Representatives of Jerry Lewis confirmed to EW that the comedian died of natural causes on Sunday at his Las Vegas home.
The hilarious comedian was born on March 16, 1926, in Newark, New-Jersey to show-business parents. From a young age, the young Lewis was encouraged by his pianist mother and vaudeville entertainer father to live life onstage. 5-year-old Lewis started his prosperous career with a solo-act of lip-syncing to records that has audiences laughing nonstop.
In 1946 he teamed up with Dean Martin in Atlantic City. Their joint performances were truly magical. It seems that it were the two’s very different personalities, Martin was smooth with female audiences while Lewis would do absolutely everything for a laugh, which made their act one of the biggest acts in the country.
After splitting up from Martin in 1956, Lewis found his voice as a performer. Showcasing his physical comedy, he starred in the 1960’s The Bellboy and 1963’s The Nutty Professor, later remade into Eddie Murphy’s hit 1996 film.
Perhaps not very well-known, Lewis was quite the innovator, inventing new film equipment, and even patenting the “video assist system” which enables a director to watch performances on a small monitor as they are filmed. This is just one example of his ingenuity that to this day is a staple in the industry. Lewis was also a teacher and an author. In 1971 he published a book, Total Film-maker as an annex to the courses he taught at USC film school, the same school attended by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
Some would say Lewis’ best performance was in Martin Scorsese’s 1982 King of Comedy. Lewis played Jerry Langford, a late-night talk show host, who is kidnapped by an obsessive fan (Robert DeNiro).
After never receiving an Oscar nomination, Lewis was finally nominated and awarded the Academy’s Jean Hershel Humanitarian Award. In his interview with EW, to the question of what will he say if he were to receive the award, he replied, “I’m going to make it brief. I’m going to go up there, grab that award, and say, It’s about f—ing time! And walk off.” That what definitely the comedian talking, however, at the end, he walked out on stage and humbly accepted the honor.
