Danny Thomas

Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz (January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991), known professionally as Danny Thomas, was an American entertainer, producer, and philanthropist. After launching his career in the 1940s in radio and cinema, he created and starred in the 1953–1964 television sitcom Make Room for Daddy / The Danny Thomas Show, and went on to produce a number of successful television programs. In 1962, he leveraged his celebrity status to establish St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, a leading center in pediatrics research and treatment, with a focus on pediatric cancer. He was the father of Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas.

One of 10 children, Danny Thomas was born Amos Muzyad Yaqoob Kairouz (Arabic: أموس مزيد يعقوب كيروز) on January 6, 1912, in Deerfield, Michigan, to Charles Yaqoob Kairouz (Arabic: تشارلز يعقوب كيروز) and his wife Margaret Taouk (Arabic: مارغريت طوق كيروز). His parents were Maronite Catholic immigrants from what is now Bsharri, Lebanon.

Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St. Francis de Sales Church and Woodward High School.

Bishop Samuel Stritch of Toledo performed Thomas' confirmation in the Catholic Church in 1921. Stritch, a native of Tennessee, was a lifelong spiritual advisor to Thomas, and would later advise him to locate the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis.

In 1932, Thomas began performing on radio in Detroit at WMBC on The Happy Hour Club. Thomas first performed under his anglicized birth name, "Amos Jacobs Kairouz".

In 1936, a week after his 24th birthday, Thomas married Rose Marie Cassaniti. (She had worked as a singer under the name of Rose Marie Mantel, and can often be found by her stagename.)

In 1940, after he moved to Chicago, Thomas did not want his friends and family to know he had gone back into working clubs where the salary was better, so he came up with the pseudonym "Danny Thomas" (after two of his brothers).

Thomas first reached mass audiences on network radio in the 1940s playing shifty brother-in-law Amos in The Bickersons, which began as sketches on the music-comedy show Drene Time, starring Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Thomas also portrayed himself as a scatterbrained Lothario on this show. His other network radio work included a stint as Jerry Dingle the postman on Fanny Brice's The Baby Snooks Show. In the early 1950s he made several appearances on the popular NBC variety program The Big Show hosted by stage legend Tallulah Bankhead.