Jerry Lewis
American comedian, actor and film director (1926–2017)
Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. Across his seven-decade career, Lewis was regarded as one of the greatest comedians of the 20th century. He is nicknamed the "King of Comedy".
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.
Early life and education
Lewis was born Joseph Levitch on March 16, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, to a Jewish family. His parents were Daniel "Danny" Levitch (1902–1980), a master of ceremonies and vaudevillian who performed under the stage name Danny Lewis, whose parents immigrated to the United States from the Russian Empire to New York, and Rachael "Rae" Levitch (née Brodsky; 1904–1982), a WOR radio pianist and Danny's music director, from Warsaw.
The public source identifies “Jerry Lewis” as american comedian, actor and film director (1926–2017). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Jerry, Lewis and American.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q294927. VIAF identifies the subject as 98006568. The Library of Congress control number is n50053444. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2017, 1946 and 1956.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jerry Lewis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.