with content from The Guardian
Vetern actor, Jerry Lewis is dead at 91.
The American comic had suffered a heart condition for decades and suffered a near-fatal cardiac arrest in December 1982. His death was reported by Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John Katsilometes and Variety reported that Lewis’ agent confirmed the news.
Lewis, at his prime, was embraced as the ultimate 20th-century village idiot, a pocket tornado who blended slapstick prowess with squeaky-voiced histrionics. It was a combination that helped make him the industry’s top box-office draw for several years running. “I was about as discreet as a bull taking a piss in your living-room,” he once confessed. Yet, while beloved by the masses, the comic also found himself lauded by the artistic elite in France, where he was eventually awarded the prestigious Legion d’honneur. The critics at Cahiers du Cinema hailed him as an American auteur, a visionary to rank alongside John Ford and Orson Welles.
Yet what was reputed to have been Lewis’s most ambitious, personal production remains unseen to this day. In 1971 the comic directed and starred in The Day the Clown Cried, about a children’s entertainer at the Nazi concentration camps. The film was reportedly buried by horrified studio bosses and has since become a dark piece of Hollywood folklore. Lewis, who was rumoured to possess the lone copy of the film, refused to discuss it.
With his movie career on the wane, Lewis took a job teaching classes at the University of Southern California, where his students included George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. He also kick-started what would become his annual Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, which went on to raise $2.45bn for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Vetern actor, Jerry Lewis is dead at 91.
Lewis, at his prime, was embraced as the ultimate 20th-century village idiot, a pocket tornado who blended slapstick prowess with squeaky-voiced histrionics. It was a combination that helped make him the industry’s top box-office draw for several years running. “I was about as discreet as a bull taking a piss in your living-room,” he once confessed. Yet, while beloved by the masses, the comic also found himself lauded by the artistic elite in France, where he was eventually awarded the prestigious Legion d’honneur. The critics at Cahiers du Cinema hailed him as an American auteur, a visionary to rank alongside John Ford and Orson Welles.
Yet what was reputed to have been Lewis’s most ambitious, personal production remains unseen to this day. In 1971 the comic directed and starred in The Day the Clown Cried, about a children’s entertainer at the Nazi concentration camps. The film was reportedly buried by horrified studio bosses and has since become a dark piece of Hollywood folklore. Lewis, who was rumoured to possess the lone copy of the film, refused to discuss it.
With his movie career on the wane, Lewis took a job teaching classes at the University of Southern California, where his students included George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. He also kick-started what would become his annual Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, which went on to raise $2.45bn for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
--more at The Guardian
*Wizard's note: I grew up with Jerry, just like a whole bunch of you reading this. He was one of my favourite comedians, and I always enjoyed his movies, with or without Dean Martin. He was a favourite of my mom's as well. I'll miss you, Jerry. You were the stuff that legends are made of. RIP.
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