Jerry Lewis - IMDb IMDb Actor | Writer | Director Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926) is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis. In addition to the duo's popular nightclub work, ... See full bio » Born: a list of 43 people created 08 May 2012 a list of 26 people created 10 Aug 2013 a list of 40 people created 08 Sep 2014 a list of 32 people created 19 Nov 2014 a list of 36 people created 03 Jan 2016 Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Jerry Lewis's work have you seen? User Polls Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 16 wins & 15 nominations. See more awards » Known For The Nutty Professor Prof.

Julius Kelp / Buddy Love (1963) 1987 Fight for Life (TV Movie) Dr. Bernard Abrams 1965 Ben Casey (TV Series) Dr. Dennis Green 1961 The Ladies Man (written by) 1960 Cinderfella (story - uncredited) 1992 How Are the Kids? (Documentary) (segment "Boy") 1991 Good Grief (TV Series) (1 episode) 1966 Three on a Couch (lyrics: "A Now and a Later Love") 1964 The Patsy (performer: "I Lost My Heart in a Drive-In Movie") 1963 The Jerry Lewis Show (TV Series) (performer - 1 episode) - Episode #1.11 (1963) ...

(performer: "When the Red, Red, Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along", "Birth of the Blues", "Nessun Dorma") 1963 The Nutty Professor (performer: "That Old Black Magic" (uncredited), "We've Got a World That Swings", "I'm in the Mood for Love" (uncredited)) 1961 The Ladies Man (performer: "Bang Tail") 1960 Cinderfella (performer: "Let Me Be a People (Plain Old Me)", "The Other Fella (A Soliloquy)", "The Princess Waltz (Once Upon A Time)", "Somebody") 1960 Raymie (performer: "Raymie") 1958 Rock-a-Bye Baby (performer: "Dormi-Dormi-Dormi (Sleep-Sleep-Sleep)", "The Land of La-La-La", "Love Is a Lonely Thing", "Rock-a-Bye Baby") 1957 The Delicate Delinquent (performer: "By Myself") 1956 Pardners (performer: "Buckskin Beauty", "

Pardners") 1955 Artists and Models ("Artists and Models") / (performer: "When You Pretend") 1954 3 Ring Circus (performer: "Time to Shave" - uncredited) 1954 Living It Up (performer: "Ev'ry Street's a Boulevard in Old New York") 1953 Money from Home (performer: "Be Careful Song") 1953 The Caddy (performer: "The Gay Continental", "(It Takes A Lot Of Little Likes To Make) One Big Love", "That's Amoré (That's Love)", "What Wouldcha Do Without Me?") 1953 Scared Stiff (performer: "Bongo Bingo", "Enchiladas") 1952 Jumping Jacks (performer: "I CAN'T RESIST A BOY IN A UNIFORM", "KEEP A LITTLE DREAM HANDY") Dean Martin - Biography - IMDb Dean Martin Biography Showing all 99 items Jump to: Overview (5) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (3) | Trade Mark (3) | Trivia (59) |

 Personal Quotes (24) | Salary (4) Overview (5) 5' 11" (1.8 m) Mini Bio (1) If there had to be an image for cool, the man to fit it would be Dean Martin.

Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, to Angela (Barra) and Gaetano Alfonso Crocetti, a barber. His father was an Italian immigrant, and his mother was of Italian descent. He spoke only Italian until age five. Martin came up the hard way, with such jobs as a boxer (named Kid Crochet), a steel mill worker, a gas station worker and a card shark. In 1946, he got his first ticket to stardom, as he teamed up with another hard worker who was also trying to hit it big in Hollywood: Jerry Lewis . Films such as At War with the Army (1950) sent the team toward superstardom. The duo were to become one of Hollywood's truly great teams. They lasted 11 years together, and starred in 16 movies. They were unstoppable, but personality conflicts broke up the team. Even without Lewis, Martin was a true superstar.

Few thought that Martin would go on to achieve solo success, but he did, winning critical acclaim for his role in The Young Lions (1958) with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift , and Some Came Running (1958), with Shirley MacLaine and Frank Sinatra . Movies such as Rio Bravo (1959) brought him international fame. One of his best remembered films is in Ocean's 11 (1960), in which he played Sam Harmon alongside the other members of the legendary Rat Pack: Frank Sinatra , Sammy Davis Jr. , Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford . Martin proved potent at the box office throughout the 1960s, with films such as Bells Are Ringing (1960) and Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), again with Rat Pack pals Sammy Davis Jr. and Sinatra. During much of the 1960s and 1970s, Martin's movie persona of a boozing playboy prompted a series of films as secret agent Matt Helm and his own television variety show. Airport (1970) followed, featuring Martin as a pilot.

He also played a phony priest in The Cannonball Run (1981). In 1965, Martin explored a new method for entertaining his fans: Television. That year he hosted one of the most successful TV series in history: The Dean Martin Show (1965), which lasted until 1973. In 1965 it won a Golden Globe Award. In 1973 he renamed it "The Dean Martin Comedy Hour", and from 1974 to 1984 it was renamed again, this time "The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts". It became one of the most successful TV series in history, skewering such greats as Bob Hope , Frank Sinatra , Lucille Ball , James Stewart , George Burns ' Milton Berle , Don Rickles Phyllis Diller , and Joe Namath . His last public role was a return to the stage, for a cross-country concert tour with Davis and Sinatra. He spoke affectionately of his fellow Rat Packers. "The satisfaction that I get out of working with these two bums is that we have more laughs than the audience has", Martin said.

After the 1980s, Martin took it easy--that is, until his son, Dean Paul Martin died in a plane crash in 1987. Devastated by the loss, from which he never recovered, he walked out on a reunion tour with Sinatra and Davis. Martin spent his final years in solitude. He died on Christmas Day, 1995. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous and deanmartin101 Spouse (3) Born at 11:55pm-CST Interred at Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California, USA. His parents were Gaetano and Angella Crocetti. Although born in Ohio, he spoke only Italian until age 5. He had a fear of elevators and a love of comic books, which he read his entire life. His career as a boxer was described by him as follows, "I won all but 11 fights." When asked how many he'd fought, he'd reply, "A dozen." In reality, he fought 36 bouts and won 25 of them under the name Dino Crocetti.

He reportedly fought under the nickname Kid Crochet, although no records of fights have been found under that name. Died exactly 29 years to the day (25 December 1995) after his mother, Angela Crocetti (25 December 1966). Nephew of actor/comedian Leonard Barr . Much of the "booze" that he drank on stage during his famous "Rat Pack" performances was really apple juice. (Son Dean Paul Martin spilled this secret, after the variety show ended production, stating that his father couldn't have performed if he'd really drunk that much liquor.) Father in law of Carole Costello . She was married to Craig Martin, his oldest son & was the daughter of Lou Costello . From 1973 to 1984, he was the host of the "Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts." In one of the most classic television series of all time, Dean and his panel of actors and comics would shower the guest of honor with insults.

This series contained the most famous names in the history of entertainment, such as Bob Hope , Frank Sinatra , Lucille Ball , George Burns , James Stewart , Orson Welles , Jack Benny , Phyllis Diller , Milton Berle , Gene Kelly , Don Rickles , Rich Little , John Wayne , and Foster Brooks . Dean's TV career began in 1950 with The Martin & Lewis Show on The Colgate Comedy Hour, which ran through 1955. He hosted various other shows before reluctantly taking the 1965 gig which turned into a 19-year success under various names. Dean is one of few actors who have received not just one, but three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for Motion Pictures at 6519 Hollywood Blvd., one for Television at 6651 Hollywood Blvd, and a third for his recording career. Underwent rhinoplasty when he was 27. The procedure was rumored to have been paid for by Lou Costello among others. Son-in-law was the late Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys (married to Dean's daughter Gina). Has a street named after him in San Antonio, Texas.

"Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime" - words written on his tombstone, after his signature hit. Starred (with Jerry Lewis ) on NBC Radio's "The Martin and Lewis Show" (1949-1953). He and Frank Sinatra were best friends, a fact he held very dear to his heart. The two didn't speak much, in the years after Dean quit the "Rat Pack Reunion" tour, but they did reconcile a few months before his death, over dinner - and a breadroll fight. His friends often described him as easygoing and good natured, loving to laugh and make others laugh. They also said that he was sometimes quiet and liked to spend time alone, and that they seldom knew what he was thinking. He and former wife Jeanne Martin maintained a friendship after their divorce, and consulted each other on family matters. When his health declined, Jeanne encouraged him not to worry about facing death, and to look at it as the chance he longed for, to be reunited with their son Dean Paul Martin , and with his parents. His style of singing was initially influenced by Harry Mills of The Mills Brothers .

When 20th Century-Fox fired Marilyn Monroe as his co-star in Something's Got to Give (1962) and then attempted to replace her with Lee Remick , he reminded the studio that he had contractual approval of his co-star, and refused to continue the project without Monroe. His act of loyalty eventually got Marilyn re-hired, but she died of a drug overdose before shooting on this never-finished film could resume. Nine hours of largely unseen footage from the film remained in the vaults at 20th Century Fox until 1999. The film was then edited to include some of the unseen footage,wherever feasible and digitally restored, as a 37 minute film. After 39 years, The film finally premiered on Cable TV's "American Movie Classics", on June 1, 2001. It is available on DVD.

Although he had almost 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 charts between 1951 and 1968, only three went to number one: "That's Amore" (Capitol: 1953), "Memories Are Made of This" (Capitol: 1956), and his theme song, "Everybody Loves Somebody" (Reprise: 1964). Despite the legend that he and comedy partner Jerry Lewis always despised each other, the two were actually quite close friends and the tension between the two began in 1956, when "outside people" (as Lewis called them to Peter Bogdanovich ) began to "poison" Martin against Lewis. Frank Sinatra eventually staged a public reunion over 20 years after, during a 1976 MDA telethon that Jerry was hosting. However they did reunite twice, briefly, during that 20 year hiatus. In 1958, they appeared together as surprise guests on "The Joey Bishop Show" and in 1960, they appeared together on stage at "The Sands" in Las Vegas where they did a duet of "Come Back To Me".

Over the next 10 years, following their 70s reunion, they became close again. He and the other members of the Rat Pack were banned from Marilyn Monroe 's funeral by Joe DiMaggio Following his diagnosis of lung cancer at Cedars Sinai Medical Center on 16 September 1993, Martin finally quit smoking and even managed to perform briefly, and rather jauntily, at his 77th birthday celebration in June 1994. He declined to have major surgery on his liver and kidneys which doctors told him was necessary to prolong his life, and succumbed to respiratory failure on Christmas Day 1995. He and Jerry Lewis , in1954, recorded a radio spot promoting "Tuck Tape" then a competing brand of "Scotch Tape and noticing the recording tape for the commercial was still rolling, decided to improvise additional radio spots, with Jerry and Dean slipping profanities into his dialog. The unedited master recording was surreptitiously taken from the studio and made into a "bootleg" record that sold briskly among collectors. Although Martin was a Republican, he supported Frank Sinatra 's campaign to elect John F.

Kennedy as President in 1960. Had a night-club in North Bay Village, Florida in the late 1970s and early 1980s called Dino's. It was next to Jilly Rizzo 's club, Jilly's. He declined to participate in the March on Washington in August 1963. Dean was so distraught over the murder of his The Wrecking Crew (1968) co-star and friend Sharon Tate that he abandoned the next already-announced "Matt Helm" motion picture series installment (to be titled "The Ravagers"), and never played the character again. Although he made out to be a heavy drinker on stage, he mostly used apple juice, but off stage was a Jack Daniels man. Martin did not party all night with the rest of the "Rat Pack" crew - actually calling themselves "The Clan". He usually went to bed early so he could play golf the next morning. He was obsessed with golf, and once stated in an interview that he would have preferred to be a professional golfer than an entertainer. He was a close friend of John Wayne and Gary Cooper .

At 16, Dean Martin was a welterweight boxer who compiled a record of 25-11. One of his favorite hobbies during his reclusive final years was watching westerns on television - the older the better. In 1962, Martin left Capitol Records and signed with Reprise, the label started and owned by Frank Sinatra. In 1964, he recorded his blockbuster hit, "Everybody Loves Somebody", which beat the Beatles to become the No. 1 hit in America for one week. It became the theme song for his television variety series, The Dean Martin Show (1965), which ran on NBC for eight years. Martin followed this with The Dean Martin Comedy World (1974), which ran from 1973 to 1974. An indelible part of Martin's television shtick was his comedic portrayal of life as a lush, which many viewers never realized was just an act. After being drafted into the United States Army and serving a stateside year (1944-1945) in Akron, Ohio, during World War II, Martin was classified 4-F and was discharged. Has 8 children: Stephen Craig Martin (b.

June 29th 1942), Claudia Martin (b. March 16th 1944 - died 2001 (breast cancer), Barbara Martin (b. April 11th 1945 and Deana Martin (b. August 19th 1948) with first wife Elizabeth McDonald. Dean Paul Martin (b. November 17th 1951 - died March 21st 1987 (plane crash), Ricci Martin (b. September 20th 1953) and Gina Caroline Martin (b. December 20th 1956) with second wife Jeanne Martin and adopted daughter Sasha Martin with third wife Catherine Hawn. He was a close friend of Montgomery Clift . Martin was always grateful for the help Clift had given him while filming The Young Lions (1958) - Martin's first major dramatic role - and he would accompany him to parties after the rest of Hollywood had disowned him due to his increasing addictions to drugs and alcohol.

Although Jerry Lewis was often made out to be the short guy in their act, he was actually the same height as Martin and used to cut the heel off of his shoe to achieve the effect. Martin's variety show contract was utterly remarkable in how little he was required to participate. Martin felt he performed better cold and took notice of Fred MacMurray 's long-standing 65-day "on the set" contract for producer Don Fedderson for My Three Sons. He succeeded in reaching a new plateau on that one by only be contractually required to appear on the set during the taping. All guest stars, no matter how "big" were required to rehearse with stand-ins (see Greg Garrison ). As a result, Martin would often happily flub his lines, to the delight of his audience. More often than not, he'd leave the stage and be seen driving off the studio lot in his sports car before taping concluded. He was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6519 Hollywood Boulevard, for Recording at 1617 Vine Street, and for Television at 6651 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Once employed as a steelworker.

Was a close friend of Julie London . Inducted into the Lou Holtz/Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame in 2001. Although Martin's official height was 5'11", many people who knew him said he wore lifts and his real height was 5'9". Growing up in Steubenville, Ohio, Martin was childhood friends with famed gambler and sports handicapper, Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder. (The two appeared together onscreen in "The Cannonball Run") Like Snyder, Martin began his early career hanging around Steubenville's notorious gambling dens. His third wife Cathy was the daughter of Major League Baseball Player Jim Baxes , and sister of James Coleman . In a telegram sent to his friend Elivis Presley he wrote: Dear Elvis, if you can't handle The Beatles, I'll do it for us. June 1964. Was also a newspaper carrier in his younger days. In his 1995 autobiography "In the Arena" Charlton Heston wrote that Frank Sinatra would not allow Martin to perform at the inaugural ball for Ronald Reagan 's first inauguration as President of the United States, because Martin was too drunk.

He usually wore lifts in films and on his television show. In 1962, he recorded an American version of the French song "C'est si bon" which was written in 1947 by Henri Betti (music) and André Hornez (lyrics). The musical arrangements were done by Neal Hefti and the English lyrics were written by Jerry Seelen in 1950. Personal Quotes (24) If people want to think I get drunk and stay out all night, let 'em. That's how I got here, you know. I've got seven kids. The three words you hear most around my house are 'hello,' 'goodbye,' and 'I'm pregnant. To those who felt he joked his way through songs during concert and nightclub appearences: "You wanna hear it straight, buy the album." Upon filing for divorce from his second wife: "I know it's the gentlemanly thing to let the wife file. But, then, everybody knows I'm no gentleman." I drink because my body craves, needs alcohol. I don't drink, my body's a drunk. On Joey Bishop : Most people think of Joey Bishop as just a replacement for Johnny Carson .

That's NOT true. We in show business know better: we don't think of him at ALL. On Phyllis Diller : Phyllis is the women of about whom Picasso once said, "Somebody throw a drop cloth over that." On Frank Sinatra : In high school, Frank never participated in extra-curricular activities, like nature study, paintings or ceramics. Frank's hobby was a most interesting one: he was an amateur gynecologist. On James Stewart : There's a statue of Jimmy Stewart in the Hollywood Wax Museum, and the statue talks better than he does. On Orson Welles : What can you say about Orson Welles that Don Rickles hasn't already said about him?! On Bob Hope : As a young boy, Bob didn't have much to say. He couldn't afford writers then. On Don Rickles : Don's idea of a fun evening is to show home movies of the attack on Pearl Harbor...with a laugh track. On Johnny Carson : Johnny Carson is a comedian who is seen every night in millions of bedrooms all over America...and that's why his last wife left him. On Milton Berle : Milton Berle is an inspiration to every young person that wants to get into show business.

Hard work, perseverance, and discipline: all the things you need...when you have no talent. On his tee-total friend Pat Boone : "I once shook hands with Pat Boone, and my whole right side sobered up!" I'd hate to be a teetotaler. Imagine getting up in the morning and knowing that's as good as you're going to feel all day. I can't stand an actor or actress who tells me acting is hard work. It's easy work. Anyone who says it isn't never had to stand on his feet all day dealing blackjack. Motivation is a lotta crap. Someone else, would have laid around, feeling sorry for himself, for a year. But Duke, he just doesn't know, how to be sick ... he's recuperating the hard way. He's two loud speaking guys in one. Me, when people see me, they sometimes say, 'Oh, there goes Perry Como .' But there's only one 'John Wayne', and nobody makes any mistakes about that. - On The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) [on Shirley MacLaine ] Shirley, I love her, but her oars aren't touching the water these days.

[on singer Eddie Fisher ] The reason I drink is because, when I'm sober, I think I'm Eddie Fisher. [on Frank Sinatra ] When he dies, they're giving his zipper to the Smithsonian. [on Jerry Lewis ] At some point, he said to himself, "I'm extraordinary, like Charles Chaplin". From then on, nobody could tell him anything. He knew it all. [in 1964, upon introducing The Rolling Stones on ABC TVs' "Hollywood Palace"] I've been rolled when I was stoned. Salary (4) Jerry Lewis - 必应 ... Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Peter Lawford, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, and Elvis Presley. ... Taurog directed six Martin and Lewis films, ... Taurog?mkt=zh-cn 1981-4-7 ... directed, and produced by Jerry Lewis who also played seven roles in the film. Lewis' co-star, Donna Butterworth, made only one other film, Paradise, ...

family jewels?mkt=zh-cn 2017-1-9 Jerry Lewis Political party ： Democratic Occupation： High school teacher Religion： United Methodism 相关词条 Mark Pocan Jared Polis Kyrsten Sinema David Cicilline ... Takano USATODAY.com - Jerry Lewis tells it like it is and was Jerry Lewis tells it like it is — and was By Mike Clark, USA TODAY SAN DIEGO  For Jerry Lewis, this is "another damned day in paradise" aboard his marina-docked yacht, on which he spends summers away from home base Las Vegas. He's surrounded by an artfully arranged barrage of "Jer" memorabilia — from a framed photo of him with daughter Danielle, now 10, to bulging volumes of manuscripts from a new book project, to an official State of Ohio proclamation from last June's Dean Martin Day. Jerry Lewis sings at the 1999 Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon in Los Angeles. AP It's a busy time, as Augusts always are. The telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, which starts Sunday at 9 p.m. ET and ends Monday at 6:30 p.m.

ET (check your local listings), will be his 37th consecutive in the rat-tat-tat vaudevillian format that has raised more than $1.6 billion since 1966. Lewis juggles questions between calls over a speakerphone and visits from various family members and staff. (Related story: Cutting-edge relief eases Lewis' pain ) Through the years 1926: Born Joseph Levitch on March 26 in Newark, the only child of vaudevillian Danny and wife Rea. 1946: Teams with singer Dean Martin for the first time on July 25 at Atlantic City's 500 Club, becoming an overnight sensation in the second show after bombing in the first. 1949: Martin and Lewis become contract players at Paramount Pictures, leading to 16 phenomenally successful movies. 1950: On TV specials with Martin, Lewis begins his crusade on behalf of the recently formed Muscular Dystrophy Association. 1956: Wacky road pic Hollywood or Bust released, but partnership with Martin dissolves during final week of July, nearly 10 years after their teaming.

1960: Lewis' first directorial effort, The Bellboy, premieres in July, earning him previously eluded international acclaim. 1963: Jekyll-and-Hyde high jinks in The Nutty Professor, universally regarded as Lewis' best movie, which opens in June. 1965: Falls during a performance in March, injuring his spinal cord and leading to "37 years of pain." 1970: Appears in his last movie for 11 years, the poorly received Which Way to the Front? 1976: In a surprise arranged by Frank Sinatra, middle, Lewis is reunited with Dean Martin on live TV. 1977: Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with muscular dystrophy. 1983: Receives critical acclaim for his dark role as TV talk-show host Jerry Langford in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy. 1995: Premieres on Broadway in a revival of Damn Yankees, leading to a nationwide tour. 2002: Credits a surgical implant and its hand-held controlling device with making him pain-free for the first time since 1965.

The 76-year-old showbiz legend — star/director of 1960's The Bellboy and 1963's The Nutty Professor and the wacky half of a comedy team with Martin that ruled the box office, nightclubs and Sunday night TV a half-century ago — says it will be his first telethon free of pain. He has been liberated from the agony that followed a 1965 injury, though medication has left him looking bloated — a hot topic for recent tabloids. He still kind of looks like his familiar self in the top half of his face. But overall, the visual effect is weirdly akin to watching a non-look-alike actor who still nails his character's essence (like, say, Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon). Asked how he will pace himself for the rigors of the 21½-hour telethon, he concedes that there will be oxygen available, but otherwise says, "This question isn't helping My Kids," the term he uses for children with muscular dystrophy. It's his only evasion of the afternoon beyond his standard refusal to say why he first got involved with the charity.

Though he has long been chided for being abrasive and egomaniacal, Lewis can be uncommonly gracious and outgoing. He has finally reached that stage in his career when he can reflect and inspire others to do the same. "A lot of people resent that I've been in someone's life for 50 years," he says. "Why shouldn't people have an affection for me and what I've done? Didn't I have to be genuine for them to buy into what I did? There are children who grow up today who will not have that when they're 55 years old. With whom will they have it? Name an example for me." Some of this lauded history will be highlighted in various upcoming projects. During the November sweeps, CBS will air a biopic tentatively called Martin & Lewis, in which Gosford Park's Jeremy Northam and Will & Grace's Sean Hayes will play the two halves of the only postwar entertainment act whose popularity equaled that of Elvis and The Beatles. In December, Lewis and Guthy-Renker Video will begin releasing the team's uninhibited '50s appearances on NBC's The Colgate Comedy Hour, which are much funnier than most of their 16 movies.

And now Lewis has thrown himself into writing a mammoth remembrance of his teaming with Martin that he freely admits is "penance" for his stormy relationship with his former partner, who died on Christmas morning 1995. Already up to 1,900 pages, the book has provided Lewis with essential motivation because he has been a very ill man. "Tell Mr. Lewis I hope he's feeling better," volunteers the desk clerk at the hotel next to the marina. The bell captain, who regularly gets visitors by marina security and finesses their passage onto the yacht, speaks warmly but worriedly of Lewis, adding that he has been a fan since childhood. He does not say what he thinks of The Bellboy. Bounding up a couple of steps from the bathroom where he has just hacked himself in two places hurriedly shaving, Lewis launches into a half-hour about his health. There's no stopping him when he's on a tear — people quit trying decades ago — and he speaks with the intensity you'd expect from someone who has a complete written, audiotaped or videotaped record of virtually everything that has happened in his life for the past 60 years.

"From 1936 on," he explains, "I have taken more falls than any other 20 comedians put together. From the time I was 21, I've taken them on everything from clay courts to cement to wood floors, coming off pianos, going out a two-story window, landing on Dean, falling into the rough. You do that and you're gonna have problems. I had pain during the last eight films; I've had pain in 37 straight telethons. I've never had a day without pain since March 20, 1965." That's when he took a professional fall that chipped a piece of his spine "that would have paralyzed me if it had been another 15th or 16th of an inch." As it was, the chip led to a much-publicized Percodan addiction at its worst in the early '70s — and more recently a domino effect of afflictions, including nerve damage and the pulmonary fibrosis that has mandated his taking of the steroid prednisone. The drug contributed to his 45-pound weight gain.

Lewis says his longtime friend, famed heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, calls prednisone the "greatest worst drug in America." This is all atop past double-bypass surgery, prostate cancer, spinal meningitis and pneumonia. A few nutty titles from the Jerryman on video Friend Irma (1949). Martin and Lewis stole their lame screen debut, a comedy adapted from the hit radio show. The Stooge (1953). Tension ensues between a comedy team in this uneven drama. Scared Stiff (1953). High jinks in Cuba, with Carmen Miranda in her final film. The Caddy (1953). A definitive golf movie with Sam Snead-Ben Hogan cameos and the source of Martin's Oscar-nominated hit That's Amore. Artists and Models (1955). A garish expose of the comic book trade in the '50s in which Shirley MacLaine, in her second film, plays Lewis' girlfriend. Pardners (1956). The team in a memorable Western. The Geisha Boy (1958). Solo Lewis in Japan and a classic scene involving the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Ladies' Man (1961). Lewis directed this movie, in which he plays a handyman at a girls' school. The Errand Boy (1961). Lewis is on the loose in a movie studio. Who's Minding the Store? (1963). Lewis is employed by a department store; look out. The Patsy (1964). Cynical showbiz types trick a bellboy into replacing a star in an odd, uneven comedy. The Disorderly Orderly (1965). What Lewis previously did to a Hollywood studio and then a department store, he now does to a hospital. Funny Bones (1995). An underrated movie with Lewis as a famed comic legend who has sired two very different sons who finally meet. Lying on the couch a foot away is a device that looks something like a TV remote. Manufactured by Minneapolis-based Medtronic, it's the controlling component of a surgically inserted battery pack that one can see vaguely outlined in his left side when he lifts up his shirt.

("I hate to show you this because I'm so fat," he says, "but look — see it?") Doctors cut bone out of his spine and replaced it with two large electrodes. From the battery pack, he says, "the two electrical leads lock in and are naturally covered with scar tissue. I'm sitting here in pain, but in a minute, I'm not going to have it. When I turn it on like that (beep), I'm vibrating like a vibrator within my skin. I raise the level if it's not working totally. ... I've had no pain since April 20. "It also opens my garage," he deadpans. Lewis is almost as enthused about his book, which chronicles the comedy team's loving, then stormy, then ruptured, then again loving relationship. Variously described as "the organ grinder and the monkey" or "sex and slapstick," their act oozed creative on-stage tension long before there was genuine tension backstage. Unlike most comedy teams, the Martin and Lewis stage personas had a sexual dimension that made you think they could compete credibly for the same woman, as they occasionally did onscreen.

It's unimaginable thinking of an Abbott and Costello in this context, and Lewis agrees. "Nobody wanted to f ——— 'em," he comments dismissively with the casual and often funny profanity that litters his conversation. Music, comedy and professional tension enabled Martin and Lewis to reign supreme for 10 years, when their Colgate appearances would annihilate CBS' otherwise invincible Ed Sullivan in the ratings. But Lewis' brash antics effected a toll because they so undervalued his partner's cool in the eyes of the public. Hayes, who took a crash course in Lewis lore before filming the biopic, says that a key point of the coming TV movie is, "Jerry couldn't deal with what was happening to Dean, and Dean couldn't deal with what was happening to Dean." Lewis seems to concur. Calling Martin "the most underrated performer in the history of our business," Lewis is aware, with more compassion than he sometimes publicly displayed when he was younger, that when Martin's straight man broke into one of his musky-voiced baritone vocals in their movies, the kids in their audience bolted up the aisle to buy popcorn and Jujyfruits.

Powerful New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther got excited over Lewis but said little more of Martin in the team's 1949 screen debut (My Friend Irma) than that he "sings pleasantly enough." "Sings pleasantly enough?" shouts Lewis in one of his best tirades of the afternoon. "That piece of s —— -," says Lewis, still smarting after 53 years. Playing second fiddle to Lewis' crazy antics "hurt (Martin) dearly. And never a word. Not in 10 years did he ever say a word about his hurt. ... He was told by everyone that he was nothing. I had a tough job. I'd run film clips for him. I'd say, 'That's nothing? What is nothing? You dumb wop, take a look.' " Martin was nine years older than Lewis, and there was an idolized big-brother aspect to their personal relationship. The premise of the coming movie, Hayes says, "is that Jerry wanted to be loved and accepted. He wanted to be too much of Dean's life, and he ended up pushing Dean away." The other problem was Lewis' fear of overstaying their welcome with the public.

He instigated the 1956 breakup, in part, because he didn't want the act to resemble Joe Louis when the heavyweight champ hung on after his fight skills had atrophied. "I said to Dean, 'Remember how we felt when Louis went through the ropes? Let's stay in the ring and quit.' " They didn't speak for 20 years. Then Frank Sinatra ambushed Lewis in 1976 by bringing Martin onto the telethon for a surprise embrace and cheek-smooch for one of the greatest moments in live TV. Lewis remembers: "I said to myself, 'Dear God, if you've ever helped me, give me something to say right now.' He backed away, and I looked at him and said, 'You workin'?' The place went crazy." After more years of no contact, they reconciled for good (mostly by phone) after Martin's son Dino, an Air National Guard pilot, died in 1987 when his jet crashed in Southern California's San Bernardino Mountains. Lewis showed up unannounced at the funeral. Looking back, Lewis says, "In my heart, I know he put me here.

Just as I put him here." The afternoon takes on a surreal cast as Lewis eats frozen fruit pops, offering one to his guest, and a barrage of calls begins coming in on over a persistent speakerphone. Meanwhile, family and staff members come in, go out and come into the room again like recurring characters on a favorite sitcom. Foremost among these is the polite, soft-spoken Danielle, whom Lewis calls Dany. In her first entrance, his adopted daughter is concerned about her father's cut face and wants him to stop to clean off the blood. "Did I cut it again?" asks Lewis with a trace of his Idiot voice. "You fix it with your spit. Don't rub it. Pat it." Later, during lunch, his wife of 19 years, SanDee, 51, will give her husband a mildly disapproving look for nibbling fruit, something that must not be in his prescribed diet. In one of his few reversions to age 9 (there's only one patented "Lay-dee!" all afternoon), he confesses to having had just a teensy portion. When she leaves, he says, "I call her Mrs. Rexall.

She gives me my insulin shots, she gives me my medicine, dresses this thing I got, watches my oxygen at night. She's had a rough year. It's never the victim, it's the caregiver. She's worked her heart out." Friends and associates continue booming in over the speakerphone. A friendly fax arrives from one of his six sons, Scott. Lewis has had a rocky relationship with some members of his first family from a 38-year marriage to Patti Palmer, but Scott works for him. At one point, however, there's an uncomfortable phone conversation that seems as if Lewis has tapped into his dual-personality darker side from 1963's The Nutty Professor. One of his employees has misunderstood something he has asked her to do. "Damn it, do you get up stupid? S —— -.

Why didn't you know what I'm talking about?" Then he turns, smiles and says, "This is Penny Rice, and it's been going on for 39 years." Turning to the speakerphone, he says, "Do you love me, Penny?" She responds by singing, "How deep is the ocean/How high is the sky ..." Of course, this exchange brings up questions of Lewis' well-known temper. "I've had a few reputations," he says. He admits that he told his press agent in 1949: "I will do whatever is necessary to make better the stupidity on my part — and therefore go after those who are acting stupid themselves." He adds, "It's not popular. You don't make friends when you do that. And I couldn't care less." Lewis has gotten into flaps for everything from attacking muscular dystrophy patients who have accused the telethon of making those afflicted sound pitiful and helpless to saying two years ago: "A woman doing comedy doesn't offend me, but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have trouble with it.

I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies in the world." He says his remark was taken wildly out of context for one who made 11 movies with funnywoman Kathleen Freeman. Asked if he ever thought he might be better off putting a sock in it when riled, he says he just can't hold back for reasons of "expediency." Such frankness has never hurt his global reputation. Though he is long known as a favorite of the French, he's happy to point out they "do not rank first as Jerry Lewis appreciators, by any means. Australia is No. 1, and Japan is 2, Italy and Germany 3 and 4. The Netherlands is 5, Belgium is 6, Spain is 7 and France is 8. We get that demographic through our mail every week. It's always been Australia first, Japan second." Among the movies for which he receives high praise is Martin Scorsese's 1983 drama, The King of Comedy, in which Lewis plays TV talk-show host Jerry Langford. Such accolades have always amused him: "Don't you understand how dramatic it is to be a comic? To be a fool, to get people to laugh at this show-off?

Milton Berle could take Laurence Olivier and stick him under the table if he wanted to. And so could I. That's why we have 7,947 artists who can do Macbeth, and we've got five f —— -ing idiots that do what I do. There's a reason for that. It's hard." Yes, but would Lewis even go to Macbeth? Doubtful. "I hate period pieces. I won't see Shakespeare in Love. I'm like that. I don't want to see The Vikings. I'm not interested in the f —— -ing Crusades, The Crucible. The Spanish Inquisition doesn't do anything for me. I want Thelma & Louise again." There has always been a fascinating duality about Lewis, the lovable kid vs. the hot-button adult — tension he deeply tapped into with The Nutty Professor, which is why that film is regarded by virtually everyone as his best.

(He likes the Eddie Murphy remakes, too, on which he was an executive producer — agreeing that they have helped pay for his yacht's gas.) Hayes, 32, notes that Lewis gave him one primary piece of advice: " 'Always play the 9-year-old kid and always hold onto that innocence.' " Seems unlikely that Lewis is still truly in touch with his inner 9-year-old, but he does seem uncommonly serene when talking about standing at the wheel of the boat listening to his daughter say, "Lay rubber, Dad," before he points out that "you don't lay rubber on a dock." Or about the word games they play, seeing if she can pronounce the nonsense nouns that used to pop up in his scripts (as in, "Flaten-gel-betek," "Can I have Bedlen-del-vestedek?" or "Belten, Beltencase, two cases of Beltenek"). Is this serenity something that comes with age? In younger days, he says, "we don't have the wisdom. We don't have the street smarts.

We're not even really clear about selfish and selfless at that time." Then he adds, "Serenity also comes partly from the doctors calling SanDee in February and saying, 'You'd better get his affairs in order.' " Earlier in the conversation, Lewis has been asked to name the biggest misconception people have of him. The question throws him, but later he returns to it. He doesn't quite answer it head-on, but what he says reveals something about the struggle to be a professional child but also an adult. "My misconception," he explains, "is that I want you to remember I'm a monkey and that Martin and Lewis were 'sex and slapstick' unequivocally. That's my title, I wrote it. But Jesus, both men can have sensitivity, a brain, a point of view and certainly a component that made them say, 'I am here and pay attention.' All that is gone if you're a monkey with a banana on a chandelier. That's the misconception that bothers me. I'll be the monkey if you want. But you asked to meet the man, so I'll give you what you want." Did this confuse the public for a while? "Of course. Terrible confusion.

Because when I would be myself, I was being big-headed. I was being egotistical. I was a megalomaniac, when it really was just having not to be a monkey for a few hours a day. And fulfilling the need to be a man." He also is fulfilling a 1,900-pages-and-counting need to make further amends to his ex-partner. "My wife says, 'This book is gonna get very left-sided, kid.' I said, 'Honey, that's what it's about.' I don't want to write about me. I need the book for Dean." He says it's the book, the Medtronic device and his family that are keeping him going. "I wasn't gonna make it in late February," Lewis says. "It was bleak. Not to see my daughter again and my wife?

You're seeing a man who's been reborn." Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin | The 25 best comedy duos - Comedy Comedy Previous slide Next slide 12 of 26 View All Skip Ad Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin Joseph Levitch and Dino Paul Crocetti and are better known as JERRY LEWIS AND DEAN MARTIN and they had a remarkably successful partnership together for a decade (1946-1956). Martin would sing and tell jokes and Lewis would clown around behind his back. They played all the big American clubs, made 16 films together and were the first comedy comedy duo to break in national TV, co-hosting a variety show called The Colgate Comedy Hour for five years. Martin, who died in 1995, went on to great fame as part of the Rat Pack and released a distinguished catalogue of great music . Alas, the Martin-Lewis partnership went sour. The final straw came when Look gave Martin and Lewis a cover photograph and cropped Martin out of the picture. Martin angrily told his partner that he was "nothing to me but a f-----g dollar sign."

Question: Comedian Jerry Lewis formed a double act with which actor who died on Christmas Day in 1995?
Answer: Dean Martin