hollywood: Danny Thomas

Saturday, 30 June 2012

Danny Thomas

He took his stage name from his eldest brother Thomas and his youngest brother Danny. Most of his friends called him "Jake."Though he was a spokesman for Sanka brand Decaffeinated Coffee, he later confessed that he never drank it. He claimed he could drink cup after cup of Maxwell House Coffee and still fall asleep mere minutes later.Child of Lebanese immigrants.Thomas was born in Deerfield, Michigan, to Charles Yakhoob Kairouz and his wife Margaret Taouk in 1912.^[3] His parents were Maronite Catholic immigrants fromLebanon.^[4] Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St. Francis de Sales Church (Roman Catholic), Woodward High School and finally The University of Toledo, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.^[5] Thomas wasconfirmed in the Catholic Church by the bishop of Toledo, Samuel Stritch. Stritch, a native of Tennessee, was a lifelong spiritual advisor for Thomas, and urged him to locate the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis.^[6]^[7] He married Rose Marie Cassaniti in 1936, a week after his 24th birthday