Jerry Lewis

For other people named Jerry Lewis, see Jerry Lewis (disambiguation).

Jerry Lewis
File:Jerrylewis2.jpg Publicity photo circa 1975
Born	Joseph Levitch (1926-03-16) March 16, 1926 Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Other names	The King of Comedy Le Roi du Crazy Picchiatello
Occupation(s)	Comedian, actor, film producer, writer, film director, singer, national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association
Years active	1931–present
Spouse(s)	Patti Palmer (1944-1980) SanDee Pitnick (1983-present)
Website	jerrylewiscomedy.com
Signature

Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926) is an American comedian, actor, film producer, screenwriter, film director and singer. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis. In addition to the duo's popular nightclub work, they starred in a successful series of comedy films for Paramount Pictures.

Lewis is also known for his charity fund-raising telethons and position as national chairman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Lewis has won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, The Golden Camera, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and The Venice Film Festival, and he has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2005, he received the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors, which is the highest Emmy Award presented. On February 22, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Early life

He was born Joseph Levitch (some sources say Jerome Levitch) in Newark, New Jersey, to Russian Jewish parents. His father, Daniel Levitch, was a Master of Ceremonies and vaudeville entertainer who used the professional name Danny Lewis, His mother, Rachel ("Rae") Levitch (née Brodsky), was a piano player for a radio station.

Lewis started performing at age five and would often perform alongside his parents in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. By fifteen he had developed his "Record Act", in which he exaggeratedly mimed the lyrics to songs on a phonograph. He used the professional name Joey Lewis, but soon changed it to Jerry Lewis to avoid confusion with comedian Joe E. Lewis and heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis. He graduated from Irvington High School in Irvington, New Jersey.

Career

Teaming with Dean Martin

Main article: Martin and Lewis

With Dean Martin

Lewis initially gained fame with singer Dean Martin, who served as straight man to Lewis's zany antics in the Martin and Lewis comedy team. They distinguished themselves from the majority of comedy acts of the 1940s by relying on the interaction of the two comics instead of planned skits. In the late 1940s, they quickly rose to national prominence, first with their popular nightclub act, next as stars of their own radio program.

They then made appearances on early live television, debuting first on the June 20, 1948 debut broadcast of Toast of the Town with Ed Sullivan on the CBS TV Network (later the Ed Sullivan Show), followed on October 3, 1948 by an appearance on the NBC TV series Welcome Aboard, then as the first of a series of hosts of The Colgate Comedy Hour in 1950, and finally as film stars in a string of successes for Paramount Pictures.

However, as Martin's roles in their films became less important, the partnership became strained. Martin's diminished participation became an embarrassment in 1954, when Look magazine used a publicity photo of the team for the magazine cover, but cropped Martin out of the photo. The partnership finally ended on July 24, 1956. Attesting the team's popularity, DC Comics published the best-selling The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comic books from 1952 to 1957. The series continued a year after the team broke up as DC Comics then featured Lewis solo, until 1971, in The Adventures of Jerry Lewis comic books. In this latter series, Lewis was sometimes featured with Superman, Batman, and various other DC Comics heroes and villains.

Both Martin and Lewis went on to successful solo careers, but for years neither would comment on the split, nor consider a reunion. They made at least a couple of public appearances together between the breakup and 1961, but then were not seen together in public until a surprise appearance by Martin on Lewis's Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976, arranged by Frank Sinatra.

The pair eventually reconciled in the late 1980s after the death of Martin's son, Dean Paul Martin. The two men were seen together on stage in Las Vegas when Lewis pushed out Dean's birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to him. In Lewis's 2005 book Dean and Me (A Love Story), Lewis wrote of his kinship with Martin, who had died in 1995.

Solo achievements

File:Lewis-obrien.jpg

In It's Only Money, (1962)

Main article: Jerry Lewis filmography and television appearances

After the split from Martin, Lewis remained at Paramount and became a major comedy star with his first film as a solo comic, The Delicate Delinquent (1957). Teaming with director Frank Tashlin, whose background as a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon director suited Lewis's brand of humor, he starred in five more films, and even appeared uncredited as Itchy McRabbitt in Li'l Abner (1959).

Lewis tried his hand at releasing an album in the 1950s, having a chart hit with the song "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" (a song largely associated with Al Jolson and later re-popularized by Judy Garland) as well as the song, "It All Depends on You" in 1958. He eventually released his own album titled, Jerry Lewis Just Sings. By the end of his contract with producer Hal B. Wallis, Lewis had several productions of his own under his belt.

His first three efforts, The Delicate Delinquent (1957), Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958) and The Geisha Boy (1958), were all efforts to move away from Wallis, who Lewis felt was hindering his comedy. In 1960, Lewis finished his contract with Wallis with Visit to a Small Planet (1960), and wrapped up work on his own production, Cinderfella. Cinderfella was postponed for a Christmas 1960 release, and Paramount, needing a quickie feature film for its summer 1960 schedule, held Lewis to his contract to produce one. Lewis came up with The Bellboy. Using the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami as his setting—and on a small budget, with a very tight shooting schedule, and no script—Lewis shot the film by day and performed at the hotel in the evenings. Bill Richmond collaborated with him on the many sight gags.

In a 2005 interview, Lewis revealed that Paramount were not happy financing a 'silent movie' and withdrew backing. Lewis used his own funds to cover the $950,000 budget. Much to Paramount's dismay, the movie had grossed in excess of $200,000,000 by the time of the interview. During production Lewis developed the technique of using video cameras and multiple closed circuit monitors, which allowed him to review his performance instantly. His techniques and methods, documented in his book and his USC class, enabled him to complete most of his films on time and under budget.

File:Lewis Nutty.jpg

In The Nutty Professor (1963)

Later, he incorporated videotape, and as more portable and affordable equipment became available, this technique would become an industry standard known as video assist. Lewis followed The Bellboy by directing several more films which he co-wrote with Richmond, including The Ladies Man (1961), The Errand Boy (1961), The Patsy (1964) and the well-known comedy hit, The Nutty Professor (1963), which was later successfully remade as a vehicle for Eddie Murphy in 1996 and followed by a sequel in 2000, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps both executive produced by Lewis for Universal Pictures and Image Entertainment.

Lewis occasionally handed directing reins to Frank Tashlin, who directed several of his productions, including It's Only Money (1962) and Who's Minding the Store? (1963). In 1965, Lewis directed and (along with Bill Richmond) wrote the comedy film The Family Jewels about a young heiress who must choose among six uncles, one of whom is up to no good and out to harm the girl's beloved bodyguard who practically raised her. Lewis played all six uncles and the bodyguard.

File:Ekberg-lewis opt.jpg

With Anita Ekberg in Hollywood or Bust (1956)

By 1966, Lewis, now 40, was no longer an angular juvenile and his routines seemed more labored. His box office appeal waned to the point where Paramount Pictures new executives felt no further need for the Lewis comedies. Undaunted, Lewis packed up and went to Columbia Pictures, where he made several more comedies. Lewis taught a film directing class at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for a number of years; his students included Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

In 1968, he screened Spielberg's early film, Amblin' and told his students, "That's what filmmaking is all about." Lewis starred in and directed the unreleased The Day the Clown Cried in 1972. The film was a drama set in a Nazi concentration camp. Lewis rarely discusses the experience, but once explained why the film has not been released, by suggesting litigation over post-production financial difficulties. However, he admitted during his book tour for Dean and Me that a major factor for the film's burial is that he is not proud of the effort.

Lewis also appeared in stage musicals. In 1976, he appeared in a revival of Hellzapoppin' with Lynn Redgrave, but it closed on the road before reaching Broadway. In 1994, he made his Broadway debut, as a replacement cast member playing the Devil in a revival of the baseball musical, Damn Yankees, choreographed by future film director Rob Marshall (Chicago). Lewis returned to the screen in 1981 with Hardly Working, a film he both directed and starred in.

Despite being panned by the critics, the film did eventually earn $50 million. He followed this up with a critically acclaimed performance in Martin Scorsese's 1983 film, The King of Comedy, in which Lewis plays a late-night TV host plagued by obsessive fans (played by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard). The role had been based on and originally offered to Johnny Carson. Lewis continued doing work in small films in the 1990s, most notably his supporting roles in 1994's Arizona Dream and 1995's Funny Bones. He appeared on television on one episode of Mad About You's first season in 1992, playing an eccentric billionaire. In 2008, Lewis reprised his role as Prof. Kelp in The Nutty Professor, his first CGI animated film and follow-up to his original 1963 film co-starring Drake Bell as his nephew, Harold Kelp.

Lewis making a characteristic face at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival

On television, Lewis starred in three different programs called The Jerry Lewis Show. The first was a two-hour Saturday night variety show on ABC in the fall of 1963. The lavish, big-budget production failed to find an audience and was canceled after 13 weeks. His next show was a one-hour variety show on NBC in 1967-69. A test of a syndicated talk show for Metromedia in 1984 was not continued beyond the scheduled five shows. Lewis and his popular movie characters were animated in the Filmation cartoon series, Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down. First aired on ABC in 1970, it lasted only one season and eighteen episodes. The show starred David Lander (Laverne & Shirley) as the voice of the animated Lewis character.

Lewis has long remained popular in Europe: he was consistently praised by some French critics in the influential magazine Cahiers du Cinéma for his absurd comedy, in part because he had gained respect as an auteur who had total control over all aspects of his films, comparable to Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock. In March 2006, the French Minister of Culture awarded Lewis the Légion d'honneur, calling him the "French people's favorite clown". Liking Lewis has long been a common stereotype about the French in the minds of many English-speakers, and is often the object of jokes in Anglosphere pop culture.

In 1994, the Columbia Pictures film, North featured footage of Lewis's classic movies. In June 2006, Lewis first announced plans to write and direct a stage musical adaptation of his 1963 film, The Nutty Professor. In October 2008, in an interview on Melbourne radio, Lewis said he had signed composers Marvin Hamlisch and Rupert Holmes to write the show for a Broadway opening in November 2010. In 2009, Lewis traveled to the Cannes Film Festival to announce his return to the silver screen after a 13 year absence for the film Max Rose, his first leading role since Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy. In early 2011, Lewis had signed a deal with Artificial Intelligence Entertainment and Capital Films to remake the three of his 60s cinema classics The Bellboy, Cinderfella and The Family Jewels. Lewis will serve as co-executive producer of the films.

On May 16, 2011, it was originally announced by MDA that the 2011 edition of his annual telethon will be Lewis' last as host, after hosting the annual event since 1954, he will continue to serve as the association's national chairman. Soon afterward, however, Lewis denied that he was leaving the telethon at all, but on August 3, 2011, the MDA announced that Lewis resigned as chairman and telethon host, the circumstances leading to his resignation unknown.

Lewis has been criticized by members of the disability rights community. In 1990, he wrote a first-person essay entitled "If I Had Muscular Dystrophy" for Parade magazine, in which he characterized those with muscular dystrophy as "being half a person". Many in the disabled community viewed his remarks as prejudicial, contributing to the idea that people with disabilities are "childlike, helpless, hopeless, non functioning and noncontributing members of society". Members of the disability rights community object to Lewis receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

In February 2000, Lewis stunned an audience gathered to honor his work at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival by saying he did not like female comics. Lewis said, "I don't like any female comedians. A woman doing comedy doesn't offend me, but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies in the world." He later defended the remark, saying it was taken wildly out of context, and added that he made 11 movies with comic character actress Kathleen Freeman.

During the 2007 Labor Day Telethon, Lewis almost let slip the word "faggot" while live on air. While talking to a cameraman, he joked: "Oh, your family has come to see you. You remember Bart, your oldest son, Jesse, the illiterate fag--no...", at which point he turned away from the camera.

Film portrayal

Lewis was portrayed by Emmy Award winner Sean Hayes (Will and Grace) in the 2002 made for television movie Martin and Lewis. The film depicts Lewis' partnership with Dean Martin (played by Jeremy Northam). Hayes met Lewis during shooting of the televised film and went on to receive a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor.

Personal life

Family

Lewis has been married twice:

• Patti Palmer (née Esther Calonico), a former singer with Ted Fio Rito; married October 3, 1944, divorced September 1980.
• SanDee Pitnick; married February 13, 1983; a 32-year-old Las Vegas dancer. They were married in Key Biscayne, Florida; Lewis was 56.

He had six sons and one adopted daughter:

• Gary Harold Lee Levitch was born on July 31, 1945 to Lewis and Patti Palmer. Gary Levitch's name was subsequently legally changed to Gary Lewis. As a 1960s pop musician, Gary Lewis had a string of hits with his group Gary Lewis & the Playboys.
• Ronald Lewis; adopted July 1950 with Patti Palmer
• Scott Lewis; born February 1956 to Patti Palmer
• Christopher Joseph Lewis; born October 1957 to Patti Palmer
• Anthony Lewis; born October 1959 to Patti Palmer
• Joseph Lewis; born January 1964 to Patti Palmer, died October 24, 2009 from a narcotics overdose.
• Danielle Sarah Lewis (daughter); adopted March 1992 with SanDee Pitnick.

Lewis currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Health concerns

Jerry Lewis, 2005

Lewis has suffered years of back pain after an injury that almost left him paralyzed when he did a comedic pratfall from a piano on March 20, 1965 while performing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.

He became addicted to the pain killer Percodan, but says he has been off the drug since 1978 and has not taken one since. In April 2002, Lewis had a "Synergy" neurostimulator, developed by Medtronic, implanted in his back, which has helped reduce the discomfort. He is now one of Medtronic's leading spokespeople.

In December 1982, Lewis suffered a serious heart attack and then a second minor heart attack on June 11, 2006, at the end of a cross-country commercial airline flight en route home from New York City. It was discovered that he had pneumonia as well as a severely damaged heart. He underwent a cardiac catheterization and two stents were inserted into one of his coronary arteries, which had become 90% blocked. The surgery resulted in a return of blood flow to his heart and has allowed him to continue his rebound from earlier lung problems. Having the cardiac catheterization also meant canceling several major events from his schedule, but Lewis fully recuperated in a matter of weeks.

In 1999, his Australian tour was cut short when he had to be hospitalized in Darwin with viral meningitis. He was ill for more than five months. It was reported in the Australian press that he had failed to pay his medical bills; however, Lewis maintained that the payment confusion was the fault of his health insurer. The resulting negative publicity caused him to sue his insurer for US$100 million.

Lewis has had prostate cancer, diabetes I, and pulmonary fibrosis, and has had at least two heart attacks. A third heart attack, claimed to have been sustained while filming Cinderfella in 1960, has not been confirmed officially. Prednisone treatment in the early 2000s for pulmonary fibrosis resulted in weight gain and a noticeable change in his appearance.

In September 2001, he was unable to perform at a planned charity event produced by comedian Steven Alan Green at the London Palladium. (Green's take on the event was turned into a one-person show, I Eat People Like You For Breakfast, which Green performed at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival.) Some months thereafter, Lewis began an arduous, months-long therapy which weaned him off prednisone and enabled him to return to work.

Charity work

Throughout his career, Lewis has supported fundraising for research into muscular dystrophy. From the early 1950s until 2011, he served as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).

Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit MDA in 1952. From 1966 to 2010 he hosted the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, since renamed the MDA Labor Day Telethon. It has raised over $2.6 billion. On August 3, 2011, it was announced that Lewis would no longer host any further telethons.

Honors and awards

Lewis' motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6821 Hollywood Blvd

1950s

• 1952 – Winner of the special Photoplay Award
• 1952 – Nominee for Best Comedian or Comedienne
• 1954 – Winner for the Most Cooperative Actor, Golden Apple Award

1960s

• 1965 – Winner, Golden Laurel, Special Award – Family Comedy King

1970s

• 1977 – Nominee, the Nobel Peace Prize, by US Representative Les Aspin. Aspin noted that in 11 years, the MDA Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon had raised more than $95 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

1980s

• 1983 – Nominee, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The King of Comedy, British Academy Film Awards

1990s

• 1997 – Winner, Lifetime Achievement Award, American Comedy Awards

2000s

• 2004 – Winner, Career Achievement Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association

• 2005 – Winner, Governors Award, Primetime Emmy Awards
• 2006 – Winner, Satellite Award for Outstanding Guest Star on TV's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

• 2009 – Induction into the New Jersey Hall of Fame

• 2009 – Winner, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 81st Academy Awards

2010s

• 2010 - Received Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Chapman University during the 2010 MDA Telethon.

• 2011 – Recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor

Bibliography

• The Total Film-Maker by Jerry Lewis. New York: Random House, 1971, ISBN 0-394-46757-4
• Jerry Lewis: In Person by Jerry Lewis with Herb Gluck. New York: Atheneum, 1982, ISBN 0-689-11290-4
• Dean & Me (A Love Story) by Jerry Lewis with James Kaplan. New York: Doubleday, 2005, ISBN 0-7679-2086-4

In popular culture

• In Back to the Future, Dr. Emmett L. Brown mentions Jerry Lewis as the supposed Vice President of the United States in 1985 after Marty McFly mentions Ronald Reagan is President in 1985.

• Voice actor Hank Azaria cites Lewis as an inspiration for his character Professor Frink from The Simpsons. In a 2003 episode, Lewis actually voiced the character of Frink's father.

• A plotline of an episode of Seinfeld revolved around Jerry searching for his cufflinks which had been worn by Jerry Lewis in the film Cinderfella. He plans to wear them to a party Lewis is attending, using them as a conversation starter.

See also

• Jerry Lewis filmography and television appearances
• MDA Labor Day Telethon
• Martin and Lewis

Further reading

• Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime (Especially Himself): The Story of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis by Arthur Marx, New York, NY: Hawthorn Books, 1974, ISBN 978-0801524301
• The Jerry Lewis Films by James L. Neibaur and Ted Okuda (Lewis is quoted throughout). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1994, ISBN 0-89950-961-4
• King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis by Shawn Anthony Levy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-312-13248-4
• That Kid: The Story of Jerry Lewis by Richard Gehman. New York: Avon Books, 1964.

External links

• Jerry Lewis at IMDb
• Jerry Lewis at AllMovie
• Jerry Lewis at the TCM Movie Database
• Jerry Lewis at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jerry Lewis interview for the Archive of American Television
• Official Jerry Lewis Website
• Drum Solo Battle (1955) with Buddy Rich at DrummerWorld

Videos

• 2009 Oscars Jean Hersholt Award
• Colgate Comedy Hour, 1950s
• Scene from The Bellboy
• With drummer Buddy Rich, 1965
• Typewriter scene on Colgate Hour