Ed Ames, the youngest member of the well-known 1950s singing group the Ames Brothers, who later grew to become a productive actor in television and musical theater, has died. He was 95.
The very last survivor of the four singing brothers, Ames died Might 21 from Alzheimer’s condition, his spouse, Jeanne Ames, reported Saturday.
“He had a fantastic existence,” she reported.
On tv, Ames was possible best recognized for his role as Mingo, the Oxford-educated Native American in the 1960s experience collection “Daniel Boone” that starred Fess Parker as the well-known frontiersman. He also was the heart of a bit on “The Tonight Show” that — thanks to his painfully uncanny goal with a hatchet — grew to become just one of the show’s most memorable surprise moments.
Ames experienced visitor roles in Tv collection these types of as “Murder, She Wrote” and “In the Heat of the Night time,” and toured regularly in musicals, executing this sort of popular music as “Try to Remember” and the music that grew to become his biggest hit single, “My Cup Runneth In excess of.”
As part of the 1950s tunes scene, he and his brothers were just one of various pop quartets that included the 4 Aces, 4 Lads, Gaylords, Hilltoppers, Lancers, 4 Knights, Ink Places and, nonetheless about from a past era, the Mills Brothers. But the Ames Brothers — Ed, Joe, Gene and Vic — experienced a one of a kind tone: they had been basses and baritones, not tenors.
Their recordings of “Rag Mop,” “Sentimental Me” and “Undecided” became huge hits, and they launched a hectic occupation appearing on Television set wide variety reveals, recording 40 albums and taking part in in night clubs and auditoriums throughout the country.
By the conclusion of the 1950s, rock ‘n’ roll experienced overtaken the pop charts and singing quartets were being on the decline. The Ameses, meanwhile, had worn out of the regular vacation and absence from their escalating people. The finale for Ed came when he arrived house unexpectedly and his wife called to their 3-year-old daughter: “Who is it?” The girl replied, “One of the Ames Brothers.”
“That did it,” he advised a reporter. “My brothers and I agreed that we experienced all experienced it and need to go our individual means.” The group, which was earning $20,000 a week, performed its past engagement at the Sahara in Las Vegas on New Year’s 1961.
Ed’s attempts to build himself as a solo singer were not immediately effective and he turned to performing. He nearly missing his residence right before he located a part in a production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”
In the extended-running musical “The Fantasticks,” he sang “Try to Recall,” which grew to become one particular of his concept music. He joined the traveling enterprise of Gower Champion’s “Carnival” and transferred to the New York business till the show’s ultimate overall performance.
In a role that presaged his future purpose on “Daniel Boone,” he then received focus as the stoic Indigenous American in the 1963 Broadway participate in “One Flew Around the Cuckoo’s Nest” with Kirk Douglas and Gene Wilder in the adaptation of Ken Kesey’s novel.
Ames gained top funds at Las Vegas casinos and in lodge supper clubs and toured thoroughly in the musicals “Man of La Mancha,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “South Pacific” and “I Do, I Do.”
“I Do, I Do” presented his largest hit single, “My Cup Runneth About,” a gold document winner in 1967. He had yet another hit in 1968 with “Who Will Solution?”
It was during his run on “Daniel Boone” that he contributed to what was called the longest sustained burst of laughter in the heritage of “The Tonight Demonstrate.”
For a 1965 episode he was persuaded to demonstrate the hatchet-throwing competencies he learned as Mingo. The silhouette of a cowboy was painted on a piece of wood, and Ames threw a hatchet at the target. It landed on squarely on the cowboy’s crotch.
Ames was born Edmund Dantes Urick in Malden, Massachusetts, the youngest of 11 small children, 4 who died in childhood. Their moms and dads have been Ukrainian immigrants and their mom taught the children to read Shakespeare and to respect songs they read each Saturday on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts.
The 4 youngest boys started singing at regional events as the Urick Brothers. Ed was continue to in substantial faculty when they moved to night clubs, but as a husky 6-footer with a deep voice, he was in a position to pass for 21.
In New York, comedy author Abe Burrows suggested a title improve simply because Urick was really hard to keep in mind. Ames was the brothers’ choice.
Soon after the 4 brothers split up, the other brothers also ongoing performing and recording, but obtained significantly less recognize than Ed. Vic died in 1978, Gene in 1997 and Joe in December 2007.
Ames and his 1st spouse, Sara Cacheiro, had three children: Sonja, Ronald and Linda. The few divorced in 1978, and in 1998 he married Jeanne Arnold.
