R.I.P. Ed Ames, singer, TV actor, and Broadway star
The career triple threat died earlier this week in Los Angeles at the age of 95
Ed Ames, an entertainment industry veteran whose lengthy career spanned television screens, Broadway stages, and pop charts, died on May 21 in Los Angeles. He was 91 years old. Ames’ wife, Jeanne, told The Hollywood Reporter that Ames had been living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Perhaps best known for playing Mingo, the Cherokee Indian sidekick of Fess Parker’s Daniel Boone during the TV Western’s first four seasons (which aired from 1964-68), Ames’ small screen credits also include The Rifleman, McCloud, Murder She Wrote, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and Jake and the Fatman. He also made a significant mark on The Tonight Show in 1965, demonstrating tomahawk throwing to host Johnny Carson and striking a wooden outline of a cowboy right in the groin in the process. As the audience fell into one of the longest laugh breaks in the show’s history—around four minutes—Carson ad-libbed “I didn’t even know you were Jewish!” and “Welcome to Frontier Bris!”
