Jim Ameche Collection

Jim Ameche
(1915 – 1983)

Sometimes, being the kid brother can be a good thing. Felice Amici immigrated from Montemonaco, Italy, and settled in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he found work as a bartender. He married the Barbara Hertel and they proceeded to have a passel of kids, including Catherine, Jane, Elizabeth, Dominic (b. 1908), Louis, James (b. 1915), and Umberto. The oldest son, Dominic, known as Don growing up, attended Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin, planning to study law. While at school, Don realized that acting was a lot more fun than studying law and that he was pretty good at it.

After leaving Marquette, he changed the spelling of his name to Ameche, did an acting apprenticeship with a stock company, and found a few jobs in Chicago radio. When Don heard that the advertising firm representing General Mills was looking for someone to play an "All-American Boy" he placed a call back to Kenosha for his kid brother, Jim, who was graduating from high school.

Don moved to New York where he was eventually hired for Texas Guinan's vaudeville act. Guinan dropped Ameche from the act after she decided he was "too stiff", but this gave him a chance to try his luck in Hollywood. Jim got the job to be the first to play Jack Armstrong the All-American Boy. Because the All-American Boy was supposed to be a composite and ideal for every young man, Jim received little in the way of on-air credit for the role, which he held until 1938 (the character remained on the air until 1951, maturing into a government agent for the last season).

Don's film career took off, hitting a high point when he starred in the biography picture, The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939), but he continued to have a successful radio career, including an extended stint as host of The Chase and Sanborn Hour starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. In January 1940, the entire cast was cut except for Bergen and McCarthy, and Jim was called in to replace his older brother. Jim continued to work in radio, hosting several shows from Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.

Jim was cast in the campy Atomic fable, The Story of Mankind (1957). Despite an all-star cast, the film was listed among "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time". The younger Ameche played Alexander Graham Bell, the role which catapulted Don to stardom in 1939.

Jim Ameche succumbed to lung cancer at Tucson Medical Center on February 4, 1983. He was 67. 

His older brother, Don won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Cocoon (1985). He passed away from prostate cancer on December 6, 1993. He was 85.  Don Ameche is remembered by two Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one at 6101 Hollywood Blvd for Television and the other at 6313 Hollywood Blvd for his work in Radio.