Joseph Levitch was born on March 16,1926, in Irvington, New Jersey, to Danny and Rae. He has since gone on to become known as Jerry Lewis. He is known worldwide and has received many awards, medals, and other accolades, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
His first time in the limelight was during his father's vaudeville act in which he sang "Brother Can You Spare A Dime". He tripped in the spotlight and got a huge laugh. It was this laugh that started the comic genius rolling. He began working on an act and at the age of sixteen went out on his own.
It was not long after that he met and married Patti Palmer (Esther) and partnered up with a singer named Dean Martin. They became good friends and worked together for ten years, at which time pressures and diverging goals caused them to split. During this ten years they broke record after record for attendance and money earned.
He also started a lifelong partnership with the Muscular Dystrophy Association, for whom he works constantly all year and ends with a telethon on Labor Day to raise funds for the association.
His marriage to Patti resulted in 6 sons and lasted over 30 years. His eldest son, Gary, started his own band and released a number of records and albums as Gary Lewis and the Playboys. He had a number of number one records. Jerry Lewis divorced Patti and shortly after married Sandee Pitnick and adopted a little girl, Danielle.
During his 65 or so year career he has acted, directed, written, and produced numerous films, hosted academy awards, hosted a talk show, performed in a nightclub act, while working continually for MDA. Recently he did a tour of North America called Jerry Unlimited which was very successful. This resulted in an opportunity to star in a Broadway remake of Damn Yankees. After it's run on Broadway, it went an a National Tour and is currently doing run in London. It may be coming back to Canada in May/98. For information about Damn Yankees! or go here. This play has been very successful as well and made new fans for Jerry Lewis, who might not have realized how talented and versatile he could be.
This is very brief and jumps through a 65 year career too quickly but if you are interested in more there are a number of books available:JERRY LEWIS:IN PERSON,JERRY LEWIS FILMS,I LAFFED TIL I CRIED,THE KID, KING OF COMEDY, EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY SOMETIME, and THE TOTAL FILMMAKER. He is mentioned in a number of other books on films and entertainment. The Total Filmmaker is a series of lectures Jerry did while teaching at the University on Southern California. Feel free to locate these books some of which are available in the web sites mentioned in the LINKS section of the home page. You will also be able to locate some of these in Amazon.com or other used book web sites. Also available in the web sites in the links are detailed lists of Jerry's films. Welcome and enjoy and send in your thoughts and discussions.