Monday, Jun. 28, 2010
Danny Thomas
Correction Appended: August 5, 2013
In the 1950s and early 60s, Danny Thomas practically was television. The actor and producer not only had his own show — creatively named The Danny Thomas Show — but he also worked in varying capacities for The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mod Squad and The Andy Grifith Show. Yet he still found time to found St. Jude's Children Hospital in 1962. Today, the Memphis, Tenn. research hospital is one of the leading pediatric hospitals in the country. In 1996, one of its doctors, Peter Doherty, won a Nobel Prize for his work on the immune system and the discovery of T cells.
The original version of this story misstated the year Doherty won a Nobel Prize.