Poor Dominic, we barely knew thee....

It has been 24 hours since the press broke the news of the passing of "comedy legend" Dom DeLuise and, overcome with sadness and grief, I have felt driven to build something of a memorial to the career of this sad clown, this lover of life who entertained us all so very much through the years. 

The Cannonball Years....

I find it sad that most of America in their thirties and younger could only remember Dom as "Pizza the Hut" or worse, as the abused comic stooge of Burt Reynolds in the Cannonball Run "franchise" which graced American theaters from 1981 to 1984.

  

In case you have forgotten, the character portrayed by Dominic, Victor Prinzim, is slapped, kicked, gagged, punched, beaten and generally harassed by J.J. McClure, portrayed by cinematic legend, and former Florida State running back, Burt Reynolds.  If the movie itself were not enough, the end credits are played over a blooper reel in which DeLuise is again beaten senselessly whenever anyone on the set misses a line, giggles or is generally off script.  It is clear the Burt Reynolds takes great satisfaction in these slaps and smacks as he is often grinning from ear to ear like the jock stealing the fat kids lunch money on the playground.

Not unlike real life, Victor has an alter ego which emerges as needed to help him confront stressful or violent situations.  In the case of the character Victor, the alter ego was the super hero "Captain Chaos." The chivalrous, swashbuckling, cape laden hero would emerge suddenly voicing his own theme music loudly, "dun, dun, dun!!"  These are the moments that make watching Cannonball Run such a special experience.  

In real life the humiliation and degradation no doubt lead to an alter ego for Dom also.  Looking at his career in film up to the Cannonball Run series, Dom appeared to weigh only 250-300 pounds, practically average by the standards of the early 21st century.  After the series, he clearly began to gain weight.  Perhaps his alter ego in real life was "The Chef."

Only one look at the career of Dominic will show you that he was much more than a comic punching bag.  He was also an accomplished children's author as well as an author of several tremendously successful cookbooks celebrating his Brooklyn, New York Italian heritage.  His most successful book "Eat This, It'll Make You Feel Better" clearly speaks to the notion that his pain was medicated by food.  The source of this pain, Burt Reynolds and screenwriter for the Cannonball films, the evil Brock Yates.

The pain for Dominic reacher a fever pitch in 1984 as Cannonball Run 2 was filmed.  Forced not only to reprise the role of Victor for the sequel, another character was created for Dominic, that of the absurd mob boss Don Cannelloni.  In the only scene featuring Don Canneloni, DeLuise is forced to pet a dead cat, and claim that the stuttering, effeminate, Don Don, (Charles Nelson Riley) is his son.  Clearly this scene alone is enough to reduce ones dignity to dangerous levels. 

Was he or wasn't he....

Fellow Blogger 4thtennenbaum on Yahoo writes, "Were Burt Reynolds and Dom Deluise gay for each other? Did Loni Anderson or one of Burt's wifes say something about that?"

Really?  He trips your gaydar?  This man was 300+ most of his adult life and you are figuring him for gay because he was effeminate and submissive?  Hmmm.  Really? By that measure there would be a lot more closeted entertainers out there,  Guys like Harvey Firestein, Elton John, Louis Anderson, Nathan Lane, they would all have to be gay too!!  Uh oh.

Well, before you try to show up in drag to the memorial service, he did have three sons and was happily married for 30 years.  I know that this is not enough for some, many times we have discovered a celebrity or politician leading a double life.  However, I assure you that despite all of the evidence to the contrary, I do not for a second believe that he was gay.  My evidence, his sons.  None of them are gay and they all have had a good relationship with him.  Ever seen a gay guy try to talk to his son, or a son try to talk to his gay dad?  I have.  It isn't pretty.  I dated a girl once with a gay dad, it was fireworks in that house all day and night.