Alternately tagged as a novelty act and as Honolulu's answer to Dean Martin, the baritone lounge vocalist Don Ho was best known for his signature tune, "Tiny Bubbles," and for his trademark raspberry-colored sunglasses. The Kakaako-born chanteur signed with Sinatra's label, Reprise, in the early '60s, which issued his first album, The Don Ho Show, in 1965. Ho landed a massive hit with "Tiny Bubbles" in the fall of 1966, and issued a handful of albums in the ensuing years, but after 1969, Ho's record sales plummeted. To keep himself afloat as an entertainer, he not only became a club staple in his native Hawaii, but branched out into occasional film and television roles. These included guest appearances on such series programs as The Fall Guy, Charlie's Angels, Sanford and Son, The Brady Bunch, and I Dream of Jeannie (where the entertainer seemed particularly at home in the beach-laden setting of Cape Canaveral). Circa 1996, Ho signed for one of his only feature film roles: that of Alberto Bianco, a vile landlord who oversees several dilapidated tenements, in the MTV-produced, FX-laden picture Joe's Apartment. (The film's detractors decried the producers' decision to pass up an onscreen number by Ho and bequeath the singing roles to 5,000 cockroaches instead.) Several years after participating in the documentary Waikiki, in the Wake of Dreams, Ho died of heart failure in Honolulu. He was 76.
Don Ho
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Biography by AllMovie
Factsheet
- Of Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German descent.
- Joined the U.S. Air Force in 1954 and spent several years piloting transport and fighter planes, eventually reaching the rank of first lieutenant.
- Began performing publicly after he took over his parents' struggling Hawaiian bar, Honey, and his father asked him to put together a band.
- Released his first album, The Don Ho Show, in 1965.
- Typically began and ended all concerts with his signature song, "Tiny Bubbles," which hit No. 8 on the Billboard charts in the late '60s.
- Hosted a self-titled ABC variety show from 1976 to 1977.
- Made his big-screen debut in 1996, playing evil landlord Alberto Bianco in dark comedy Joe's Apartment.
- One of his 10 children, daughter Hoku, is a pop singer who performed the opening title song "Perfect Day" for the 2001 comedy Legally Blonde.