King of comedy, Jerry Lewis, dies aged 91

Lewis once summed up his career by saying "I've had great success being a total idiot" and said the key was maintaining a certain child-like quality.

One of the most popular comic actors of the 1950s and 60s, Lewis perfected the role of the quirky clown in slapstick comedies but also won acclaim as a writer, actor and philanthropist.
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One of the most popular comic actors of the 1950s and 60s, Lewis perfected the role of the quirky clown in slapstick comedies but also won acclaim as a writer, actor and philanthropist.

Jerry Lewis, the manic, rubber-faced showman who jumped and hollered to fame in a lucrative partnership with Dean Martin, settled down to become a self-conscious screen auteur and found an even greater following as the tireless, teary host of the annual muscular dystrophy telethons, has died. 

He was 91.

Publicist Candi Cazau says Lewis died Sunday of natural causes in Las Vegas with his family by his side.

Lewis' career spanned the history of show business in the 20th century, beginning in his parents' vaudeville act at the age of 5. He was just 20 when his pairing with Martin made them international stars. He went on to make such favourites as "The Bellboy" and "The Nutty Professor," was featured in Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" and appeared as himself in Billy Crystal's "Mr Saturday Night."

In the 1990s, he scored a stage comeback as the devil in the Broadway revival of "Damn Yankees." And after a 20-year break from making movies, Lewis returned as the star of the independent drama "Max Rose," released in 2016.

In his 80s, he was still travelling the world, working on a stage version of "The Nutty Professor." He was so active he would sometimes forget the basics, like eating, his associates would recall. In 2012, Lewis missed an awards ceremony thrown by his beloved Friars Club because his blood sugar dropped from lack of food and he had to spend the night in the hospital.

AP

Lewis, born Joseph Levitch on March 16, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, started on upstate New Yorks Borscht Belt comedy circuit as a singer at age 5.

In his 90s, he was still performing stand-up shows.

A major influence on Jim Carrey and other slapstick performers, Lewis also was known as the ringmaster of the Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association, joking and reminiscing and introducing guests, sharing stories about ailing kids and concluding with his personal anthem, the ballad "You'll Never Walk Alone." From the 1960s onward, the telethons raised some $1.5 billion, including more than $60 million in 2009. He announced in 2011 that he would step down as host, but would remain chairman of the association he joined some 60 years ago.

He was the classic funnyman who longed to play "Hamlet," crying as hard as he laughed. He sassed and snarled at critics and interviewers who displeased him. He pontificated on talk shows, lectured to college students and compiled his thoughts in the 1971 book "The Total Film-Maker."

"I believe, in my own way, that I say something on film. I'm getting to those who probably don't have the mentality to understand what ... 'A Man for All Seasons' is all about, plus many who did understand it," he wrote. 

"I am not ashamed or embarrassed at how seemingly trite or saccharine something in my films will sound. I really do make films for my great-great-grandchildren and not for my fellows at the Screen Directors Guild or for the critics."


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