Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. Known as "The King of Comedy", "The Total Filmmaker" and in France as "Le Roi du Crazy" across his seven-decade career, Lewis was regarded as one of the greatest comedians of the 20th century.

Rising to prominence with singer Dean Martin, billed as Martin and Lewis, in 1946, the two did a series of sixteen buddy-comedy films, their televised run on The Colgate Comedy Hour, live stage performances, guest spots on other shows and a radio series until their split in 1956. Lewis went into filmmaking while continuing on his own in thirty-five motion pictures from 1957 to 1984, guest hosted The Tonight Show a record fifty-two times, while helming his own nightly series and from 1950 to 1989, performed closely with Sammy Davis Jr. As its honorary national chairman and spokesman, Lewis raised funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) through his annual Labor Day telecast The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, a live event which raised $2.45 billion for MDA from its 1966 inception through 2009.

As a singer, Lewis sang live, recorded numerous albums and did standards from the Great American Songbook. Performing in concert stages, nightclubs, audio recordings, on radio and appeared in at least 117 film and television productions, Lewis was honored two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and France awarded him the Legion of Honor. Lewis's early career and partnership with Martin was dramatised in the 2002 biopic Martin and Lewis.