Don Ameche

Ameche has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6101 Hollywood Boulevard. Bates was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1996, and was knighted in 2003.He died of pancreatic cancer. His final scenes for the film Corrina, Corrina (1994) were completed only days before his death in Scottsdale, Arizona from prostate cancer. On television, his parts ranged from classic roles such as The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978) to Guy Burgess in An Englishman Abroad (1983) to the storyteller in the 2000 version of the Arabian Nights. Ameche's next role, in Cocoon (1985), won him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and he continued working for the rest of his life (including a role in the sequel, Cocoon: The Return). Bates starred in such international hit films as Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, Zorba the Greek, An Unmarried Woman and Women in Love, but he consciously decided to concentrate on a few well-defined roles, rather than to take everything that came his way. The actors played rich brothers intent on ruining an innocent man for the sake of a bet and the film's great success, and their acclaimed comedic performances, brought them both back into the limelight. He was married to the actress, Victoria Ward, from 1970 until her death in 1992; they had two sons.

For three decades he was virtually absent from films, until he was cast alongside fellow veteran actor Ralph Bellamy in the film Trading Places in 1983. He soon starred in Whistle Down the Wind, and in the Bernard Malamud film The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. By the end of the decade his films had lost appeal, and he turned to radio where he achieved great success during the fifties playing opposite Frances Langford in The Bickersons. Four years later, he appeared in The Entertainer, his first film role. He was so associated with his role as Bell that for a time, "Ameche" was slang for telephone. In 1956, he debuted on stage in the West End, starring in Look Back in Anger, a role which made him a star. He appeared successfully in such films as Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), as Alexander Graham Bell in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939) and Heaven Can Wait (1943). Born in Derbyshire, Bates earned a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he studied before leaving to join the Royal Air Force.

He made his film debut in 1935 and by the late thirties had established himself as a leading actor in Hollywood. Sir Alan Arthur Bates (February 17, 1934 - December 27, 2003) was a British actor. Born Dominic Felix Amici in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Ameche began his career in vaudeville with Texas Guinan until Guinan dropped him from the act, dismissing him as "too stiff". Don Ameche (May 31, 1908 - December 6, 1993) was an American actor.