Danny Thomas

Name at birth: Muzyad Yahkoob

Danny Thomas starred in Make Room For Daddy, one of most popular TV family comedies of the 1950s. (The show ran from 1953-64, but changed networks in 1957 and was titled The Danny Thomas Show for the rest of its run.) Thomas was born into a family of Lebanese immigrants, and sang on the radio as a young man before graduating to work as a nightclub emcee and comedian. After World War II he worked his way into the movies and became a host of NBC's All Star Revue in the early days of television. He flopped and left television briefly, only to return with Make Room For Daddy. Thomas' production company was also responsible for television shows such as The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Andy Griffith Show. Thomas also founded the St. Jude's Research Hospital, which is dedicated to finding cures for catastrophic children's diseases. The hospital opened in 1962 in Memphis, Tennessee.