Google
 

Dig A Hole: Dom DeLuise

May 5th, 2009 by Scott Marks

Dom DeLuise, the jovial rotund comic best know for his collaborations with Mel Brooks and Burt Reynolds, died in his sleep last night after a long illness. He was 75.

Dominick DeLuise was born on August 1, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York to Italian American parents Vincenza “Jennie” (née DeStefano), a homemaker, and John DeLuise, who was a civil servant. DeLuise graduated from Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts and later attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

He first appeared on the small screen on Tinker’s Workshop (1958) a local New York children’s show produced by Bob “Captain Kangaroo” Keeshan. It would be another decade before DeLuise cracked the big time and became one of televisions most recognizable faces in the 1960s. While performing in the Broadway play Here’s Love, Garry Moore noticed him and gave him a spot on his television show as “Dominick the Great.” His appearance on The Shari Lewis Show led to a regular spot on the variety show The Entertainers. He played Dr. Dudley in a memorable episode of The Munsters where Herman becomes disfigured after a bolt of lightning transformed him into Fred Gwynne.

While working in summer stock in Provincetown, Mass., Mr. DeLuise met and eventually married Carol Arthur. The couple would remain together for close to 45 years and had three sons, Peter DeLuise, Michael DeLuise and David DeLuise.

He got a call from producer Greg Garrison in 1966 to appear as a specialty act on the wildly popular Dean Martin Show. DeLuise revived his act as the bumbling magician “Dominick the Great.” It clicked with audiences and it wasn’t long before he became a regular fixture on the show. His success with Dino led to The Dom DeLuise Show (1968), a comedy and variety summer series.

DeLuise’s first film roles were in the forgotten comedy Diary of a Bachelor and a rare dramatic turn as a nervous enlisted airman in Fail Safe. He also added comedic support to Frank Tashlin’s The Glass Bottom Boat.

He began his long and fertile collaboration with Mel Brooks in 1970 as Father Fyodor in the Russian spoof The Twelve Chairs. His brief cameo as the homophobic musical director Buddy Bizarre (”Throw out your hands, stick out your tush”) proved to be one of the highlights of Blazing Saddles. He also appeared as Dom Bell in Silent Movie, Emperor Nero in The History of the World Part I, the voice of Pizza the Hut in Spaceballs and Don Giovanni in Robin Hood: Men in Tights. His Brooks affiliation led to parts in Gene Wilder’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother and The World’s Greatest Lover as well as the title role in Fatso directed by Mel’s wife Anne Bancroft.

Dom’s teaming with Burt Reynolds proved less memorable. His non-stop stream of ‘Polock’ jokes in The End landed him in hot water with the Polish American community (most notably Sig Sackowicz). He also appeared in the sequel to Reynolds’ shit-kicking “comedy” Smokey and the Bandit as well as both Cannonball Run pictures and the big screen adaptation of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

The actor put his money where is girth was by authoring two successful cookbooks, 1988’s “Eat This _ It Will Make You Feel Better!” and 1997’s “Eat This Too! It’ll Also Make You Feel Good.”

The tail end of his career was spent entertaining children. He authored of two children’s books: “Charlie The Caterpillar” and “Goldie Locks & The Three Bears: The Real Story!”. He also lent his voice to numerous animated features including Oliver & Company, All Dogs Go To Heaven and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West in addition to such TV hiys as The Ren & Stimpy Show, Duckman and Dexter’s Laboratory.

According to the Washington Post, DeLuise’s weight balloone to 325 pounds, but the actor refused to be put on a diet. He dropped 100 pounds in 1993 because his doctors refused to perform hip replacement surgery until he took some weight off. “He and his family enrolled at the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, N.C., and DeLuise lost enough weight for the surgery, although he gained some of it back afterward.”

For a performer who spent his career playing the fat man, DeLuise commented, “I’m actually a thin serious person but I play fat and funny, but only for the movies.”

The French Mistake

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under Obituaries

Two Days In Another Town

April 18th, 2009 by Scott Marks

Traveling north, I found myself in sunny Malibu meeting with commcinema.com, California’s premier provider of outdoor cinema systems. Say hello to their new San Diego rep, but more on that in future columns.

From Malibu, I sailed east to the lovely city of Burbank to spend the night at brother Rick’s conclave celebrating with pizza from Casa Bianca (as good a thin crust pie as any in Chicago) and watching educational DVDs. Rick could not make it through more than thirty minutes of Emilio before his George C. Scott impulse kicked in and he began to scream, “TURN IT OFF!” Besides, with a suitcase filled with The Munsters and latter day Buster Keaton shorts directed by Jules White, who needed contemporary art house drivel?

En route to Casa Bianca, we made our loyal pilgrimage to Ledge & Riverside to visit the Toluca lake Branch of Planet Hope. As always, Rick’s car radio instantly turned to AM 1620, Bob Hope Airport Radio. Where else on earth (except my house) can you hear Bob Hope’s name mentioned at least once every minute?

There was a lot more I heard coming from Radio Free Hope. Things I dare not tell you.

Herman’s Sorority Caper was a revelation on Rick’s Hi-Def monitor. The cameo by Mike Ross (he prays for Fat Jack’s death in The Disorderly Orderly) looked so crisp that one could actually smell the wine on Grandpa’s breath. The image was was so lifelike, when Grandpa cast a spell on Herman to cure him of hiccups, I wound up in a trance!

Grandpa lays it on Herman!

The Jules White touch is unmistakable. Say what you will about the end results, the man was an auteur. I can spot a Jules White cutaway shot a mile away. The same goes for one of his lazy, trademarked cut-ins. (Begin a scene by placing the camera twelve-feet away from the action. Stop, move the camera in six-feet and resume filming.) Using the Stooge template, White directed ten Buster Keaton shorts for Columbia between 1939 - 41. The credit design, and many of those credited, are identical to the opening passages used in Stooge shorts from the same period. The shorts were scripted by longtime Keaton co-writer (Sherlock, Jr., The General) and then-current Stooge scribe (I’ll Never Heil Again, Brideless Groom) Clyde Bruckman. In one form or another you have seen every gag these shorts have to offer.

That doesn’t mean I failed to study ever foot of them, particularly the sound effects. The penultimate Stooge sound effect is the “UHH!” It’s the funniest god damned thing.The first recorded evidence that I have been able to track down occurred in the dance class scene in Hoi Polloi. It’s the same guy, who sounds nothing like any of the Stooges, saying “UHH!” a hundred times. They appear in literally dozens if not hundreds of Columbia shorts and features throughout the 30s and 40s. Each time I hear one I laugh, especially when they arrive unexpected.Next time a Blondie film is on, stick around for the inevitable scene where Dagwood collides with the postman. UHH!

By comparing shorts, you can actually see the methods to the sound effects editor’s madness. The “UHH!” is only brought out when the punishment fits the crime. Bumping into someone, having a door open in your face, or even falling off a horse is cause for an “Eeep,” not an “UHH!” Getting head butted in the stomach is immediate cause for an “UHH!” The same goes for when characters fall on top of each other, although in this instance it is almost impossible to determine just who emitted the sound. I am revealing too much information from my upcoming 7,000 page doctoral thesis on the semiotic use and application of sound effects at Columbia Pictures, 1935 - 1958.

The next morning I had to hop two Metros and one Big Blue Bus to travel from Burbank to Santa Monica. The #222 (Lloyd Haines wasn’t my driver) picked me up on the corner of Magnolia and Hollywood Way. Taking up all three handicapped seats at the front of the bus were a couple from Nashville whom your grandmother would describe as “good eaters.” There was some sleazy guy in his late 30s seated opposite them trying to sell them on taking one of his personalized tours of Hollywood. Here’s a red flag: If a guy has his own fleet of limos to chauffeur tourists around the city, what the hell is he doing on a public bus?

The young couple, in town for the weekend in order to attend a religious convention, had never before ventured into this part of the world. They were actually very nice people and everybody instantly got in on the conversation. I am always nice to tourists and will go out of my way to make sure they know how to arrive at their intended destination. Let them go back to Tennessee and tell everyone how nice Southern Californians are and entice their friends to come west and spend their vacation dollars.

“So where do you think the best place is for us to see some movie stars,” he asked in his best Jethro Bodine. I told them either The Ivy or the Von’s in Burbank where I saw Bob Hope. Others had better suggestions. I pointed out the seven little houses on Hollywood Way that Uncle Walt built for the seven lead animators that worked on Snow White. Even the so-called tour guide never heard that one before. He quickly pointed at the building with the name Warner Bros. writ large across it’s side and said, “that’s Warner Bros. Clint Eastwood has an office there.” Rounding Alameda he announced, “that’s NBC where they tape the ‘Leno’ show. It starts taping at five, but people line up for hours before.”

Continue reading Two Days In Another Town

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Filed Under Rants

keep looking »