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- <text id=93TT2242>
- <title>
- Dec. 20, 1993: Died:Don Ameche
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Dec. 20, 1993 Enough! The War Over Handguns
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- MILESTONES, Page 16
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> DIED. DON AMECHE, 85, screen and stage star; in Scottsdale,
- Arizona. Ameche's early performances in radio drew the attention
- of Hollywood, and he was soon displaying his smooth versatility
- in such films as Midnight (1939), a light romantic comedy also
- starring Claudette Colbert, and The Story of Alexander Graham
- Bell (1939), a sober, earnest biopic. So closely was the actor
- associated with the latter role that for years after the film
- was released, Ameche was slang for telephone. As screen parts
- grew scarce for Ameche in the late 1940s, he turned to Broadway,
- where he became a musical star, performing in Cole Porter's
- Silk Stockings (1955) and other hits. He triumphantly returned
- to the screen as a deliciously ruthless millionaire in the 1983
- Eddie Murphy comedy Trading Places. As a result of that part--which had been intended for Ray Milland--Ameche was asked
- to play a sexually and spiritually revived old man in Cocoon
- (1985), and for his performance won an Oscar for Best Supporting
- Actor.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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