Ed Ames, the youngest member of the favored Fifties singing group the Ames Brothers, who later turned a profitable actor in tv and musical theater, has died. He was 95.
The final survivor of the 4 singing brothers, Ames died Could 21 from Alzheimer’s illness, his spouse, Jeanne Ames, mentioned Saturday.
“He had an exquisite life,” she mentioned.
On tv, Ames was possible greatest recognized for his function as Mingo, the Oxford-educated Native American within the Sixties journey sequence “Daniel Boone” that starred Fess Parker because the well-known frontiersman. He additionally was the middle of a bit on “The Tonight Present” that — due to his painfully uncanny goal with a hatchet — turned one of many present’s most memorable shock moments.
Ames had visitor roles in TV sequence comparable to “Homicide, She Wrote” and “Within the Warmth of the Night time,” and toured steadily in musicals, performing such widespread songs as “Attempt to Bear in mind” and the track that turned his greatest hit single, “My Cup Runneth Over.”
As a part of the Fifties music scene, he and his brothers have been one in every of quite a few pop quartets that included the 4 Aces, 4 Lads, Gaylords, Hilltoppers, Lancers, 4 Knights, Ink Spots and, nonetheless round from a earlier period, the Mills Brothers. However the Ames Brothers — Ed, Joe, Gene and Vic — had a novel tone: they have been basses and baritones, not tenors.
Their recordings of “Rag Mop,” “Sentimental Me” and “Undecided” turned huge hits, they usually launched a busy profession showing on TV selection exhibits, recording 40 albums and enjoying in evening golf equipment and auditoriums throughout the nation.
By the tip of the Fifties, rock ‘n’ roll had overtaken the pop charts and singing quartets have been on the decline. The Ameses, in the meantime, had uninterested in the fixed journey and absence from their rising households. The finale for Ed got here when he arrived dwelling unexpectedly and his spouse known as to their 3-year-old daughter: “Who’s it?” The lady replied, “One of many Ames Brothers.”
“That did it,” he informed a reporter. “My brothers and I agreed that we had all had it and may go our separate methods.” The group, which was incomes $20,000 every week, performed its final engagement on the Sahara in Las Vegas on New 12 months’s 1961.
Ed’s efforts to ascertain himself as a solo singer weren’t instantly profitable and he turned to appearing. He nearly misplaced his home earlier than he discovered a task in a manufacturing of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”
Within the long-running musical “The Fantasticks,” he sang “Attempt to Bear in mind,” which turned one in every of his theme songs. He joined the touring firm of Gower Champion’s “Carnival” and transferred to the New York firm till the present’s ultimate efficiency.
In a task that presaged his future function on “Daniel Boone,” he then gained consideration because the stoic Native American within the 1963 Broadway play “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” with Kirk Douglas and Gene Wilder within the adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel.
Ames earned prime cash at Las Vegas casinos and in resort supper golf equipment and toured extensively within the musicals “Man of La Mancha,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “South Pacific” and “I Do, I Do.”
“I Do, I Do” offered his greatest hit single, “My Cup Runneth Over,” a gold report winner in 1967. He had one other hit in 1968 with “Who Will Reply?”
It was throughout his run on “Daniel Boone” that he contributed to what was known as the longest sustained burst of laughter within the historical past of “The Tonight Present.”
For a 1965 episode he was persuaded to display the hatchet-throwing abilities he realized as Mingo. The silhouette of a cowboy was painted on a chunk of wooden, and Ames threw a hatchet on the goal. It landed on squarely on the cowboy’s crotch.
Ames was born Edmund Dantes Urick in Malden, Massachusetts, the youngest of 11 youngsters, 4 who died in childhood. Their dad and mom have been Ukrainian immigrants and their mom taught the kids to learn Shakespeare and to understand music they heard each Saturday on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.
The 4 youngest boys started singing at native occasions because the Urick Brothers. Ed was nonetheless in highschool after they moved to nighttime golf equipment, however as a husky six-footer with a deep voice, he was capable of move for 21.
In New York, comedy author Abe Burrows suggested a reputation change as a result of Urick was onerous to recollect. Ames was the brothers’ selection.
After the 4 brothers break up up, the opposite brothers additionally continued performing and recording, however gained much less discover than Ed. Vic died in 1978, Gene in 1997 and Joe in December 2007.
Ames and his first spouse, Sara Cacheiro, had three youngsters: Sonja, Ronald and Linda. The couple divorced in 1978, and in 1998 he married Jeanne Arnold.
The late Related Press author Bob Thomas was a contributor to this report from Los Angeles.
