Acting During this time, four fellow students and he wrote a play called
Where Do We Go from Here? It was presented in a little theater in Hollywood with DeFore in the cast. As a young man, DeFore toured the country in stock companies for several years before making his Broadway debut in
Where Do We Go from Here? in 1938, when
Oscar Hammerstein II offered to take it to Broadway, and DeFore and five of the original cast members went along. The show ran for four weeks, and DeFore was soon recognized as a member of legitimate theater. He remained in New York and won a key role in
The Male Animal, which ran for almost eight months on Broadway and eight months on the road. In Hollywood, DeFore's first screen appearance was in a bit part in 1936's
Reunion. By the early 1940s, he was appearing regularly in films such as:
The Male Animal (1942),
A Guy Named Joe (1943),
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944),
You Came Along (1945),
Without Reservations (1946),
It Happened on 5th Avenue (1947),
Romance on the High Seas (1948),
My Friend Irma (1949), and
Jumping Jacks (1952). In 1946, exhibitors voted him the fourth-most promising "star of tomorrow". DeFore also worked in radio, performing on such programs as
Suspense, Old Gold Comedy Theater, and
Lux Radio Theatre, but he is best known for his work in television. Beginning in 1952, DeFore had a recurring role as the Nelsons' friendly neighbor, "Thorny", on the
ABC sitcom
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, earning a nomination in 1955 for a
Best Supporting Actor in a Regular Series Primetime Emmy Award. In time, though, the role of Thorny was superseded by
Lyle Talbot as Joe Randolph, and
Mary Jane Croft as his wife Clara. From 1954 to 1955, he served as president of the
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He was instrumental in arranging for the
Emmy Awards to be broadcast on national television for the first time on March 7, 1955. From 1961 to 1965, DeFore was a co-star of the television series
Hazel as George Baxter, employer of the spirited, domineering housekeeper Hazel Burke, played by
Shirley Booth and based on the cartoon character appearing in
The Saturday Evening Post. In 1970, DeFore appeared as Mayor Evans on the TV Western
The Men from Shiloh in the episode titled "Colonel Mackenzie Versus the West". In that role, he played a murderer, which was a major shift from the comedy roles for which he was better known on
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and
Hazel. For his contribution to the television industry, Don DeFore has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6804 Hollywood Blvd.
Writing In 1965, DeFore and his daughter Penny wrote
With All My Love, a book detailing Penny's experiences working in a Korean orphanage. DeFore's memoirs, "Hollywood DeFore 'n After", were never published, however, his youngest son, Ron, included portions in his book,
Growing Up in Disneyland, Waldorf Publishing 2019, along with his own biography. The title was a metaphor for his life in a celebrity family but was also literal as his father was the only person to own a food establishment bearing the name of a real person: "Don DeFore's Silver Banjo Barbecue" in Frontierland, 1957–1962. ==Personal life==