Danny Thomas
TV Actor — born 1912
Danny Thomas was a reputed American entertainer, comedian, TV and film actor.
Danny Thomas was an American comedian, singer, and actor whose six-decade career produced two American TV-show lead roles — the ABC/CBS sitcom Make Room for Daddy (later The Danny Thomas Show, 1953–1965) — and the 1962 founding of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, one of the most-iconic American children's medical institutions of the 20th century. He was born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz on January 6, 1912, in Deerfield, Michigan, into a Lebanese-American Maronite Catholic family of grocery merchants.
His pre-stardom career included nightclub-comedy work across Detroit-area Chicago-area venues through the 1930s and early 1940s. The stage name "Danny Thomas" — adopted in his late twenties — was constructed from his two brothers' names. His CBS Radio and ABC TV breakthrough came in the late 1940s and early 1950s with the The Big Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour.
His ABC/CBS sitcom Make Room for Daddy (later renamed The Danny Thomas Show) ran for 11 seasons across 343 episodes from 1953 to 1965. The family-comedy format — built around Thomas as the patriarch of a Lebanese-American showbiz family — made the show one of the most-watched American TV programs of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital — founded by Thomas in 1962 in Memphis, Tennessee — has been continuously cited as one of the most-iconic American children's medical institutions. The hospital provides free pediatric oncology and treatment-research services to all admitted children regardless of family financial means, with continuous operating costs (over $3 million per day in the 2020s) funded through American public donations through the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC). Thomas continued his St. Jude fundraising work continuously until his death on February 6, 1991, at age 79, in Los Angeles.
His name Danny is the English short form of Daniel (from the Hebrew Dani'el meaning "God is my judge"). Danny has been continuously among the most-popular American boys' names for over half a century.
About the name Danny
Gender: Male · Origin: Hebrew
God Will Judge