Back Jerry Lewis ACE Jerry Lewis AF Jerry Lewis AN جيري لويس Arabic جيرى لويس ARZ Jerry Lewis AST جری لوئیس AZB Jerry Lewis BAR Jerry Lewis BCL Джери Люис Bulgarian
Jerry Lewis | |
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.jpg) 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 | 1931–2017[1] |
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| Children | 8, including Gary |
| Comedy career | |
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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, filmmaker, actor, humanitarian and singer, famously nicknamed as "The King of Comedy". His career kicked off in 1946 with the 10-year act of Martin and Lewis, after first meeting with singer Dean Martin in 1945. The two did a series of sixteen buddy-comedy films, their televised run on The Colgate Comedy Hour, live stage performances, guest spots on other shows and a radio series.
Since after the team's split in 1956, Lewis became a highly popular solo film star in twenty-eight motion pictures. A few of them were The Bellboy (1960), The Errand Boy (1961), The Ladies Man (1961), It's Only Money (1962) and The Nutty Professor (1963). He also portrayed Jerry Langford in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1982) earning a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination and was an early and prominent user of video assist.[3]
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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- ^ Hirschberg, Lynn (October 28, 1982). "What's So Funny About Jerry Lewis?". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved October 11, 2018.
- ^ 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.