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Ed Ames, the youngest member of the popular singing group Ames Brothers in the 1950s who went on to become a successful television and musical theater actor, has died. He is 95 years old.
Eames, the last survivor of the four brothers, died of Alzheimer’s disease on May 21, his wife, Jenny Eames, said Saturday.
“He had a good life,” she said.
On television, Ames is probably best known for his role as Mingo, an Oxford-educated Native American, in the 1960s adventure series “Daniel Boone,” starring Fespark Famous pioneers. He’s also at the center of “The Tonight Show” — thanks to his excruciatingly uncanny aim with the ax — for one of the show’s most memorable moments of surprise.
Ames has made guest appearances on TV shows like “Murder, She Wrote” and “In the Heat of the Night,” and has toured frequently in musicals, singing hits like “Trying to Remember,” which became one of his most popular songs. The hit single, “My Cup Runs Out.”
As part of the music scene of the 1950s, he and his brothers were one of many popular quartets that included Four Aces, Four Lads, Gaylord, Hilltops, Lancers, Four Horsemen, Ink Spot , and the Mills Brothers who still exist from a previous era. But the Eames Brothers—Ed, Joe, Gene, and Vic—had a distinct timbre: They were basses and baritones, not tenors.
Their recordings of “Rag,” “Sentimental Me” and “Undecided” were instant hits, and they embarked on a busy career, appearing in TV variety shows, recording 40 albums, and performing in nightclubs and auditoriums across the country.
By the late 1950s, rock and roll had overtaken the pop charts, and singing quartets were in decline. Meanwhile, the Ameses have grown weary of the constant travel and being away from their growing family. His end came when Ed unexpectedly returned home, and his wife called their 3-year-old daughter: “Who was it?” The girl replied, “One of the Eames brothers.”
“That’s it,” he told reporters. “My brothers and I agreed that we’ve all been through this and that we should go our separate ways.” The $20,000-a-week band played its last show on New Year’s 1961 at the Sahara Desert in Las Vegas.
Ed’s efforts to establish himself as a solo artist were not immediately successful, and he turned to acting. He nearly lost his house before he landed a role in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
In the long-running musical “The Fantasticks,” he sang “Try to Remember,” which became one of his themes. He joined the touring troupe of Gower Champion’s “Carnival” and transferred to the New York troupe until the end of the show.
In a role that foreshadowed his future in “Daniel Boone,” he then played the stoic Native American in the 1963 Broadway play “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” alongside Kirk Douglas and Gene Wilder. Ken Casey’s adaptation of the novel won attention.
Eames made his fortune in Las Vegas casinos and hotel nightclubs, and has credits in the musicals “The Man of La Mancha,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “South Pacific” and “I Do, I Do.” conducted extensive tours.
“I Do, I Do” provided his biggest hit, “My Cup Is Over,” which was a gold record winner in 1967. He hit it again in 1968 with “Who’ll Answer?”
It was during his time on “Daniel Boone” that he contributed to the longest sustained laugh in “The Tonight Show” history.
In a 1965 episode, he is persuaded to demonstrate the ax-throwing skills he learned as Mingo. The outline of a cowboy was drawn on a piece of wood, and Emersy threw an ax towards the target. It lands right on the crotch of the denim.
Born Edmund Dantes Urick in Malden, Massachusetts, Eames was the youngest of 11 children, four of whom died in childhood. Their parents were Ukrainian immigrants, and their mother taught the children to read Shakespeare and enjoy the music they heard on the Metropolitan Opera radio every Saturday.
The four youngest boys began singing at local events as The Urick Brothers. Ed was still in high school when they moved to the nightclub, but he was able to reach 21 as a 6-foot husky with a deep voice.
In New York, comedy writer Abe Burrows suggested a name change because Urick was hard to remember. Eames was the brothers’ choice.
After the four brothers broke up, the other brothers continued to perform and record, but not as much attention as Ed. Vic died in 1978, Gene in 1997 and Joe in December 2007.
Eames married Sonia Saslawski in 1948, and they had three children: Sonia, Ronald, and Linda. The couple divorced in 1978 and he married Jeanne Arnold in 1998.
The late Associated Press writer Bob Thomas contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. all rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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