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Longtime actor and comedian Jerry Lewis has died at the age of 91, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Lewis’ agent confirmed the news to Variety.
Lewis faced many health problems throughout the years, including prostate cancer and two heart attacks. He also suffered from Type 1 diabetes and battled pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease.
The beloved comic enjoyed a decades-long career, recently selling out his one-man shows at the 2,400-seat La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in California in 2014. He got his start in 1946 alongside Dean Martin, performing on television and radio shows and in movies before they parted ways in 1956 after 10 years as a duo. Lewis went on to star in, produce and direct an array of films, including “The Delicate Delinquent,” (1957) “The Bellboy” (1960) and “The Nutty Professor” (1963). He also made multiple television appearances and hosted the annual Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association for over 40 years until he was reportedly unceremoniously dumped by the organization in 2010 and resigned from his post as national chairman. MDA announced in May 2015 that the telethon would be ending, saying “the new realities of television viewing and philanthropic giving have made this the right time.”
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But despite those ups and downs, Lewis continued to work, performing onstage and even directing a musical theatre version of “The Nutty Professor” at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville in 2012. He most recently starred in the film “Max Rose,” about a jazz musician dealing with the death of his wife of 65 years, whom he discovers was unfaithful.
“I’ve worked under the most painful conditions any man has ever felt in his life,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. “But when I walk out on that stage, the pain goes away.”
Lewis, who was formerly married to Patti Palmer, is survived by his wife, SanDee Pitnick, and his children, sons Gary, Ronnie, Scott, Christopher and Anthony and daughter Danielle. His youngest son Joseph died of a drug overdose on October 24, 2009 at the age of 45.
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