Posted on 08/20/2017 12:32:47 PM PDT by Jim W N
Jerry Lewis, the brash slapstick comic who teamed with Dean Martin in the 1950s and later starred in “The Nutty Professor” and “The Bellboy” before launching the Muscular Dystrophy telethon, has died in Las Vegas. He was 91.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John Katsilometes reported that he died at his home at 9:15 a.m. Sunday morning. Lewis’ agent has since confirmed the news to Variety.
Over the past ten years of his life, the cranky icon’s reputation soured slightly as he was forced to apologize for making a gay slur on camera during the 2007 telethon, continued to make racist and misogynistic jokes into his ’90s, and didn’t hesitate to share his right-wing political views.
In addition to his most famous films, Lewis also appeared in a number of notable works, such as Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy,” but was largely offscreen from the late ’60s on and was more active with his annual Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy telethon. Through the charity, he raised more than $2.45 billion before being relieved of his role as leader of the telethon in 2011. As late as 2016, Lewis continued to perform in Las Vegas, where he first debuted his comedy routine back in 1949.
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The high regard in which his comic abilities were held in France — he received the Legion of Honor award in 1983 — became a running joke in the U.S. long after Lewis’ style of broad physical comedy fell out of fashion. His final film, “Max Rose,” screened at France’s Cannes Film Festival in 2013.
The telethon, like other aspects of Lewis’ life, was beset by controversy. The comic’s offstage persona was anything but humorous. He was, by his own admission, an impatient man, and over the years battled numerous illnesses and a prescription drug dependency. His parting with Martin in 1956 after 10 years as a duo was acrimonious. And the telethons were awash in claims that there was a disparity between the money pledged and the money collected.
Lewis’ pairing with Martin, featuring their improvisatory backbiting and physical chicanery, was an instant hit in 1946. When producer Hal Wallis saw them performing at the Copacabana and at Slapsie Maxie’s in Hollywood, he saw the potential for a new Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and signed them to a Paramount Pictures contract.
For the next 10 years, Martin and Lewis turned out one silly film after the next starting with “My Friend Irma” in 1949 and including “The Caddy,” “The Stooge,” “Artists and Models” and “Pardners.” None of their films grossed less than $5 million, a handy sum in those days.
The premises of the films grew tired, and the more Martin and Lewis worked together, the more disparate they appeared. In 1956, after their film “Hollywood or Bust,” they made their last dual appearance at the Copacabana.
By the time of their breakup, Martin had a prosperous career as a recording artist and actor. And soon Lewis, too, was a hot solo ticket.
Shortly after they broke up, Lewis filled in for an ailing Judy Garland in Las Vegas. Over the next five years Lewis developed a slicker, more sophisticated stage persona and would continue to play Vegas until 2016.
Onscreen he made a go of it in such films as “The Delicate Delinquent” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.” Lewis even had a million-selling single in the “Rock-a-Bye Your Baby” title track, which led to several albums on Decca Records.
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He then extended his efforts into writing, producing and directing films. The first two, 1961’s “The Ladies Man” and 1962’s “The Errand Boy,” showed him at his best. His talents also dovetailed with director Frank Tashlin’s style in films such as “Cinderfella” and “The Disorderly Orderly.”
“The Nutty Professor” (1963) was his biggest success ever, grossing $19 million. But by then his mugging and exaggerated body gyrations had become out of control, as had the syrupy moments in his films.
Lewis signed a nonexclusive deal with Columbia that resulted in several uninspired films such as “Three on a Couch,” “The Big Mouth” and “Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River.” Even Lewis had to admit, “Jerry Lewis is never just OK or adequate; he’s either very funny or he’s awful.”
While Americans largely dismissed him, Lewis had developed a following at French film journals Cahiers du Cinema and Positif.
He was born Joseph Levitch in Newark, N.J. Both his parents were in show business and, at the age of 5, Lewis made his debut at a Borscht Belt hotel singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”
Perhaps because his parents spent a great deal of time on the road, Lewis was demanding attention through humor by the time he was attending Irvington High School in New Jersey. By age 15 he was pantomiming operatic and popular songs and was booked into a burlesque house in Buffalo.
In 1942 he tried out his comic pantomiming at Brown’s Hotel in upstate New York, where he was also working the summer as a bellboy. Comic Irving Kaye was sufficiently impressed to land Lewis some bookings and became his road manager.
Lewis met the young singer Dean Martin at New York nightclub the Glass Hatt and was first paired with him in 1946. Afters years of rupture, Martin made a surprise appearance on the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976, and the pair reconciled after the death of Martin’s son in the late 1980s. (Martin died in 1995.)
In the early ’70s he continued to direct uninspired fare such as “Which Way to the Front?” and then tried a serious film, “The Day the Clown Cried,” though he famously shelved the completed work (some footage of it finally surfaced in 2013). He attempted a live TV variety show that failed, as did an attempt at a Broadway musical, “Feeling No Pain”; it was followed by the acrimonious “Hellzapoppin,” which was ditched out of town in Boston at a loss of $1.25 million.
In 1972 he lent his name to a string of 200 movie theaters for Network Cinema Corp., which led to bankruptcy proceedings in 1974. His heavy schedule also brought him to the verge of a nervous breakdown, serious ulcer problems and painkiller drug dependency. In 1982 he had double-bypass heart surgery and gave up his four pack-a-day smoking habit.
Lewis was offscreen until 1979’s low-budget “Hardly Working,” which he also directed; it did not reverse his fortunes. But in 1982, director Martin Scorsese harnessed the brash, cynical side of Lewis’ persona for the role of a kidnapped latenight talkshow host in “The King of Comedy.” Though he reportedly resented being upstaged by Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard, the film represented some of Lewis’ finest work. Another high point was a similarly caustic appearance as a lethal underworld figure on the TV series “Wiseguy.”
Most of his later film work, however, failed to impress, such as “Slapstick of Another Kind,” “Cookie” and 1992’s “American Dreamer.”
In 1995, he appeared in Peter Chelsom’s film “Funny Bones” and took over the role of the devil in a Broadway revival of “Damn Yankees,” which he took on tour in the U.S.; he then appeared in a London production of the musical.
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In 2003 he provided a guest voice on an episode of “The Simpsons”; in 2006 he did an episode of “Law and Order: SVU” in which he played the insane, morally befuddled but bizarrely benevolent uncle of Det. John Munch (Richard Belzer).
Lewis long sought to create a sequel to “The Nutty Professor”; eventually, Imagine Entertainment produced and Universal released the 1996 remake starring Eddie Murphy on which Lewis was credited for the screenplay to the 1963 version and as an executive producer.
Lewis also hoped to bring a musical adaptation of “The Nutty Professor” to Broadway. By summer 2012 an ailing but still enthusiastic Lewis made his stage helming debut with such a musical, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and a book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, in Nashville, where it played for seven weeks.
In 2013 Lewis starred in the long-gestating project “Max Rose,” written and directed by Daniel Noah and also starring Claire Bloom, Kevin Pollak, Kerry Bishe and Mort Sahl. Lewis played a jazz pianist who recently became a widower.
In 2009, Lewis received the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences’ Jean Hersholt Award for his charitable work. In May 2014, he added his footprints to those of other screen luminaries at the Chinese Theatre.
In 1944 Lewis married former band singer Patti Palmer, with whom he had six sons, Gary, Ronnie, Scott, Anthony, Christopher and Joseph, who died in 2009. Gary for a time had a rock career as the lead singer of Gary Lewis & the Playboys. The marriage ended in divorce.
He is survived by his second wife, SanDee Pitnick, with whom he adopted a daughter.
Not a huge fan. He was funny when being made fun of.
The Simpsons would make fun of him and the french with one joke. And of course Harry Shearer did his “Nutty Ptofessoresque “ professor Frink. Brilliant. Then Lewis did a cameo of Professor Frink’s long lost father. He was terrible at it.
With Deano he was better.
Naw, they’ll scrape together 40 tons of brass and make a life size statue of Meathead.
I never tired of his movies. I still watch them every chance I get.
I liked the Crosby and Hope movies but loved the Lewis and Martin movies.
Can not really compare them, apples and oranges.
Mr Lewis, you made us laugh and forget our own troubles, what a wonderful gift you had.
Rest in Peace Jerry, The Kid will live forever.
Jerry Lewis voiced Prof Frink’s dad Frink Sr in a Treehouse of Horror segment
RIP
See 21
Even his silliest....”Hardly Working”.....I thought was pretty funny.....RIP.....
I never found him to be funny but as I recall the French thought he was great.
My mother adored him and I took her to see him in Las Vegas. One of my happy memories. I loved his work after the Martin and Lewis movies. The earlier ones seemed too humiliating for his character. Really appreciated his telethon work. He seemed to care deeply for the kids his charity work supported, and put a lot of himself into it for them rather than for himself. I am so sorry he’s gone. There are so few greats left from my childhood.
You know telling jokes about gay people are women are just that.....jokes. Jokes about men and straight people are also just jokes. I laugh at them all because they are just.....jokes. I was always told that if you couldn’t laugh at yourself....you didn’t know how to enjoy life.
We all have idiosyncrasies and tendencies and mannerisms that are funny. NFL football fans are funny. So are NASCAR fans and Opera fans. Have you ever seen a crowd at a WNBA game or an LPGA event?.....a lot of lesbians....which is funny of you let it be.
The liberals take everything so serious. Having a liberal around is about as much fun as having a cop following you on the freeway. You just with they would go away even though you’re doing nothing wrong.
This country is never going to be ‘normal’ again until the liberals learn how to laugh.
The Hollywood “stars” of today do not have 1/10th of the work ethic of the stars of that era.
They rely on CGI, nudity and crude behavior because it is the easiest way to a dollar.
I miss the old stars, even if they were less than perfect in their personal lives.
I NEVER thought this fool was funny. Ever. Even when I was 12 years old I thought his stuff was stupid. And I personally don’t know anyone who thought he was funny either. That the French think this moron was a comedic genius says WAY more about the French than it does Lewis.
Well according to “Aunt Teefuh” of boston, he was a white supremacist POS bigot who should be swept into the dust bin. Scroll down if you wish to see their crap:
You can also see some of the negative comments to them if you like.
P.S. Certainly none of the money he raised over the years for MD went to black kids. NOT
No kidding. I wonder when Meathead Rob Reiner will pass away, will he’ll be referred to as a polarizing leftist? Naw.
______________________________________
I can already see the NY Post headline... Meathead Dead.
He was a favorite of my mother’s and mine! May he RIP and prayers to his family.
Referencing this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMMDjZmQFQ0
ff
His early work is good - if you appreciate that kind of comedy.
But the kind of comedy he was good at went out of fashion.
You’re either funny or you’re not.
The one movie I saw him in where I thought he was good was one where he played a creep.
I have noticed a lot of comedians who I think are not funny can at least act when playing serious rolls. For instance Robin Williams.
Excellent writing. Very interesting review of an amazing career. Lewis had a “four pack-a-day smoking habit” and then lived to 91.
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