Dom DeLuise was born on August 1, 1933, in Brooklyn, the son of John and Vincenza DeLuise. His father worked for the New York Sanitation Department. His childhood was spent in the Bensonhurst neighborhood, though he graduated from the High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. Dom’s first paying acting job was the role of “Bernie the Dog� with a children’s theater group in “Bernie’s Christmas Wish.� In his early days he spent his summers at the Cleveland Playhouse, appearing in productions like Kiss Me Kate, Guys and Dolls, Hamlet and Stalag 17.

Dom briefly considered becoming a high school biology teacher before landing parts in the Off-Broadway productions The Jackass and Little Mary Sunshine. Dom met his wife, actress Carol Arthur, while appearing in a summer production of Summer and Smirk in Provincetown, Mass-achusetts. Eight off-Broadway shows followed and then he starred in the 1968 Broadway production of Neil Simon’s Last of the Red Hot Lovers. Soon after, Broadway roles in Here’s Love and The Student Gypsy followed.

On television his first appearance was as “Dominick the Great,� the ham-handed magician on the Garry Moore Show teamed with Ruth Buzzi. Countless guest star appearances on variety shows followed before he became a regular on “The Entertainers� with Carol Burnett and Bob Newhart. Dom enjoyed 12 years on the “Dean Martin Show.� In 1968 he found himself hosting his own show on CBS, “The Dom DeLuise Variety Show,� under the guiding hand of Jackie Gleason. Another show of his own on ABC, “Dom Deluise and Friends,� was televised from 1983 to 1990.

Dom’s motion picture debut was in 1964 in Sydney Lumet’s Fail Safe. Subsequent films included The Glass Bottom Boat, The Busybody, What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?, Norwood and Who is Harry Kellerman? After Dom’s hilarious role in The Twelve Chairs, Mel Brooks included Dom in some of his best comedies including Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World — Part 1, Spaceballs, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Dom’s personal favorite is The End.

In 1982 he appeared on the TV special “Baryshnikov in Hollywood.� In 1983 he played an unusual dramatic role in the TV movie “Happy� as a down-on-his-luck TV comic who puts his family in jeopardy as he tries to find his partner’s killer. Dom appeared in Die Fledermaus, Metropolitan Opera’s productions, from 1990 to 1997. He performed at the White House, entertaining Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush and Clinton.

Dom also became known as a best-selling author, writing two “Eat This� cookbooks, as well as his well-received children’s books, “Charlie the Caterpillar,� “Goldilocks,� “King Bob’s New Clothes,� “Hansel & Gretel,� and “The Nightingale.�

Dom was devoted to his father and during one of his appearances in Las Vegas he proudly showed an enlarged photo of his father and sang an Italian aria dedicated to his father’s memory.

With a career boasting credits in stage, screen and television acting and directing so numerous it would take this full page to list, Dom Deluise was named the very first “Welcome Back to Brooklyn� King in 1984 with a place of honor on the Brooklyn Celebrity Path in Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Dom Deluise died on May 4, 2009 at the age of 75.

— Vernon Parker

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