Biography
After attending the High School of Performing Arts in New York, rotund comic actor Dom DeLuise secured his first professional job, playing Bernie the Dog with a children's theater troupe. He went on to work at the Cleveland Playhouse, then briefly considered becoming a high school biology teacher before landing a part in the off-Broadway production The Jackass. While appearing on Broadway in Meredith Willson's Here's Love, DeLuise made his TV bow on
The Garry Moore Show as Dominic the Great, a lovably inept magician. In 1964, he was featured in his first film, billed as "Dom DeLouise" in the apocalyptic nailbiter
Fail-Safe. That same year, he starred with
Carol Burnett and
Bob Newhart on the short-lived TV variety weekly
The Entertainers. After a second film appearance in the
Doris Day starrer
The Glass Bottom Boat (1965), DeLuise was signed to co-star with Rowan and Martin in a 1966 summer-replacement TV series. Two years later, he was hosting his own summertime weekly, The Dom DeLuise Show; one of the regulars on this outing was DeLuise's wife, comedienne Carol Arthur.
Soon afterward, his film career went into high gear thanks to director
Mel Brooks, who cast him to excellent advantage in
The Twelve Chairs (1970),
Blazing Saddles (1974),
Silent Movie (1976), History of the World -- Pt. I (1981), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). Likewise tapping into DeLuise's extensive comic repertoire was actor/director
Gene Wilder, who gave the pudgy funster carte blanche in
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) and
The World's Greatest Lover (1978). And when
Mel Brooks' wife,
Anne Bancroft, decided to give directing a try herself, she fashioned a full-length vehicle for DeLuise,
Fatso (1980). Not to be left out, DeLuise directed a film himself, the amiable crime caper
Hot Stuff (1980). All in all, DeLuise was afforded some of his best screen moments as
Burt Reynolds' manic sidekick in
The End (1978) and the
Cannonball Run flicks. As funny verbally as visually, DeLuise has provided voice-overs to such animated fare as
Oliver and Company (1987),
An American Tail (1987),
All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989), and
A Troll in Central Park (1994).
With all this activity, DeLuise still found time for additional television work, as star of the 1973 sitcom
Lotsa Luck and the 1987 improvisational syndicated The Dom DeLuise Show; he is also credited for "additional oohs and ahhs" on the 1992 Saturday morning cartoon weekly Feivel's American Tails. A lifelong opera buff, DeLuise has been given the opportunity from time to time to perform with various opera companies; in 1995, he brought down the house at New York's Metropolitan in the role of Frosh the Jailer in Die Fledermaus. As indicated by his girth, DeLuise is quite the gourmand, and has published a book on his favorite gastronomic concoctions, Eat This: It Will Make You Better. Dom DeLuise is the father of three sons, two of whom, Michael and
Peter DeLuise, have gone on to successful show business careers of their own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide