1. Danny Thomas created and starred in The Danny Thomas Show.
35 Facts About Danny Thomas
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Already a successful entertainer, Danny Thomas began his film career in 1947, playing opposite child actress Margaret O'Brien in The Unfinished Dance and Big City.
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Danny Thomas then starred in the long-running television sitcom Make Room for Daddy from 1953 to 1964, in which he played the lead role of Danny Williams.
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Danny Thomas was the father of Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas.
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One of 10 children, Danny Thomas was born Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz on January 6,1912, in Deerfield, Michigan, to Charles Yaqoob Kairouz and his wife Margaret Taouk.
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Danny Thomas's parents were Maronite Catholic immigrants from what is Bsharri, Lebanon.
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Danny Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St Francis de Sales Church, Woodward High School.
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In 1932, Danny Thomas began performing on radio in Detroit at WMBC on The Happy Hour Club.
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Danny Thomas first performed under his anglicized birth name, "Amos Jacobs Kairouz".
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In 1936, a week after his 24th birthday, Danny Thomas married Rose Marie Cassaniti.
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Danny Thomas first reached mass audiences on network radio in the 1940s playing shifty brother-in-law Amos in The Bickersons, which began as sketches on the music-comedy show Drene Time, starring Don Ameche and Frances Langford.
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Danny Thomas portrayed himself as a scatterbrained Lothario on this show.
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Danny Thomas portrayed songwriter Gus Kahn opposite Doris Day in the 1951 film biography I'll See You in My Dreams.
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Danny Thomas then starred in The Jazz Singer opposite the popular contemporary vocalist Peggy Lee, a 1952 remake of the 1927 original.
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In 1952, Danny Thomas recorded several Arabic folk songs with Toufic Barham for a Saint Jude Hospital Foundation fundraiser record.
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On January 1,1959, Danny 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.
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Danny Thomas scored a major success at the London Palladium, in the years when many big American stars appeared there.
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Danny Thomas was loud and gregarious, nothing like my real dad who is far more reserved than that.
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Danny Thomas didn't have to do that and I am very grateful he did.
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In 1965 and 1966, Danny Thomas presented The Wonderful World of Burlesque, featuring Lucille Ball, Jerry Lewis, Don Adams, Carol Channing, Andy Griffith, Sheldon Leonard, and Shirley Jones.
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Danny Thomas produced three series for Walter Brennan: The Real McCoys, The Tycoon, and The Guns of Will Sonnett on ABC during the late 1950s and 1960s.
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Danny Thomas was responsible for Mary Tyler Moore's first "big break" in acting.
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Danny Thomas returned to series TV in the NBC sitcom The Practice, airing from January 1976 to January 1977.
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Danny Thomas was guest of honor in The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast that aired on December 15,1976, on NBC.
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Danny Thomas guest-starred in "In Full Command", 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.
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Danny Thomas appeared in the TV movie Side by Side, opposite Milton Berle and Sid Caesar.
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In 1962, with help from Dr Lemuel Diggs and close friend Anthony Abraham, an auto magnate in Miami, Florida, Danny Thomas founded the St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
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Danny Thomas was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.
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Danny Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins, along with Joe Robbie, but he sold his share soon after the purchase.
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Danny Thomas was the first non-Jewish member of the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.
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In 1990, Danny Thomas was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
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In 1991, Danny Thomas died after a heart attack at his home in Beverly Hills, a hospital spokesman said.
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Danny Thomas is interred in a mausoleum on the grounds of the St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, alongside his wife.
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Danny Thomas was a posthumous recipient of the 2004 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.
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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.