Jerry Lewis Left All Six Children from His First Marriage Out of His Will

People Magazine ^ | September 21, 2017 | Mike Miller

[rlmorel]

I was watching some of these highly entertaining compilations of annual events and saw the "reunion" of Dean and Martin in 1976 (which I had never registered...I was in the Navy doing Navy things...:)

Memories of 1976

(These were a lot of fun to watch...they have every year through the seventies, music, commercials, tv shows, politics, sports...each one is about a half hour long...:)

[SJSAMPLE]

I remember the reunion on Jerry’s telethon, brokered by Sinatra, IIRC. But I thought that was in the mid 1980s.

Reading about Jerry and what he did with his restaurant in order to get back at Martin, I’ve begun to rethink my image of him.

[apocalypto]

I believe you are right that i this it is legal. I know of a case where a son and his wife treated the parents with disrespect and turned the grandchildren against them, and the parents left them all out of their will.

Maybe Jerry Lewis was a poor husband and father. Or maybe the wife and children were at fault.

[dangerdoc]

Why, litigate enough and the only ones that see the inheritance are the lawyers.

Not as good as a class action suit,,,

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Jerry Lewis Left All Six Children from His First Marriage Out of His Will

His money, his business. Lewis died in his 90s - his children from his first marriage must be grandparents themselves at this point. Either they've made it or they haven't - it's not like his money is going to let them go do great new things with their lives.

[TexasGator]

No sites talk about this. Do you have additional background?

[apocalypto]

That is cold. I didn’t know any of this nasty side of Lewis.

[SJSAMPLE]

I can’t believe it was 1976. I remember seeing it LIVE, but I was off by 10 years. Wow.

[Kalamata]

>>I seem to recall reading good things about Dean Martin here on FR.
******************************************************
Me, as well.

[TexasGator]

I am 70. A few extra million would let me do great things!

[CaptainK]

See post #40. He wrote about his cheating ways in his own book.

[beelzepug]

“He had some contact with at least one of his sons”

I liked Gary Lewis. Summer of ‘65 was a great time for music!

[oh8eleven]

Spent a day with the wonderful Myron Cohen
One of my all time favorites. His stories were magical and his jokes made me laugh until my sides hurt.

[siberianheat]

I'm sorry I'm late, I had to attend the reading of a will. I had to stay till the very end, and I found out I received nothing... broke my arm.

Never found the man funny but I know how families can break apart with extreme animosity. I can't imagine ever not wanting the best for my kids, even if by some tragedy I had to remarry. Maybe one or two kids could be jerks, but I think you have to work really hard to hate all six of your children.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Ronald Reagan was a poor father. Just look at how screwed up his kids are.

[eastforker]

Does anyone know how much money his first wife got in the divorce or if trust funds were set up for kids at that time?

[rlmorel]

I always thought he was funny when I was a little kid, but as I got older, thought was creepy. My dad liked him, my mother hated him (I think that is standard)

[Kalamata]

I can’t speak to his fathering skills, but I don’t think he disinherited his children as Jerry Lewis has done.

[SJSAMPLE]

The team of Martin and Lewis was amazing. Really good stage and film chemistry. Right act at the right time.

[OttawaFreeper]

I remember reading about that. One Hollywood myth was that Bing violently abused his sons from that first marriage but the reality apparently was that first wife Dixie was an alcoholic and Bing had to firmly discipline his boys as a result of her behaviour on the home front.

His will strictly stipulated that the sons were not to receive any money from his estate until they turned 65 (they were in their forties when Bing died in the summer of 1977 and it was only Phillip who reached that age). He apparently was also a bit of a tightwad towards his second wife, Kathryn, giving the residue of his estate to a trust set up for her. And I also recall reading about how he basically disowned any relative who would divorce. Still a bit of an interesting character he was, eh?