Danny Thomas

Actor / Humanitarian

Name at birth: Muzyad Yahkoob

Danny Thomas starred in Make Room For Daddy, one of most popular TV family comedies of the 1950s. (The show ran from 1953-64, but changed networks in 1957 and was titled The Danny Thomas Show for the rest of its run.) Thomas was born into a family of Lebanese immigrants, and sang on the radio as a young man before graduating to work as a nightclub emcee and comedian. After World War II he worked his way into the movies and became a host of NBC's All Star Revue in the early days of television. He flopped and left television briefly, only to return with Make Room For Daddy. Thomas' production company was also responsible for television shows such as The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Andy Griffith Show. Thomas also founded the St. Jude's Research Hospital, which is dedicated to finding cures for catastrophic children's diseases. The hospital opened in 1962 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Extra credit: Thomas did stand-up comedy under the name Amos Jacobs before finally taking the name Danny Thomas... Thomas is the father of Marlo Thomas, star of the TV sitcom That Girl, which ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971; Marlo Thomas married TV host Phil Donahue in 1980... Danny Thomas and his wife Rose Marie are buried in a memorial garden on the grounds of St. Jude's... Another popular hospital builder was Singapore's Tan Tock Seng.

Thomas appears with outlaw Jesse James in our loop on Celebs Missing Fingers.