Legendary comedian Jerry Lewis dies at age 91
Jerry Lewis, the rubber-faced comedian and director whose fundraising telethons became as famous as his hit movies, has died.
Publicist Candi Cazau says Lewis died on Sunday morning of natural causes at age 91 in Las Vegas with his family by his side.
Lewis first became a star in a duo with Dean Martin, entertaining audiences in nightclubs, on television and in the movies.
Jerry Lewis died on the weekend. Source: AAP
After their split in 1956, he starred in and directed a slew of hit films such as The Nutty Professor.
Later generations in America knew him primarily as the tireless conductor of the Labor Day weekend telethons to raise funds for victims of muscular dystrophy.
Lewis retired from making movies in 1995, but returned as star of the 2016 drama Max Rose.
Lewis died from natural causes after a long and colourful career in comedy. Source: AP
Once Hollywood’s most bankable star, Lewis fronted more than 50 movies, from the light Martin-and-Lewis fare of Artists and Models to Martin Scorsese’s darkly funny The King of Comedy.
Born Joseph Levitch (or, per biographer Shawn Levy, Jerome Levitch) on March 16, 1926, in Newark, N.J., the future star was, like his idol, Charlie Chaplin, born into a show-business family. Lewis’s father was a Catskills entertainer; his mother, a pianist.
Lewis (right) and his long-time co-star Dean Martin. Source: Getty
Lewis rated his first applause at 5. By the time he was a teenager, he had a full-fledged act, pantomiming his way through the popular songs of the day.
In 1946, Lewis, then 20, was playing an Atlantic City club when another act on the bill canceled. For a replacement, Lewis suggested a singer. His name: Dean Martin.
On stage, Martin exuded slickness; Lewis acted like a monkey boy. Together, they were were a hit. For a time, Martin and Lewis, as they were billed, were everywhere — TV, records, radio and the movies. The duo cranked out 16 films in seven years.
After a red-hot decade together, the relationship cooled. Lewis became bent on becoming an auteur like Chaplin; Martin balked at being bossed around by the budding multihyphenate.
“I like the co-star, but not the director, writer and producer,” Martin sniped at the time.
After their 1956 split, the pair would reunite on stage just once, in 1976 at Lewis’s Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon. Mutual pal Frank Sinatra brokered the summit. Martin died in 1995.
