Wacky king of comedy
VETERAN Hollywood comedian Jerry Lewis, who died on Sunday aged 91, perfected a goofy brand of slapstick that endeared him to millions over the course of a career spanning six decades.
One of the most popular American entertainers of the 1950s and ‘60s, Lewis made his name as the clown behind such quirky comedies as The Nutty Professor but also won acclaim as a writer, actor and philanthropist.
The comedy legend, who at the peak of his popularity was among the world’s biggest movie draws, died at his home in Las Vegas early Sunday.
“Jerry died peacefully at home of natural causes surrounded by family and friends.” said his publicist Nancy Kane.
Fans were leaving flowers at the comedian’s two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Honoured with accolades at home and abroad, including a Nobel Peace Prize nomination and France’s Legion of Honour, Lewis became known as much for his tireless efforts to promote awareness of Muscular Dystrophy as for his comedy. Over 45 years, he raised some $2.45 billion for combating the disease with an annual television event.
Born Joseph Levitch in Newark, New Jersey to two New York City entertainers, Lewis first took centre stage at age five, when he performed “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” He began playing at resorts outside New York City that catered to Jewish patrons.
By age 15, he had his own routine of lip-synching and made the rounds of New York talent agents, to little avail.
At the age of 20, however, everything changed as Lewis embarked on one of the most successful entertainment partnerships of all time with smooth crooner Dean Martin.
The two fed off each other in now-classic comedy gags, including pratfalls, slapstick and lots of Seltzer water, signing a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures.
Some of the most notable films in Lewis’s extensive repertoire include It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1959), The Geisha Boy (1958) and Funnybones (1984).
His box office grosses, spanning nearly 50 years, total $800 million – an impressive figure since movie tickets cost no more than 50 cents during the height of his popularity.
“Funny is fragile. It’s elusive,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2010.
In recent decades, Lewis had been plagued by health problems, and was declared clinically dead in 1982 after a heart attack. Ten years later he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and in 1997 found out he had diabetes.
He was determined not to let ill health keep him from working as long as possible, including on a Broadway musical adaptation of The Nutty Professor as recently as 2011.
“I have to finish what I’ve started,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2010. “I want to do it before I leave.”