Jerry Lewis (1926-2017): Comedian, Auteur, Lightning Rod

English: Comedian Jerry Lewis - Photograph by Patty Mooney, Crystal Pyramid Productions, San Diego, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jerry Lewis, who died Sunday at age 91, was a man of many talents.  He was a comedian, a singer, an actor, a film director and a humanitarian.  He also did some things that rubbed people the wrong way.

Lewis first came to our attention as one-half of a successful professional partnership with Dean Martin during the 1940s and 50s.  The act worked like this:  Lewis used a high-pitched voice and ran around like a little kid, while Martin played straight man and sang love songs.  Martin and Lewis mugged their way through nightclubs, radio, TV and several Hollywood movies.  Audiences ate it up.

When the partnership famously ended in 1956, Lewis started acting and directing movies that were essentially comedies with a dramatic edge--something you couldn't replicate in a nightclub act.  The best-known of these films was "The Nutty Professor", which was Lewis' take on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, playing a dual role as the aforementioned professor and his lounge-singing alter ego with a mean streak.

Lewis' later films were met with mixed results for critics and audiences alike, though he did win rave reviews for his dramatic roles in the movie "The King of Comedy" (with Robert DeNiro) and in the TV series "Wiseguy".  He was much better received in France, however, having been awarded their Legion of Honor.

Lewis was also known for his annual Labor Day telethons, which benefited the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  He raised over two billion dollars in the 44-year history of the telethon for his "kids", though the manner in which he did it--portraying those living with the disease as objects of pity and condescension--bothered disabled rights advocates and other critics. He also got in hot water when it came to his antiquated views on women in comedy and gays.

Jerry Lewis was a man who spent most of his career making us laugh, cry, think and get angry.  He did it his way, just like old showbiz pal Frank Sinatra did.  And he was never boring.  All that mugging really paid off.