Jerry Lewis, comedy legend, RIP
Comedy legend Jerry Lewis died Sunday morning (8/20) at his Las Vegas home. He was 91. From his enormous success with partner Dean Martin to his solo career with hits such as The Nutty Professor and The Bellboy, Lewis’ influence on comedy is enormous, and with his annual telethons he helped raise over $2 billion for the Muscular Dystrophy Association charity. From The New York Daily News:
Inside the comedy world, Lewis was revered as a genius. The 2011 Lewis documentary “Method to the Madness” featured comedians from Billy Crystal to Eddie Murphy to Chevy Chase praising his singular style of comic lunacy and pathos.
“I get paid,” Lewis once said, “for what most kids get punished for.”
“If you don’t get Jerry Lewis,” Jerry Seinfeld said in “Method,” “you don’t understand comedy.”
For American audiences, Lewis’ career had three major segments: his early television, stage and movie collaboration with Dean Martin, which ended in 1956; his solo movie career, which peaked in the 1960s; and his return every Labor Day for the Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon, which he hosted until 2010.
Rest in peace, Jerry.