Jerry Lewis Remembered On Hollywood Walk Of Fame

HOLLYWOOD, CA – Jerry Lewis died at his Las Vegas home earlier Sunday at the age of 91. Tributes are pouring in, and fans are leaving flowers or other offerings at his two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – at 6150 and 6821 Hollywood Blvd.

Lewis' handprints and footprints are immortalized in cement at the TCL Chinese Theater at 6925 Hollywood Blvd., where the lights of its famous forecourt were dimmed Sunday evening to honor Lewis. It is the 13th time the iconic theater has offered that tribute to a departed performer.

Lewis' publicist, Candi Cazau, released the following statement: "Famed comedian, actor, and legendary entertainer Jerry Lewis passed away peacefully today of natural causes at 91 at his home in Las Vegas with his family by his side."

Many celebrities are sharing their thoughts about the prolific entertainer on Twitter.

"That fool was no dummy," wrote actor Jim Carrey. "Jerry Lewis was an undeniable genius (and) an unfathomable blessing, comedy's absolute! I am because he was."

"Jerry Lewis was a genius comedian, actor, director, inventor, humanitarian..." talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel tweeted.

Comedian and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres tweeted, "Jerry Lewis was a comic and philanthropic icon. I send love to his family today."

"#JerryLewis was one of a kind, my comedy hero when I was growing up," wrote author and film critic Leonard Maltin, "Can't believe I got to spend so much time with him over the years. RIP."

Born on March 16, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey, Lewis rose to fame in the late 1940s as part of the famed Martin and Lewis comedy team. Lewis and singer Dean Martin packed nightclubs for years, also teaming up for a series of hit comedy films.

The act broke up after 10 years and Lewis went on to a significant solo film career, directing and starring in several films in the 1950s and '60s, including "The Nutty Professor" and "The Bellboy."

Lewis was considered an innovative director, and is credited with pioneering the use of "video assist," in which a video camera records the same scenes as the film cameras. The video can then be played back instantly, allowing filmmakers a much quicker look at the footage than they were used to when they had to wait 24 hours for the film to be developed.

Lewis' film work was especially beloved in France, where he received the Ministry of Culture's Legion of Honour in 2006.

He also had a memorable dramatic turn in Martin Scorsese's 1982 film, "The King of Comedy," in which he played a fictional talk-show host harassed by an aspiring comic played by Robert De Niro.

A less successful stab at dramatic filmmaking came 10 years earlier, when Lewis wrote, directed and starred in "The Day the Clown Cried," a story about a circus clown imprisoned at a Nazi concentration camp. The 1972 film was never released, shelved because of its controversial content and the fact that Lewis himself decided it was not worthy of release. He once told Entertainment Weekly that "No one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed at the poor work."

Nevertheless, many film critics consider it a major influence on the 1997 hit "Life is Beautiful," for which Roberto Benigni won an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Lewis' film career slowed in the 1970s, but he gained equal fame for hosting the annual Muscular Dystrophy Assn. telethon every Labor Day weekend. The programs raised more than $1 billion during Lewis' tenure as host, which lasted from 1966 to 2010.

That organization's praised Lewis' philanthropic legacy Sunday.

"MDA would not be the organization it is today if it were not for Jerry's tireless efforts on behalf of `his kids,"' MDA Chairman of the Board R. Rodney Howell said. "His enthusiasm for finding cures for neuromuscular disease was matched only by his unyielding commitment to see the fight through to the end. Jerry's efforts on the annual MDA Telethon transformed the broadcast into an American tradition each Labor Day weekend for 45 years.

...Though we will miss him beyond measure, we suspect that somewhere in heaven, he's already urging the angels to give `just one more dollar for my kids.' Thank you Jerry, you are our hero. God bless you. We send our deepest condolences to his wife Sam (Sandra Pitnick), his daughter Danielle and his sons, Gary, Ronald, Scott, Christopher and Anthony, and the entire Lewis family."

Lewis continued to work in recent years despite a variety of health issues. He appeared in the films, "Max Rose" in 2013 and "The Trust" in 2016.

In 2014, he performed a one-night-only show at the Riverside Fox Performing Arts Center.

The entertainment website TMZ.com Sunday posted a clip from what it called Lewis' last live performance, a January 2017 show in Bonita Springs, Florida.

In September 2016, Lewis told People magazine that he never wanted to stop working. "You always have your hand in it somewhere," he said. "...You don't think of your age when you're working and doing what you love, but in reality I'm running out of time, so I have a lot of stuff to do in not a lot of time."

City News Service and Patch staffer Emily Holland contributed to this report; Photo via Larry French/Getty Images