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.
In my youth we saw the Telethon, went to the Drive In with a shopping bag full of bacon popcorn to watch his movies, and as an adult, studied his comedy and his shortcomings.
I spent a glorious afternoon with Myron Cohen and his hilarious wife. He detested Lewis.
I guess he had his faults, but his comedy entertained me greatly and his passion for MDA inspired me. Such is life.
Thank you, I appreciate your post. :-)
:-)
Martin needed him to seem less threatening, and Lewis needed Martin to become less shy. That’s the way I viewed them. They weren’t as great as Laurel and Hardy, and Lewis by himself couldn’t hold a candle to Chaplin, but they were what could be called great at least a lot of the time. At their best, on a par with Abbott and Costello at their best.
I couldn’t stand him either, but he raised 100’s of millions for “Jerry’s kids”! God Bless You Jerry!!
Yep the MD telethon.....to this day, still a fraud. A money laundering scheme.
One would think with the billions (or is it trillions now?)they’ve raised to this day, they’d have a cure by now.
Don’t get me wrong, my sympathy goes out to those who have succumbed o this disease and who are still fighting it. Prayers to you.
It does show Jane Fonda at her actual level of talent.
“Gary Lewis & the Playboys were an American 1960s era pop and rock group, fronted by musician Gary Lewis, the son of comedian Jerry Lewis. They are best known for their 1965 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single “This Diamond Ring”, which was the first of a string of hit singles they had in 1965 and 1966.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lewis_%26_the_Playboys
Interesting. I had no idea. I wonder if Gary Lewis had a sense of humor.
The French liked him because of his brand of film comedy was closer to French film comics like Jacques Tati than American models.
“Gary Lewis is the son of comedian and actor Jerry Lewis (1926-2017).[3] His mother, Patti Palmer (née Esther Calonico),[4] a singer at the time with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra,[5] intended to name him after her favorite actor, Cary Grant, but a clerical error led to his naming as “Gary”.[2][3]
He received a set of drums as a gift for his 14th birthday in 1960.[2] When he was 18, Lewis formed what would become Gary Lewis & the Playboys (then known as “Gary and the Playboys”) with four other friends.[2] Joking at the lateness of bandmates to practice, Lewis referred to them as “playboys”, and the name stuck.[6] Lewis was the drummer, but at that time singing duties were held by guitarist Dave Walker.[2]
As the band started, Gary’s mother was quietly funding the purchases of equipment, as they believed Gary’s father would not have supported the band.[6] This could explain why, even though he lived down the street from the Lewis family, producer Snuff Garrett was not aware of Gary’s band until a mutual friend, conductor Lou Brown, informed him that the band was playing at Disneyland and that Garrett should give them a listen.[2]
In 1971, Lewis took a break from performing, operating a music shop in San Fernando Valley and giving drumming lessons.[6] A brief attempt at starting a new band called Medecine, with Billy Cowsill of The Cowsills in 1974 did not go anywhere.[2] Lewis began touring again in the 1980s, with various incarnations of the Playboys, generally featuring no original members.[6]
Lewis and his family reside in Rush, New York.[13]
In the summer of 2013, Lewis, along with a group of 1960s musicians including Gary Puckett (Gary Puckett & the Union Gap), Chuck Negron (formerly of Three Dog Night), Mark Lindsay (former lead singer of Paul Revere & the Raiders), and The Turtles featuring Flo & Eddie toured 47 cities in Paradise Artist’s “Happy Together” tour.
As of 2016, Gary Lewis and the Playboys are still touring the world on their own and occasionally with other popular ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s acts. The group performs on cruise ships, at casinos, festivals, fairs, and corporate events.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Lewis_(musician)
As much as I love the old-time comedians, I never really cared for Jerry Lewis. Too goofy. Along the lines of Soup Sales. My favorite all-time comedian is Jack Benny.
I love slapstick - I wasn’t a JL fan though for some reason. There was something about his schtick that involved a certain type of baby talk. I loved the three stooges above all else.
This is the worst obituary I’ve ever read. It is a hateful screed written by a liberal who is willing to spew venom about someone whose political views differ from his own, even at his death. It must have been very difficult for him to wedge in the minimal mentions of anything positive.
>> Having a liberal around is about as much fun as having a cop following you on the freeway.
Great observation! I’m going to remember that one. It describes it perfectly.
>> Having a liberal around is about as much fun as having a cop following you on the freeway.
Great observation! I’m going to remember that one. It describes it perfectly.
I think that write-up says much more about the writers than about Lewis.
My favorite movie of Jerry Lewis has to be “You were never too young” with Dean Martin.
Exactly.
They are poison.
Shame more don't know about him. By far the best "storyteller" comedian, ever.
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