Don Ameche was a radio star before Hollywood turned him into a movie star. Born Dominic Amici in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1908, he drifted toward acting through college productions and stock work, then entered Chicago broadcasting in 1930. Radio suited him immediately. He had a smooth, intelligent voice, could carry romance without stiffness and had enough comic ease to move into lighter material when a program demanded it.

His early radio career was substantial. Ameche worked on Empire Builders and became a leading man on First Nighter and Betty and Bob, programs that placed him inside both dramatic anthology and the emerging serial form. By the middle of the 1930s he was already a nationally familiar voice. Hollywood did not discover an unknown actor. It recruited a performer radio had already trained and popularized.

After moving to California, Ameche became a major presence on The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. As master of ceremonies, he had to manage music, guest stars, comedy and sponsor business while still sounding relaxed. It was a different discipline from dramatic acting and showed why he lasted so long in broadcasting. He could be host, straight man, romantic lead or comic participant without seeming to change professions.

Another radio identity came through The Bickersons. Opposite Frances Langford, Ameche played John Bickerson, half of a married couple whose comedy came from relentless nocturnal arguing. The routines were harsher and faster than the polished leading-man image associated with his films, and their popularity proved that audiences enjoyed hearing Ameche puncture his own screen persona.

His film career included major studio pictures such as The Story of Alexander Graham Bell and Heaven Can Wait, and decades later he won an Academy Award for Cocoon after a remarkable late-career return to prominence. The comeback sometimes makes his life look like two separate Hollywood careers. Radio reveals the continuity. Ameche had always been a performer who could shift formats without losing his basic charm.