Jerry Lewis Article

Jerry Lewis summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Jerry Lewis.

Jerry Lewis, orig. Joseph Levitch, (born March 16, 1926, Newark, N.J., U.S.—died Aug. 20, 2017, Las Vegas, Nev.), U.S. actor, director, and producer. In 1946 he developed a nightclub comedy routine with Dean Martin (1917–95), who played the suave crooner to Lewis’s zany clown, and they appeared together in 16 movies, including My Friend Irma (1949) and Pardners (1956), before ending their partnership in 1956. Lewis then directed, produced, and acted in movies such as The Bellboy (1960) and The Nutty Professor (1963). These films, along with his collaborations with director Frank Tashlin, led many critics (especially in Europe) to regard Lewis as the comic heir to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. From 1966 to 2010 Lewis hosted the U.S. annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA); in 2011 he stepped down as national chairman of the MDA. Lewis received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2009.