Comic actor/chef Dom DeLuise dies; was 75

LOS ANGELES - Dom DeLuise, the portly actor-comedian whose affable nature made him a popular character actor for decades, has died. He was 75.

DeLuise died Monday night, his son Michael told radio station KNX yesterday. The comedian died in his sleep after a long illness.

The actor, who loved to cook and eat almost as much as he enjoyed acting, also carved out a formidable second career as a chef. He wrote two cookbooks and would appear often on morning TV shows to whip up his favorite recipes.

He appeared in scores of movies and TV shows, in Broadway plays and voicing characters for numerous cartoon shows.

Writer-director-actor Mel Brooks particularly admired DeLuise's talent for offbeat comedy and cast him in many of his films, including "The Twelve Chairs," "Blazing Saddles," "Silent Movie," "History of the World Part I" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." DeLuise was also the voice of Pizza the Hutt in Brooks' "Star Wars" parody, "Spaceballs."

The actor also appeared frequently in films opposite his friend Burt Reynolds. Among them, "The End," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," "Smokey and the Bandit II," "The Cannonball Run" and "Cannonball Run II."

Other TV credits included appearances on such shows as "The Munsters," "The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.," "Burke's Law," "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" and "Diagnosis Murder."

On Broadway, DeLuise appeared in Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers," and other plays.

DeLuise was appearing on Broadway in "Here's Love" in the early 1960s when Garry Moore saw him and hired him to play the magician "Dominick the Great" on "The Garry Moore Show." His appearances on the hit comedy-variety program brought offers from Hollywood, and DeLuise first came to the attention of moviegoers in "Fail Safe," a drama starring Henry Fonda. He followed with a comedy, "The Glass Bottom Boat," starring Doris Day, and from then on he alternated between films and television.

"I was making $7,000 a week - a lot of money back then - but I didn't even know I was rich," he recalled in 1994. "I was just having such a great time."

He was born Dominick DeLuise in New York City on Aug. 1, 1933, to Italian immigrants. His father, who spoke only Italian, was a garbage collector, and those humble beginnings stayed with DeLuise throughout his life.

"My dad knows everything there is to know about garbage," another of the actor's three sons, David, told the AP in 2008. "He loves to pick up a broken chair and fix it."

DeLuise graduated from New York City's famed School of Performing Arts, in Manhattan.

While working in summer stock in Provincetown, Mass., he met a beautiful young actress, Carol Arthur, and they were soon married.

The couple's three sons, Peter, Michael and David, all appeared with their father in the 1990s TV series "SeaQuestDSV," in which Peter and Michael were regulars. David was one of the co-stars of the hit children's series "Wizards of Waverly Place." *