Veteran Actor Don Ameche, Won Oscar For `Cocoon' Role

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Don Ameche, versatile leading man of 1930s and '40s films whose comeback in the 1980s brought him an Oscar as supporting actor in "Cocoon," has died of prostate cancer. He was 85.

Ameche died last night at the home of his son, Don Jr., in Scottsdale, the son said today.

Ameche learned he had prostate cancer about 13 months ago, but by that time the disease had spread throughout his body, his son said. He lived as long as he could at his own Scottsdale home, then moved in with his son about 2 1/2 weeks ago.

He worked to the end, and in the first week of November finished his part in "Corrina, Corrina," a movie with Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta. Ameche plays a man whose son, Liotta, develops a relationship with a black housekeeper in the late 1950s.

"All the way up until the day he died, he'd wake up in the middle of the night and say to me, `What time do I have to go to work? What time are they picking me up?' " said his son. "He just loved it."

To an older generation of moviegoers, Ameche was remembered as the man who played the inventor of the telephone in the 1939 movie "The Story of Alexander Bell" and starred in light comedies such as "Heaven Can Wait" (1943).

But to younger fans, Ameche was best known for playing older characters in such hit movies as "Trading Places" in 1983, "Cocoon" in 1985 and its sequel, "Cocoon: The Return," in 1988.

He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Cocoon" as one of a group of old-age-home residents who discover a veritable fountain of youth.

Ameche's Oscar - the first of his career - marked his successful comeback after a long absence from the silver screen.

"You have given me your recognition. You've given me your love, you have given to me, and I hope I have earned, your respect," he said in accepting the award.

He was born Dominic Felix Amici in Kenosha, Wis., on May 31, 1908, to an Italian immigrant father and an Irish-German mother. In school his name was shortened to Don and his family name was Americanized.

Ameche was a star athlete and drama-club member at Columbia College in Dubuque, Iowa.

He failed a screen test at MGM in 1935. But an agent showed the test to Darryl Zanuck, chief of 20th Century Fox, and Zanuck made Ameche the busiest actor at the studio.

Ameche proved the ideal leading man for such stars as Loretta Young ("Ramona," "Love Under Fire"), Betty Grable ("Down Argentine Way," "Moon Over Miami") and especially Alice Faye ("In Old Chicago," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Hollywood Cavalcade").

Zanuck cast Ameche as Stephen Foster in "Swanee River" and as the telephone inventor in "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell." A generation of Americans called each other to the phone with "You're wanted on the Ameche."

Ameche believed his Hollywood slide began when he refused a three-year extension on his Fox contract, but he remained active in television and theater until "Trading Places" returned him to movie fame.

His other, later films include "Coming to America," "Harry and the Hendersons," and "Oscar."

Ameche married his childhood sweetheart, Honore Prendergast, in 1932, and they had four sons and two daughters.