Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis | |
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Lewis in 1957 | |
| Born | Joseph Levitch[a] March 16, 1926 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | August 20, 2017 (aged 91) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1945–2017 |
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| Children | 8, including Gary |
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| Notable works and roles | Prof. Julius F. Kelp and Buddy Love in The Nutty Professor |
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Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch;[a] March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed "The King of Comedy", he is regarded as one of the greatest comedians of the 20th century.
Rising to prominence together with singer Dean Martin, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946, the two did a series of sixteen buddy-comedy films, along with their televised run on The Colgate Comedy Hour, live stage performances, guest spots on other shows and a radio series.
After ten years, the team split in 1956 and Lewis continued on his own in thirty-five motion pictures from 1957 to 1984, including the critically acclaimed The Nutty Professor (1963) and Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1982), earning a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor[2] and performed close with Sammy Davis Jr. from 1950 to the 1980s.
While as its honorary national chairman, Lewis raised funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) through his annual Labor Day telecast The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, a live event which raised over $2.6 billion.
Lewis performed in concert stages, nightclubs, audio recordings and appeared in at least 117 film and television productions. He was honored with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and France awarded him the Legion of Honor in 2006.
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- ^ Kehr, Dave (August 20, 2017). "Jerry Lewis, mercurial comedian and filmmaker, dies at 91". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2017.
Most sources, including his 1982 autobiography, Jerry Lewis: In Person, give his birth name as Joseph Levitch. But Shawn Levy, author of the exhaustive 1996 biography King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis, unearthed a birth record that gave his first name as Jerome.
- ^ Kehr, Dave (August 30, 2017). "Jerry Lewis, a Jester Both Silly and Stormy, Dies at 91 (correction)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved October 11, 2022.