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Bill Dana (born William Szathmary, 5 October 1924 – 15 June 2017) was an American actor, comedy writer and songwriter. He is best known for his character of José Jiminez. Dana portrayed the Jiminez character on the album The Flintstones and José Jiminez in The Time Machine and the White Knight in The New Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?, which he also wrote.
Biography[]
Bill Dana was a comedian, author and composer of Hungarian-Jewish descent, educated at Emerson College. He served in the U.S. Infantry during World War II. Later, he was part of the team Dana and Wood on television and in supper clubs. As a single, Dana appeared on television with Martha Raye and Imogene Coca and was a writer for Steve Allen, and he also appeared in nightclubs and on records. After he joined ASCAP in 1958, his popular-song compositions included "My Name José Jiminez", "All About Love", and "Big Bells and Bongo Drummers".
Dana made seventeen appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show as José Jiminez, a thickly accented Bolivian whom Dana usually portrayed as an astronaut. He and his wife, Evelyn Shular, were married from 1981 until his death in 2017. They lived in Nashville, Tennessee.
External Links[]
- Bill Dana at the Internet Movie Database