Background and career
Donald Clark Osmond (born December 9, 1957) is an American singer, actor, television host and former teen idol. He gained fame performing with four of his elder brothers as the Osmonds, earning several top ten hits and gold albums. In the early 1970s, Osmond began a solo career, earning several additional top ten songs. He hosted the 1976–1979 variety series Donny & Marie, with his sister, Marie Osmond. The Donny & Marie duo also released a series of top ten hits and gold albums and hosted a syndicated and Daytime Emmy Award–nominated 1998–2000 talk show. Donny & Marie headlined a Las Vegas residency at the Flamingo Las Vegas from 2008 to 2019. He also competed on two reality TV shows, winning season 9 of Dancing with the Stars and being named runner-up for season 1 of The Masked Singer. He also hosted the game show Pyramid from 2002 to 2004.
Osmond was born on December 9, 1957, in Ogden, Utah, as the seventh child of Olive May (née Davis; 1925–2004) and George Virl Osmond (1917–2007). He is the brother of Virl, Tom, Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Marie, and Jimmy Osmond. Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay and Donny were members of the popular singing group Osmond Brothers. Osmond was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Utah along with his siblings. In his youth, Osmond held a ham radio license, listed as KA7EVD. Osmond was born with a rare, benign congenital condition known as situs inversus, where some of the body's major organs, such as the heart, are situated on the opposite side of the body from where they would normally be located.
In 1963, Donny Osmond made his debut on The Andy Williams Show at the age of six singing "You Are My Sunshine." Osmond's brothers had been part of the show's cast since December 1962. The brothers, who soon added Donny into the group, continued to perform on the show throughout the 1960s, along with an occasional visit from their sister Marie and brother Jimmy.
Osmond became a teen idol in the early 1970s as a solo singer, while continuing to sing with his older brothers. Osmond was one of the biggest "cover boy" pop stars for Tiger Beat, Flip and 16 magazines in the early 1970s. His first solo hit was a cover of Roy Orbison's 1958 recording of "Sweet and Innocent", which peaked at no. 7 in the U.S. in 1971. Osmond's follow-ups Steve Lawrence's "Go Away Little Girl" (1971) (U.S. no. 1), Paul Anka's "Puppy Love" (U.S. no. 3), and "Hey Girl/I Knew You When" (U.S. no. 9) (1972) vaulted him into international fame, further advanced by his November 20, 1972, appearance on the Here's Lucy show, where he sang Nat King Cole's "Too Young" to Lucy's niece, played by Eve Plumb, and sang with Lucie Arnaz ("I'll Never Fall in Love Again").
In the 1980s, all of the Osmonds abandoned their earlier image—which had originally been crafted to appeal to young viewers—hoping to reach a more adult audience. While his brothers moved toward country music to modest success, Donny was able to revive his career in popular music. He made an unlikely appearance as one of several celebrities and unknowns auditioning to sing for guitarist Jeff Beck in the video for Beck's 1985 single "Ambitious", which was produced by Paul Flattery and directed by Jim Yukich. This was followed in 1986 by an equally unlikely cameo in the animated Luis Cardenas music video "Runaway". He spent several years as a performer, before hiring the services of music and entertainment guru Steven Machat, who got Osmond together with English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel to see whether Machat and Gabriel could turn Osmond's image into a contemporary young pop act. They succeeded, returning Osmond to the US charts in 1989 with the Billboard Hot 100 no. 2 song "Soldier of Love" (originally announced on radio stations as "from a mystery singer") and its top twenty follow-up "Sacred Emotion". Launching an extensive tour in support of the Eyes Don't Lie record, he enlisted guitarist Dick Smith of Earth Wind & Fire and Kenny Loggins, along with keyboardist Mark Jackson.
Osmond was the guest vocalist on Dweezil Zappa's star-studded version of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" which appeared on Zappa's 1991 album Confessions. The song also included guitar solos from Zakk Wylde, Steve Lukather, Warren DeMartini, Nuno Bettencourt, and Tim Pierce. Osmond sang "No One Has to Be Alone", which was heard at the end of the film The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water. He also sang "I'll Make a Man Out of You" for Disney's Mulan. In 1998 Osmond released "Christmas at Home", which included an extra CD if purchased from Target stores.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
