LEWIS, JERRY

LEWIS, JERRY (Joseph Levitch; 1926– ), U.S. comedian. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Lewis started his career at 14 and joined Dean Martin to form a successful comedy team. Together they made 16 films and appeared extensively in nightclubs and on television. Their films include My Friend Irma Goes West (1950), At War with the Army (1950), Sailor Beware (1951), That's My Boy (1951), The Stooge (1953), The Caddy (1953), Living It Up (1954), You're Never Too Young (1955), Artists and Models (1955), and Hollywood or Bust (1956). After parting from Martin in 1956, Lewis became a successful comedian on his own, and wrote, directed, produced, and appeared in many films. Lewis starred in such films as The Delicate Delinquent (1957), The Sad Sack (1957), The Geisha Boy (1958), Don't Give up the Ship (1959), Visit to a Small Planet (1960), The Bellboy (1960), Cinderfella (1960), The Ladies' Man (1961), The Errand Boy (1961), It's Only Money (1962), The Nutty Professor (1963), Who's Minding the Store? (1963), The Disorderly Orderly (1964), The Patsy (1964), The Family Jewels (1965), Boeing/Boeing (1965), Three on a Couch (1966), The Big Mouth (1967), Hardly Working (1980), Cracking Up (1983), The King of Comedy (1983), Arizona Dream (1993), and Funny Bones (1995). In addition to his many television appearances, Lewis had his own variety show, The Jerry Lewis Show, from 1967 to 1969. He made his Broadway debut playing the role of the Devil in a revival of the musical Damn Yankees (1994–95). In 1995 he won a Theatre World Special Award for his performance. Some of Lewis' other honors include the French Legion of Honor (1984) and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy from the American Comedy Awards (1998). In 1997 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his 50 years of raising money to fight muscular dystrophy. In what was to become an annual Labor Day event, Lewis held his first benefit concert for muscular dystrophy at Carnegie Hall in June 1955. The 16-hour show was broadcast on the radio and raised $600,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 1966 his first televised MDA benefit was aired over the Labor Day weekend on a TV station in New York City; the 21-hour show raised more than $1 million in pledges. In 1998, his star-studded appeal made history as the first telethon seen around the world via Internet simulcast. Lewis wrote The Total Film-Maker (1971), Instruction Book for … Being a Person (1981), and Jerry Lewis, in Person (with H. Gluck, 1982). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: P. Lewis, I Laffed Till I Cried: Thirty-Six Years of Marriage to Jerry Lewis (1993) (Jonathan Licht / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)