Long-Time Comedian Dom DeLuise Dies at 75

Dom DeLuise had always been on the portly side, although he had experienced ups in downs in weight. He loved to cook, and eat, and authored two cookbooks. He would often appear on morning TV shows to with his favorite recipes.

At one point DeLuise weighed as much as 325 pounds. He finally lost weight in 1993 when he needed hip replacement surgery and his doctor refused to perform it until he lost 100 pounds.

Given that mandate, he enrolled at the Duke University Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, NC, and DeLuise lost enough weight for the surgery. Typical of DeLuise, he gained some of it back afterward.

Dom DeLuise had two big fans and cohorts in writer-director-actor Mel Brooks and actor Burt Reynolds. Brooks cast him in several of his films, including “The Twelve Chairs,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Silent Movie,” “History of the World Part I,” “Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and “Spaceballs.”

Burt Reynolds included him in the films “The End,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” ’Smokey and the Bandit II,” “The Cannonball Run” and “Cannonball Run II.”

Dom Deluise and his wife, Carol Deluise had three sons, Peter, Michael and David, who all became actors and all appeared with their father in the 1990s TV series “SeaQuestDSV,” in which Peter and Michael were regulars.