DeLuise</a> and\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0217936/\">David DeLuise</a> all eventually found their way into show\nbusiness. In 1971, Dom returned successfully to Broadway in a\nperfectly-suited <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0800319/\">Neil Simon</a> vehicle,\n"The Last of the Red Hot Lovers."<br/><br/>Dom was first noticed on the smaller screen, creating the sketch\ncharacter of Dominick the Great, a magician who tries in vain to mask\nhis inept prestidigitations with feigned dignity on\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0601225/\">Garry Moore</a>'s popular show. The comedian truly thrived in this TV variety atmosphere and soon\nbegan popping up seemingly everywhere:\n(<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0057755/\">The Hollywood Palace (1964)</a>,\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0061296/\">The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967)</a>,\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0195466/\">The Jackie Gleason Show (1966)</a>).\nBalding, blushing, dimpled and moon-faced (comparisons to a ripe tomato\nwere not wide of the mark), he was readily equipped with a high-wattage,\nCheshire Cat smile that became his trademark. At his best, looking\nembarrassed or agitated, the laughs usually came at his own expense,\nwhether playing a panic-stricken klutz or squirming nervous-Nelly type.\nDom took his magician character to the ensemble comedy show\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0057744/\">The Entertainers (1964)</a>,\nwhich also showcased <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000993/\">Carol Burnett</a> and\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0627878/\">Bob Newhart</a>, and found more regular\nemployment as a bumbling private eye in puppeteer\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0507741/\">Shari Lewis</a>' daytime children's\nprogram, and as a foil for\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0001509/\">Dean Martin</a> on the entertainer's\nregular and summer replacement shows. Dom again repeated his Dominick\nthe Great character on Martin's show and received great reception. He\nlater found himself part of Martin's "in-crowd" of comedians on his\n"celebrity roasts."<br/><br/>Dom's obvious comic genius was more readily evident, and succeeded better, in\ntandem with other performers than it was on its own. Hosting duties for his very\nfirst comedy/variety program\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0062555/\">The Dom DeLuise Show (1968)</a>,\nwhich featured wife Carol as part of the regular roster, lasted only\none summer. The sitcom\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0069603/\">Lotsa Luck! (1973)</a>, which showcased\nDom as bachelor Stanley Belmont having to contend with a live-in mother\n(a harping <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0293466/\">Kathleen Freeman</a>)\nand sister (an ungainly\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0761473/\">Beverly Sanders</a>), was canceled after its\nfirst season. He gave it a rest for awhile before trying once again\nwith the sketch-like sitcom\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0092343/\">The Dom DeLuise Show (1987)</a>,\nbut it, too, quickly faded. Another brief stint was as host of a\nrevamped <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0101057/\">Candid Camera (1991)</a>.<br/><br/>While Dom made an unlikely film debut as a high-strung Air Force technician in the\ngripping nuclear drama <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0058083/\">Fail Safe (1964)</a>\nstarring <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000020/\">Henry Fonda</a>, it was in zany,\nirreverent comedy that he found his true calling. Appearing in support\nof others such as <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0128377/\">Sid Caesar</a> and\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0001546/\">Mary Tyler Moore</a>, respectively, in the\nso-so comedies <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0061431/\">The Busy Body (1967)</a>\nand\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0063799/\">What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968)</a>,\nhe proved a delight as an inept, dim-witted spy in the\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000013/\">Doris Day</a> caper\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0060463/\">The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)</a>.<br/><br/><a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000316/\">Mel Brooks</a> first cast Dom as the\nmiserly Russian Orthodox priest, Father Fyodor, in his film\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0066495/\">The Twelve Chairs (1970)</a>, and\nfound plenty of room for the comedian after that -- as campy director\nBuddy Bizarre in\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0071230/\">Blazing Saddles (1974)</a>, the\nsilly-ass director's assistant in\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0075222/\">Silent Movie (1976)</a>, Emperor Nero in\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0082517/\">History of the World: Part I (1981)</a>,\nthe voice of the cheese-oozing Pizza the Hutt in the "Star Wars" parody\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0094012/\">Spaceballs (1987)</a>, and as Sherwood\nForest's very own puffy-cheeked Godfather, Don Giovanni, in\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0107977/\">Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)</a>.<br/><br/>A very close friend of action star\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000608/\">Burt Reynolds</a>, Dom romped through\na number of Reynolds' freewheeling films as well, including\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0081529/\">Smokey and the Bandit II (1980)</a>,\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0082136/\">The Cannonball Run (1981)</a> and\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0083642/\">The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)</a>.\nOne of his finest scene-stealing film roles, in fact, was as Reynolds'\nschizo pal in <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0077504/\">The End (1978)</a>. Dom\nwent on to direct a number of stage productions for his close friend at\nthe Burt Reynolds Theatre in Jupiter, Florida -- among them\n"Butterflies Are Free," "Same Time, Next Year" (starring Burt and\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000993/\">Carol Burnett</a>), "Brighton Beach Memoirs"\n(starring son Peter), and the musical "Jump" (featuring wife Carol).\nStill another comic buddy, <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000698/\">Gene Wilder</a>,\nhanded Dom the roles of the indulgent opera star in\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0072608/\">The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975)</a>\nand harassed movie mogul Adolf Zitz in\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0076933/\">The World's Greatest Lover (1977)</a>.\nDom later joined Wilder once again, along with Wilder's wife\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0705717/\">Gilda Radner</a>, in the leaden comedy\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0091178/\">Haunted Honeymoon (1986)</a>, a clumsy haunted-house spoof that even Dom, in full drag, could not salvage.<br/><br/>Change-of-pace roles were few and far between. One that did come Dom's way was\nthe compulsive-eating protagonist in\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0080724/\">Fatso (1980)</a>. Directed by and co-starring\nBrooks' wife <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0000843/\">Anne Bancroft</a>, Dom\nmanaged to mix comedy with pathos. Obesity was also a chronic,\nreal-life problem for the comedian and, at one point in 1999, it was\nreported that he had tipped the scales at 325 lbs. On a positive note,\nthis passion for food actually fed into a more lucrative sideline -- as\na respected chef and culinary author ("Eat This" and "Eat This Too") in\nwhich he appeared all over the tube cooking and demonstrating his\nfavorite recipes. He also found time to write children's books on the side.<br/><br/>Dom tackled broad comedy films with great abandon -- a wallflower he\nwas not -- but they were hit-or-miss. Some of his biggest misses\nwere the <a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0922213/\">Mae West</a> disaster\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0078238/\">Sextette (1977)</a>, the\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/name/nm0001545/\">Dudley Moore</a> showcase\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0081751/\">Wholly Moses! (1980)</a> (although Dom\nwas arguably the best thing in it),\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0100053/\">Loose Cannons (1990)</a>, in which he\nappeared as portly pornographer Harry "The Hippo" Gutterman,\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0104142/\">Driving Me Crazy (1991)</a>,\nwhich filmed far away in Germany, and\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0111190/\">The Silence of the Hams (1994)</a>, a parody on the horror genre in which he\nplayed Dr. Animal Cannibal Pizza.<br/><br/>Films could also be a family affair. True to life, Dom played a\nsympathetic kiddie show host in the moving TV-movie\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0087381/\">Happy (1983)</a>. Also the executive\nproducer, he was joined by wife Carol and all three sons in the cast.\nIn addition, Dom offered a cameo in\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0120607/\">Between the Sheets (2000)</a>, a\nfilm written by Peter, directed, edited and\nexecutive-produced by Michael, and featuring roles for the rest of the\nfamily.<br/><br/>Dom's voiceover skills did not go untapped, either, in films including\nthe animated features\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0084649/\">The Secret of NIMH (1982)</a>,\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0090633/\">An American Tail (1986)</a> and\n<a class=\"ipc-md-link ipc-md-link--entity\" href=\"/title/tt0096787/\">All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)</a>,\nplus all of their offshoots. The heavily-bearded DeLuise even displayed\nscene-stealing antics on the operatic scene, once playing the speaking\npart of Frosch the Jailer in Johann Srauss II's operetta "Die ," at the\nMetropolitan Opera.<br/><br/>Suffering from various physical ailments in later years, some of which\nwere exacerbated by his chronic obesity and diabetes, Dom's health\ndeclined, and he died in 2009 at age 75. His wife and three children\nsurvive him, as do three grandchildren.",
"primaryImage": {
"url": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTJkNmQzMzQtY2NlZC00ZDJhLWIwNjgtNDJhMTRiMmM0NzI2XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg",
"width": 2700,
"height": 4052
},
"primaryProfessions": [
{
"category": {
"text": "Actor"
}
},
{
"category": {
"text": "Writer"
}
},
{
"category": {
"text": "Director"
}
}
],
"knownFor": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0082136",
"titleText": {
"text": "The Cannonball Run"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1981
}
},
"summary": {
"principalCategory": {
"text": "Actor"
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0071230",
"titleText": {
"text": "Blazing Saddles"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1974
}
},
"summary": {
"principalCategory": {
"text": "Actor"
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0096787",
"titleText": {
"text": "All Dogs Go to Heaven"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1989
}
},
"summary": {
"principalCategory": {
"text": "Actor"
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0084649",
"titleText": {
"text": "The Secret of NIMH"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1982
}
},
"summary": {
"principalCategory": {
"text": "Actor"
}
}
}
],
"filmography": [
{
"category": "Director",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0132895",
"titleText": {
"text": "Boys Will Be Boys"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1998
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0079308",
"titleText": {
"text": "Hot Stuff"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1979
}
}
}
]
},
{
"category": "Writer",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0132895",
"titleText": {
"text": "Boys Will Be Boys"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1998
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt4756322",
"titleText": {
"text": "Dom DeLuise and Friends"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1983
}
}
}
]
},
{
"category": "Actor",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt10583590",
"titleText": {
"text": "Bongee Bear and the Kingdom of Rhythm"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2019
}
},
"characters": [
"Myrin"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0870980",
"titleText": {
"text": "Spaceballs: The Animated Series"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2008
}
},
"characters": [
"Pizza the Hutt"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0795496",
"titleText": {
"text": "Video Classroom Lesson 1: Space and Sea"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2006
}
},
"characters": [
"Animated School Teacher"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0376390",
"titleText": {
"text": "Duck Dodgers"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2003
}
},
"characters": [
"Roy Serpenti"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0437745",
"titleText": {
"text": "Robot Chicken"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2005
}
},
"characters": [
"Don DeLuise",
"Victor Prinzim"
]
}
]
},
{
"category": "Producer",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt1358777",
"titleText": {
"text": "According to Dom"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2009
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0087381",
"titleText": {
"text": "Happy"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1983
}
}
}
]
},
{
"category": "Additional Crew",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0082892",
"titleText": {
"text": "Peter-No-Tail"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1981
}
}
}
]
},
{
"category": "Thanks",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt1891062",
"titleText": {
"text": "Hewy's Animated Movie Reviews"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2008
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt1144429",
"titleText": {
"text": "Clarkworld"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2009
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0452047",
"titleText": {
"text": "Remarks on Marx"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2004
}
}
}
]
},
{
"category": "Soundtrack",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt1635327",
"titleText": {
"text": "The Nostalgia Critic"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2007
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0197230",
"titleText": {
"text": "An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1999
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0208252",
"titleText": {
"text": "The Land Before Time: More Sing-Along Songs"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1999
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0171725",
"titleText": {
"text": "The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1998
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt0166960",
"titleText": {
"text": "An All Dogs Christmas Carol"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 1998
}
}
}
]
},
{
"category": "Self",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt7090974",
"titleText": {
"text": "On 46th Street"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2010
}
},
"characters": [
"Self"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt3834736",
"titleText": {
"text": "To Be or Not to Be: Brooks and Bancroft - A Perfect Pair"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2009
}
},
"characters": [
"Self"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt1358777",
"titleText": {
"text": "According to Dom"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2009
}
},
"characters": [
"Self"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt1349484",
"titleText": {
"text": "Hollywood Moments"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2009
}
},
"characters": [
"Self"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt1746241",
"titleText": {
"text": "Silent Laughter: The Reel Inspirations of Silent Movie"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2009
}
},
"characters": [
"Self"
]
}
]
},
{
"category": "Archive Footage",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt33035435",
"titleText": {
"text": "Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2026
}
},
"characters": [
"Self - Actor",
"Silent Movie"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt2070564",
"titleText": {
"text": "WatchMojo"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2006
}
},
"characters": [
"Self - Itchy",
"Self - Fagin",
"Self - Jeremy",
"Self - Tiger",
"Tiger"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt3797468",
"titleText": {
"text": "Celebrating Laughter: The Life and Films of Colin Higgins"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2022
}
},
"characters": [
"Self"
]
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt21385786",
"titleText": {
"text": "Stu's Show"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2006
}
}
},
{
"title": {
"id": "tt11346000",
"titleText": {
"text": "King of Cool"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2021
}
},
"characters": [
"Self"
]
}
]
},
{
"category": "Archive Sound",
"credits": [
{
"title": {
"id": "tt8433882",
"titleText": {
"text": "Secrets Behind the Secret"
},
"releaseYear": {
"year": 2007
}
},
"characters": [
"Jeremy"
]
}
]
}
]
}
}