I’ll always remember Dom DeLuise in “The Cannonball Run”
“Dan-dun-duuuhn!!”
A portly man bursts into view, clad in a yellow jumpsuit and an orange hooded cape. He wears a domino mask, but a single word printed on his forehead reveals his identity: Captain Chaos.
That’s how I’ll always remember Dom DeLuise — as the goofy superhero in 1981’s “The Cannonball Run,“ befuddling cops and embarrassing co-star Burt Reynolds.
He passed away Monday at age 75.
Born in Brooklyn, DeLuise got his show business start start in the early 1960s as magician Dominick the Great on CBS’s “The Garry Moore Show,” often appearing alongside comedians Carol Burnett and Ruth Buzzi. He became a regular on TV variety shows “The Entertainers” and “The Dean Martin Summer Show.”
Early film roles included the comedies “The Glass-Bottom Boat” and “What’s So Bad About Feeling Good.”
Then in 1970, DeLuise appeared in Mel Brooks’ “The Twelve Chairs,” as a greedy priest vying with a street-smart gypsy (Frank Langella) for the priceless family fortune hidden in one of 12 handmade chairs.
A partnership was born.
DeLuise would go on to appear in four other Brooks films, playing an effeminate film director in “Blazing Saddles” and bloated, belching Emperor Nero in “History of the World: Part I.” He even provided the voice of “delicious” villain Pizza the Hutt in “Spaceballs.”
Just as fruitful was DeLuise’s partnership with Burt Reynolds, which included “Smokey and the Bandit II” and the “Cannonball Run” movies.
In both “Cannonball Run” films, he played mustachioed mechanic Victor Prinzim, who teams up with cool dude J.J. McClure (Reynolds) to drive an ambulance in a cross-country road race. He transforms, from time to time, into the wannabe hero Captain Chaos.
According to The Washington Post, DeLuise explained his inspiration for Captain Chaos this way:
“One day, I was in the schoolyard, nine guys were beatin’ me up pretty good, and there he was. Dun dun DUNNN! . . . out of the blue! Pow! Slam! Bam! Baff! I sure was grateful! Nobody bothered me at school after that.”
DeLuise also appeared in several films with Gene Wilder, including “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother” and “The World’s Greatest Lover” — a funny tribute to silent cinema that was filmed right here on the Central Coast.
He was a big, moon-faced man, a skilled improviser with a gift for physical comedy and funny expressions. And, man, he sure knew how to fill out a jumpsuit.
We’ll miss you, Captain Chaos.
She Likes to Watch 
I wish he had have recorded his voice for GPS like his co-star Burt Reynolds has. it would have been cool to have them both giving you funny-turn-by turn directions. I got Reynolds from a site called Navtones but if anyone knows where I can get DeLuise from, let me know.
A shame he was never promoted to major.