[Note: I would have liked to have posted this yesterday evening, but the wifi in the place I'm staying in was not working very well. Conditions seem better today, so let me try again before I check out.]
Jerry Lewis, who had a long career as an actor, singer, producer, director, screenwriter and humanitarian, passed away yesterday at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 91 after a brief illness.
Joseph Levitch was born in Newark, New Jersey to Russian Jewish parents. His father, Daniel Levitch, was an entertainer who used the name Danny Lewis. His mother, the former Rachel Brodsky, was a piano player at a radio station. As he started his comedy career, Lewis decide to use Jerry as his stage name, to avoid confusion with boxer Joe Lewis and comedian Joe E. Lewis. From 1946 to 1956, Lewis formed a comedy team with Dean Martin, who acted as a straight man. Afterwards, he appeared in a long list of movies, most recently Max Rose in 2016. Lewis hosted telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association from 1952 to 1959, and again from 1966 to 2010.
Lewis was married twice, first to Patti Palmer and later to SanDee Pitnick. He and Palmer had six children, one of whom was adopted. With Pitnick, he adopted a daughter. His oldest son, Gary Lewis, became the leader of a pop group called Gary Lewis & the Playboys. During his life, Lewis suffered a series of health problems, including two heart attacks, and recently had a urinary tract infection. The cause of his death appears as yet unreported.
Read more at Variety, Vanity Fair, CNN, The Hollywood Reporter and E!News.
UPDATE: The cause of death is reported to be heart failure, as indicated by TMZ.
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