Dom DeLuise, 75; Actor Was Town’s 1984 Honorary Mayor

Actor Dom DeLuise, a former honorary mayor of Pacific Palisades, died peacefully in his sleep on May 4, with his family by his side. He was 75. A jovial man of great girth and gusto with a joie de vivre and a hearty, hoarse laugh, DeLuise was best known as a comic actor and the co-star of many a Mel Brooks comedy, including ‘Blazing Saddles,’ ‘Silent Movie,’ ‘History of the World, Part I,’ ‘Spaceballs’ and ‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights.’ He also co-starred in numerous comedies with best friend Burt Reynolds, among them ‘Smokey and the Bandit II,’ ‘The End,’ ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ and the ‘Cannonball Run’ series. ‘It was always great fun to work with Burt because you could ad lib,’ DeLuise told the Palisadian-Post in 2006. ‘I feel like Burt is my brother because we have so much fun together.’ ‘I met Dom several times,’ said actor Steve Guttenberg, also a former Palisades honorary mayor, in an e-mail to the Post. ‘He was so kind and generous. He was a true artist, always creating something: comedy, food, a routine with his birds.’ Born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 1, 1933, Dominick DeLuise grew up with two siblings in an Italian immigrant family. ‘My father used to yell and scream a lot,’ DeLuise told the Post. ‘When he would leave the room, we would all be trembling and I’d make some sort of joke about him scaring us. This is when I first realized I could in fact make people laugh.’ After graduating from Manhattan’s High School of the Performing Arts, DeLuise spent his summers at the Cleveland Playhouse. In 1961, he debuted in the off-Broadway hit, ‘Little Mary Sunshine.’ He met his wife, actress Carol Arthur, while appearing in a summer production of ‘Summer & Smirk’ in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He also starred in the 1968 Broadway production of Neil Simon’s ‘Last of the Red Hot Lovers.’ His first television appearance, as ‘Dominick the Great’ on ‘The Garry Moore Show,’ led to a variety of television credits, including a regular role on ‘The Entertainers’ with Carol Burnett and Bob Newhart. For 12 years, he appeared on ‘The Dean Martin Show.’ He also made myriad memorable appearances as a guest or guest host on ‘The Tonight Show.’ After moving to Los Angeles, DeLuise broke into the movie business appearing in Sydney Lumet’s 1964 drama ‘Failsafe’ and the 1966 Frank Tashlin comedy, ‘The Glass Bottom Boat.’ He was cast in Brooks’ first feature, ‘The Twelve Chairs,’ at the urging of Brooks’ wife, actress Anne Bancroft. He received $15,000 to play in (Continued on Page 3) the 1967 low-budget but still-appreciated comedy. DeLuise also memorably played the heavy in a pair of comedies written and directed by Gene Wilder: ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother’ and ‘World’s Greatest Lover.’ ‘I was able to watch my dad work with Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner,’ David DeLuise, star of Disney Channel’s ‘Wizard of Waverly Place,’ told the Post last December. ‘We got to go on the set of ‘Cannonball Run’ and we got to meet Jackie Chan. It was pretty amazing.’ Years after Bancroft had helped DeLuise, the rotund actor returned the favor by starring in her 1980 directorial debut, ‘Fatso,’ a bittersweet drama. DeLuise enjoyed a healthy side career by lending his distinctive voice to animated features, among them Disney’s ‘Oliver & Company,’ ‘All Dogs Go to Heaven’ and several ‘An American Tail’ movies. DROP CAP Married in 1965, DeLuise and his wife Carol raised their sons Peter, Michael and David, in Pacific Palisades, and they all have become actors. Their ranch house was always filled with an assortment of tropical fish and pet birds (including Dom’s beloved Charlie, an Amazon parrot, and Pavarotti, a cockatiel. See the Postcard photo, page 2.) DeLuise served as grand marshal of the town’s Fourth of July parade in 1983, and, from 1984 through 1986, he was honorary mayor. Current honorary mayor Gavin MacLeod told the Post this week, ‘Every time I knew I was going to see Dom, I got excited because he was really a ray of sunshine in this dark world. From the first time I ever saw him on TV, he was a person who made you heal because he made you laugh. Laughter is healing because of the endorphins it releases. Dom was a healer.’ ‘He was so funny,’ MacLeod continued. ‘I was over at his house once and I asked him, ‘How’s your diet going?’ He said, ‘It’s going great. But then, at 3 a.m., I hear the pork chops in the refrigerator calling out, ‘Come eat me, come eat me!” At the 1986 Chamber of Commerce installation dinner, held at the Bel-Air Bay Club, executive director Arnie Wishnick recalled, ‘The community was saying good-bye to Dom DeLuise and welcoming incoming honorary mayor Chevy Chase. The room was packed. One guest was unable to find a babysitter and brought the baby. Instead of a reverential, respectful installation, the well-behaved infant sent Dom and Chevy into a hilarious routine of baby jokes.’ In May 2006, Friends of Film honored DeLuise with a lifetime achievement award at the third annual Palisades Film Festival. He received the honor at Chefmakers Cooking Academy on Via de la Paz, and Friends of Film executive director Bob Sharka joked, ‘We’re very proud to be honoring Dom’I can’t think of a better place to hold this event, as Dom is a local guy who, like me, is no stranger to the kitchen.’ In fact, DeLuise authored three best-selling cookbooks containing his favorite Italian recipes (‘Eat This: It’ll Make You Feel Better,’ ‘Eat This Too’ and ‘Eat This Again’), hosted a cooking segment on radio, and even had his own Web site where he sent out monthly recipes and cooking tips. He also wrote seven children’s books, including ‘Charlie the Caterpillar’ and ‘The Pouch Potato.’ ‘A lady once pinched my cheeks in an elevator and said, ‘I’d like to make soup for you,” DeLuise once told the Post, confirming how he projected an image as everyone’s favorite uncle. ‘They wouldn’t do that to Burt Reynolds or Spencer Tracy,’ he added with a laugh. Last December 19, DeLuise revealed on ‘Entertainment Tonight,’ with son David nearby, that he had recently overcome prostate cancer. David DeLuise said of his oft-recognized father: ‘Getting a great table at a restaurant because Dad is famous is nice, but then you gotta deal with the fans coming up to your father during dinner.’ He added, ‘I’ve never ever been on a set where someone hasn’t walked up to me and told me a story about their experience working with my dad, which makes me comfortable.’ ‘He was supremely talented,’ Guttenberg said. ‘Who could forget ‘The End,’ ‘The Twelve Chairs,’ ‘Failsafe,’ and his hilarious role as the director in ‘Blazing Saddles?” ‘Dom’s exuberance for life was awesome,’ MacLeod added. ‘With his departure, there is a vacancy that I don’t know who could fill.’ In 2006, the Post asked DeLuise how he hoped to be remembered. He responded: ‘They’re going to remember that I was round, that I was friendly, that I didn’t put anybody down when I did my jokes, and there was the smell of garlic in my home at all times.’