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Jerry Lewis is a Actor, Director, Scriptwriter and Producer American born on 16 march 1926 at Newark (USA)

Jerry Lewis

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Birth name Joseph Levitch
Nationality USA
Birth 16 march 1926 at Newark (USA)
Death 20 august 2017 (at 91 years)

Jerry Lewis AM (born March 16, 1926) is an American comedian, actor, singer/recording artist, film producer, screenwriter and film director and is known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. His career began in 1946, with an act together with Dean Martin, forming the team of Martin and Lewis, which performed in nightclubs and later appeared in a series of comedy movies before 1956, when the two men parted ways, after ten years as a duo. Then since 1957, Lewis went on to star in many more films, such as The Delicate Delinquent (his debut as film producer), The Bellboy (his debut as film director, screenwriter and his development of video assist) and The Nutty Professor. Lewis hosted the annual Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association for over forty years and served as national chairman of the organization.

Lewis has won several awards for lifetime achievements from the American Comedy Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Venice Film Festival, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Biography

Family
Lewis has been married twice:

Patti Palmer (née Esther Calonico), a former singer with Ted Fio Rito; married October 3, 1944, divorced September 1980.
SanDee Pitnick; married February 13, 1983; a 32-year-old Las Vegas dancer. They were married in Key Biscayne, Florida; Lewis was 56.
He has six sons (one adopted) and one adopted daughter:

Gary Lewis was born on July 31, 1945 with Patti Palmer. As a 1960s pop musician, he had a string of hits with his group Gary Lewis & the Playboys.
Ronald Steven "Ronnie" Lewis; born December 1949 (adopted) with Patti Palmer
Scott Anthony Lewis; born February 22, 1956 to Patti Palmer
Christopher Joseph Lewis; born October 1957 to Patti Palmer
Anthony Joseph Lewis; born October 1959 to Patti Palmer
Joseph Christopher Lewis; born January 1964 to Patti Palmer, died October 24, 2009, from a narcotics overdose.
Danielle Sara Lewis (daughter); adopted March 1992 with SanDee Pitnick.
Health concerns
Lewis has suffered from a variety of illnesses and addictions related both to aging and a back injury sustained in a comedic pratfall from a piano while performing at the Sands Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip on March 20, 1965. The accident almost left him paralyzed. In its aftermath Lewis became addicted to the pain killer Percodan for thirteen years. He says he has been off the drug since 1978 and has not taken one since. In April 2002, Lewis had a Medtronic "Synergy" neurostimulator implanted in his back, which has helped reduce the discomfort.
He is now one of the company's leading spokesmen. In the 2011 documentary Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, Lewis said he suffered his first heart attack while filming Cinderfella in 1960. In December 1982, Lewis suffered a serious heart attack. En route home to San Diego from New York City on a cross-country commercial airline flight he endured a minor heart attack on June 11, 2006. It was then discovered that he had pneumonia as well as a severely damaged heart. He underwent a cardiac catheterization and two stents were inserted into one of his coronary arteries, which had become 90% blocked.

The surgery resulted in a return of blood flow to his heart and has allowed him to continue his rebound from earlier lung problems. Having the cardiac catheterization also meant canceling several major events from his schedule, but Lewis fully recuperated in a matter of weeks. In 1999, his Australian tour was cut short when he had to be hospitalized in Darwin with viral meningitis. He was ill for more than five months. It was reported in the Australian press that he had failed to pay his medical bills; however, Lewis maintained that the payment confusion was the fault of his health insurer. The resulting negative publicity caused him to sue his insurer for US$100 million. Lewis has had prostate cancer, diabetes, pulmonary fibrosis, and a decades-long history of heart disease. Prednisone treatment in the late 1990s for pulmonary fibrosis resulted in weight gain and a noticeable change in his appearance.

In September 2001, Lewis was unable to perform at a planned London charity event at the London Palladium. He was the headline act, his band had taken to the stage, started up their music and he was introduced, but didn't appear as he had suddenly become unwell, apparently with heart problems, and was taken to hospital. Some months thereafter, Lewis began an arduous, months-long therapy that weaned him off prednisone and enabled him to return to work. On June 12, 2012, he was treated and released from a hospital after collapsing from hypoglycemia at a New York Friars' Club event. This latest health news forced him to cancel a show in Sydney.

Charity work
Throughout his career, Lewis has supported fundraising for research into muscular dystrophy. From the early 1950s until 2011, he served as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Lewis began hosting telethons to benefit MDA in 1952. From 1966 to 2010 he hosted the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon raising over $2.6 billion. On August 3, 2011, it was announced that Lewis would no longer host telethons. Lewis is no longer associated with the Muscular Dystrophy Association. On May 1, 2015, the MDA announced that in view of "the new realities of television viewing and philanthropic giving", the telethon was being discontinued.

Jerry Lewis Cinemas
In 1969, Jerry Lewis agreed to lend his name to "Jerry Lewis Cinemas", offered by National Cinema Corporation as a franchise business opportunity for those interested in theatrical movie exhibition. Jerry Lewis Cinemas stated that their theaters could be operated by a staff of as few as two with the aid of automation and support provided by the franchiser in booking films and in other aspects of film exhibition. A forerunner of the smaller rooms typical of later multi-screen complexes, a Jerry Lewis Cinema was billed in franchising ads as a "mini-theatre" with a seating capacity of between 200 and 350. In addition to Lewis's name, each Jerry Lewis Cinema bore a sign with a cartoon logo of Lewis in profile.

Initially 158 territories were franchised, with a buy-in fee of $10,000 or $15,000 depending on the territory, for what was called an "individual exhibitor". For $50,000, the Jerry Lewis Cinemas offered an opportunity known as an "area directorship", in which investors controlled franchising opportunities in a territory as well as their own cinemas. The success of the chain was hampered by a policy of only booking second-run, family-friendly films. Eventually the policy was changed, and the Jerry Lewis Cinemas were allowed to show more competitive films, but after a decade the chain failed. Both Lewis and National Cinema Corp. declared bankruptcy in 1980.