1. Joseph Levitch was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1928.  He started using the name Joey Lewis when he started performing.  Dropped “Joey” and picked “Jerry” to avoid confusion with comedy Joe E. Brown and boxer Joe Lewis.

2. The big break of Jerry Lewis’ career was when he met singer, Dean Martin, in 1946. Their partnership went from night clubs to radio appearances to an Ed Sullivan television appearance to movies in about 2 and half years.  They would make a total of 17 movies (that includes one cameo) together from 1949 to 1956.  Everyone of their movies was a box office hit….16 for 16 …you can not get better than that.

3.  Jerry Lewis was a Top Ten Box Office Star 12 years.  With Dean Martin…they were ranked 2nd in 1951, 1st in 1952, 2nd in 1953, 2nd in 1954, 7th in 1955 and 6th in 1956.  Without Martin he was ranked 9th in 1957, 3rd in 1958, 9th in 1959, 7th in 1961, 7th in 1962 and 10th in 1963.

4.  Jerry Lewis was honored for his contribution and development of the first “Video Assist” for the motion picture camera in 1966. This allowed him to view his performance while directing himself in his films. This is used extensively today in filmmaking, known as “Video Village.”

5. Jerry Lewis is beloved in France.  He was presented the French Legion of Honor in 1984. Twice voted Best Foreign Director by the French film critics.  In 2009, Jerry Lewis received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.  His honorary Oscar® speech is in a You Tube video at the bottom of the page.

6.  Jerry Lewis taught a film directing class at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for a number of years; his students included Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.

7.  Jerry Lewis hosted the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, from 1966 to 2010.   The telethon has raised over 2.6 billion dollars.  Lewis was nominated for a Nobel Prize for his work with the telethon.  When I was younger, you could not think about Labor Day without thinking about the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.

8.  Jerry Lewis has been married twice; first to Patti Lewis from 1944 to 1983..they had six children. Lewis’ oldest son, Gary,  is the lead singer for Gary Lewis & The Playboys.  They had several pop hits in the 1960s.  His second marriage is to SanDee Pitnick. They have been married since 1983 and they have one child.

9.  Some Adam Sandler/Jerry Lewis stuff I found interesting.  (1) They both have specialized in “man-child” movies.  (2) Those “man-child” movies have been very successful at the box office.  (3) They both starred in a movie called That’s My Boy. The Lewis movie was in 1951 while Sandler’s movie was made in 2012.  (4) Darren McGavin and Johnny Depp are two actors that appeared in movies with both actors.

10.  Jerry Lewis starred and directed probably the most famous movie never to be released.  1972’s The Day The Clown Cried has been locked in a Lewis vault for over 40 years now and has been seen by very few people.  That might be changing in the near future (2025?).  Check out this link for further information.

Check out Jerry Lewis’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.