Jerry Lewis, king of low-brow comedy and charity fundraiser, dies at 91

[webfact]

Jerry Lewis, king of low-brow comedy and charity fundraiser, dies at 91

By Steve Gorman

 

Cast member Jerry Lewis poses during a photocall for the film "Max Rose" at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes May 23, 2013. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jerry Lewis, the high prince of low-brow comedy on stage and in movies as well as a fund-raising powerhouse with his annual Labor Day telethon, died on Sunday of "natural causes" at the age of 91, his family said.

 

"Famed comedian, actor and legendary entertainer Jerry Lewis passed away peacefully today of natural causes at 91 at his home in Las Vegas with his family by his side," a statement from the Lewis family said.

 

His spokeswoman, Candi Cazau, said by phone that he died around 9:30 a.m. PDT (12:30 p.m. EDT/1630 GMT).

 

Lewis, who rose to fame as goofy foil to suave partner Dean Martin and was a comic icon in France.

 

He 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.

 

"I look at the world through a child's eyes because I'm 9," he told Reuters in a November 2002 interview. "I stayed that way. I made a career out of it. It's a wonderful place to be."

 

Lewis was 87 when his last movie, "Max Rose," came out in 2013, playing a jazz pianist who questions his marriage after learning his wife of 65 years may have been unfaithful.

 

The son of vaudeville entertainers, Lewis became a star in the early 1950s as Martin's spastic sidekick in nightclubs, on television and in 16 movies. At their height, they set off the kind of fan hysteria that once surrounded Frank Sinatra and the Beatles.

 

Their decade-long partnership ended with a bitter split and Lewis went on to star in his own film comedies.

 

Lewis' movie persona, like the character he created in the act with Martin, varied little from film to film. He was zany and manic, forever squealing, grimacing and flailing his way through situations beyond his control.

 

He starred in more than 45 films in a career spanning five decades. His cross-eyed antics often drew scorn from critics but he was for a time a box-office hit who commanded one of the biggest salaries in Hollywood.

 

Long after his celebrity faded at home, Lewis was wildly popular in France, where he was hailed as "le Roi du Crazy" (the king of crazy) and inducted into the Legion of Honor, France's highest award, in 1984. He received a similar honor in 2006.

 

He explained his popularity in France, by saying: "The French are very visually oriented even though they are cerebral. They enjoy what they see and laugh. Then, later, they ask why."

 

Lewis acknowledged that he elicited either love or hate from audiences -- and little in between.

 

(Editing by Bill Trott and Diane Craft; Additional by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Los Angeles bureau, 213 380 2014)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-08-21

[ezzra]

An icon of his era, the man was Mr. comedy back in the days, and though

he knew plenty of ups and downs in his life and career, he has persaveerd

and marched on.. he'll be sorely missed.....

[Luckysilk]

Arrogant old fool & I never found his humor funny at all.

 

Take a look at this video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/QzO0FoM79us

[Jeffrey346]

RIP.. Definitely an ICON

[Thechook]

1st saw him as a kid on the Sunday afternoon movies in the mid 80's actually liked his movies.

[bendejo]

My condolences to the people of France.

 

 

[boomerangutang]

I liked him in 'King of Comedy' with Robert De Niro.   Of course I liked him as kid, as all kids did, of that generation born in the 50's and 60's.  We would stand around and copy his silly way of talking.  I recall seeing an interview with him, from about 20 yrs ago.  He said he didn't like the word TV, but instead wanted everyone to use its full word 'television.'  He had a little granddaughter, at the time, and he loved making her laugh - that was his favorite thing in life, at that time.

 

His son put out a funny little pop tune called, 'This Diamond Ring' in the 1960's, which is rather catchy. 

[Thechook]

17 minutes ago, bendejo said:

My condolences to the people of France.

 

 

I think he was American

[steven100]

Jerry Lewis was funny ,  he appeared in many movies with Dean Martin ... 

RIP JL.    91 is not a bad innings ...

Edited August 21, 2017 by steven100

[TKDfella]

I liked some of his stuff but not really my brand of humour. Having said that, I do respect that he was an icon in his profession. Not going to comment on his private life as I think one has to try and separate the work from private life. Oh gosh, brings my own mortality to the forefront with all these 'old' stars passing away. R.I.P.

[Scott]

When I was young, I very much enjoyed his comedy, but as I got older, not so much.   He is, nevertheless, an icon of my youth.  

 

RIP

[Rancid]

Grew up with him on Saturday afternoon movies (raining), always liked him. Think Jim Carry certainly used some of his approaches to the genre.

[Scouse123]

He never appealed to me and I found his humor just plain stupid and  boring repetitive childishness.

 

Kudos for his charity work but he was an arrogant old bitter bastard in later years. I watched some of his interviews.

 

I much preferred Dean Martin after they split. I liked his singing, his wit and all in all found him an appealing entertainer.

 

Anyway, that said, He managed the ripe age of 91 and did many good deeds for others. RIP.

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, Scouse123 said:

He never appealed to me and I found his humor just plain stupid and  boring repetitive childishness.

 

Kudos for his charity work but he was an arrogant old bitter bastard in later years. I watched some of his interviews.

 

I much preferred Dean Martin after they split. I liked his singing, his wit and all in all found him an appealing entertainer.

 

Anyway, that said, He managed the ripe age of 91 and did many good deeds for others. RIP.

Like you I never found him funny and can't ever remember laughing at anything he did. Just a lot of pulling funny faces and childish jokes.

However RIP.

[4MyEgo]

5 hours ago, Thechook said:

I think he was American

Newark, New Jersey, as American as you can get, and I got to say, I liked him, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr when I was younger, Ma & Pa Kettle, The Beverly Hill Billies, Elvis, Green aces, The Marx Brothers, Abbott & Costello, there all gone, as we will too one day, Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, keep smiling !!!

Edited August 21, 2017 by 4MyEgo

[Andaman Al]

2 hours ago, overherebc said:

Like you I never found him funny and can't ever remember laughing at anything he did. Just a lot of pulling funny faces and childish jokes.

However RIP.

As he said though, it was childish, it was aimed at 9 year olds (it kept the kids amused while the Mums were swooning over Dean Martin).

 

6 hours ago, Thechook said:

1st saw him as a kid on the Sunday afternoon movies in the mid 80's actually liked his movies.

Same. fond memories from the late 60's tucked up on the sofa with Mum watching the Sunday afternoon movie on a rainy day (black and white TV of course). I used to laugh as a kid until my ribs hurt. I agree with the poster that said Lewis was probably a major influence on Jim Carrey. RIP Jerry and thanks for the memories.

[overherebc]

10 minutes ago, Andaman Al said:

As he said though, it was childish, it was aimed at 9 year olds (it kept the kids amused while the Mums were swooning over Dean Martin).

 

Same. fond memories from the late 60's tucked up on the sofa with Mum watching the Sunday afternoon movie on a rainy day (black and white TV of course). I used to laugh as a kid until my ribs hurt. I agree with the poster that said Lewis was probably a major influence on Jim Carrey. RIP Jerry and thanks for the memories.

Sorry even as a kid I never found him funny.

[Lokie]

I liked his movies as a kid, was a funny guy

 

R I P

[Mansell]

It is somewhat amusing that people Feel they have to say they didn't like Jerry Lewis.....I think this says more about you than Mr. Lewis.

In the late fifties as a kid it was always fun to see him and Dean together and Jerry's zany antics. Chaplin was a little bit old hat by then, so Jerry filled the bill. I think by the time we saw their movies they had already split up.....things arrived in England much later. Then when I lived in California Jerry's telethon was a staple every Labor Day weekend. His charity work was amazing, and nobody prodded him to do it, especially raising probably hundreds of millions of dollars for the less fortunate. One of the good guys helping where he could......old school in my book.

[Enoon]

22 minutes ago, Mansell said:

It is somewhat amusing that people Feel they have to say they didn't like Jerry Lewis.....I think this says more about you than Mr. Lewis.

In the late fifties as a kid it was always fun to see him and Dean together and Jerry's zany antics. Chaplin was a little bit old hat by then, so Jerry filled the bill. I think by the time we saw their movies they had already split up.....things arrived in England much later. Then when I lived in California Jerry's telethon was a staple every Labor Day weekend. His charity work was amazing, and nobody prodded him to do it, especially raising probably hundreds of millions of dollars for the less fortunate. One of the good guys helping where he could......old school in my book.

 

Imagine the horrified reaction if they had been equally disapproving of the also recently departed "St Brucie of Forsyth".

 

Given the apparent freedom of speech on this thread I would like to take the opportunity to say that I utterly loathed and detested Forsyth, the patron saint of self regarding attention seekers everywhere.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 21, 2017 by Enoon

[Scouse123]

Well, there we absolutely disagree. Bruce Forsyth could sing, dance, act, do cabaret, entertaining mass audience and keeping them captivated..

What did Jerry Lewis do except boy eyed stupid antics with a screaming voice. By the way, Jerry Lewis is nowhere near the talent of Jim Carrey in my book.And I wasn't born in the fifties either!

Different jokes for different folks I guess.

Dean Martin was fantastic by the way, especially as a solo act!


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[landslide]

As the MDA coordinator for my company in the late 80's, I had on occasion opportunities to meet and talk with Jerry Lewis during his annual Labor Day telethons.  While the fundraising for a cure for Muscular Dystrophy was important to him, the man himself was arrogant and condescending to everyone around him.  It was amazing to see him "turn on the switch" when he stepped on the stage, and then immediately revert to his true self upon exiting the stage.  Since then I really did not care to watch him perform at all.  I will say I hope he finds the peace in death that was missing for him in life.

[bendejo]

39 minutes ago, landslide said:

It was amazing to see him "turn on the switch" when he stepped on the stage, and then immediately revert to his true self upon exiting the stage.  Since then I really did not care to watch him perform at all.  I will say I hope he finds the peace in death that was missing for him in life.

 

Well said.  I worked front and back of the house in a theatre in NYC when I was a teenager, though I never met JL I've seen what you describe many times.  Once at a premiere a certain actress who was somewhat famous at the time was in the audience, asked one of the ushers where the bathroom was, and when directed made a big scene of lighting into him "WHY DON'T YOU PUT UP A EFFIN SIGN!" etc.  She drew a lot of attention, but maybe that's what she wanted.  These days when I see talk shows I look for cracks in the public personas, and there's a lot of times I watch these people and think "this is someone I do not want to meet."

A few months before all this stuff about Bill Cosby broke out he had a TV special and most of his jokes were really him getting back at his wife and kids.  Then I remembered seeing him on a talk show around 1970 (maybe Johnny Carson?) and thinking "I don't think he's a nice guy."

 

 

[hawker9000]

21 hours ago, Luckysilk said:

Arrogant old fool & I never found his humor funny at all.

 

Take a look at this video on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/QzO0FoM79us

I didn't much care for his brand of comedy either, but many others would strongly disagree (I don't think ANY entertainer is EVERYBODY'S cup of tea...) and he WAS a humanitarian.   Frankly, your ageism is far MORE arrogant and foolish.

 

'Watched the clip.  The interviewer was sort of a journalistically needy wannabe; I'd have been a bit anxious to get to the end of it, too.   'Clip means next to nothing and was largely a waste of time to watch.

 

RIP

 

Edited August 21, 2017 by hawker9000

[katana]

He was also popular in Germany in the 1970s (and earlier). Remember seeing his films, although they were dubbed rather than subtitled.

[Luckysilk]

2 hours ago, hawker9000 said:

I didn't much care for his brand of comedy either, but many others would strongly disagree (I don't think ANY entertainer is EVERYBODY'S cup of tea...) and he WAS a humanitarian.   Frankly, your ageism is far MORE arrogant and foolish.

 

'Watched the clip.  The interviewer was sort of a journalistically needy wannabe; I'd have been a bit anxious to get to the end of it, too.   'Clip means next to nothing and was largely a waste of time to watch.

 

RIP

 

Guess you missed the part it was a series interviewing a bunch of "young" 90+ year olds who are still in the industry working. He came off as a bitter, egotistical, grumpy, arrogant young fool.

 

He was arrogant before he hit the young age of 90, read up about his sons. As for liking him I'm confident those that admire his talent also enjoy Thai television and comedians.