Jerry Lewis Biography

Slapstick and funny-face specialist Jerry Lewis was one of the top movie comedians of the 1950s and 1960s.

Jerry Lewis got his start with singer Dean Martin as Martin & Lewis, a hugely successful comedy team of stage, screen and radio. Martin was the romantic crooner, Lewis the zany cut-up and comedy relief. They made a string of popular movies from 1949 to 1956, including At War With the Army (1950) and The Caddy (1953). By 1956 the two co-stars had started to chafe at the partnership, and they broke up — starting a famous feud that lasted for decades.

Jerry Lewis went on to produce, direct and star in hit comedies such as The Bellboy (1960), Cinderfella (1960), and The Nutty Professor (1963). His films, full of Lewis’s silly clowning and rubber-faced antics, were reliable money-makers and turned Lewis one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. (The same formula was later followed by Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler, among others.)

Jerry Lewis was also widely known for his annual Labor Day telethon, a charitable event raising money to fight muscular dystrophy. He hosted the show for nearly 40 years, with his final appearance coming in 2010. After his death, The New York Times reported that Lewis had raised over $2 billion for the cause over his lifetime.

He was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1984 by the government of France, where his work had long been popular. In the 1990s made a comeback on stage, appearing as the Devil in the Broadway revival of the stage play Damn Yankees. Jerry Lewis was given the Jean Hersholt humanitarian award at the 2009 Academy Awards, honoring him as “an individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.”