Rest in peace, Hollywood's 'Comedy King' Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis, one of Hollywood’s most iconic and influential comedians with a decades-long legacy as an actor, writer, singer, filmmaker, and humanitarian, died on Sunday morning due to natural causes in Las Vegas at the age of 91. The master of slapstick humour was also a mercurial man, mirrored in his most memorable film 'Nutty Professor', where he played a split personality.

Updated on:

21 Aug 2017, 8:30 am

2 min read

Flowers in memory of comedian Jerry Lewis lie on his star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.. (Photo | AP)

In this Aug. 27, 1954, file photo, Dean Martin, left, and Jerry Lewis pose for the 'Colgate Comedy Hour'. The famous Laurel and Hardyesque comic duo performed as Martin and Lewis but later became hugely popular as Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. These full names helped them launch successful solo careers after parting. (Photo | AP)

In this parody of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, considered to be Lewis's finest films, he plays an accident-prone, socially awkward university professor Prof. Julius Kelp, whose experiments in the classroom laboratory are unsuccessful and highly destructive. When a football-playing bully embarrasses and attacks him, Kelp decides to 'beef up' by joining a local gym. Kelp's lack of physical strength prompts him to invent a serum that turns him into the handsome, suave, charming and cheeky girl-chasing hipster, Buddy Love. It was remade in 1996, starring Eddie Murphy and Jada Pinkett (Smith). (YouTube screengrab photo)

Dean Martin, left, and Jerry Lewis are wrestling for a gag shot, May 29, 1956. The two's antics, off screen and on screen, never failed to leave the audience in splits. (Photo | AP)

Jerry Lewis always had the most zaniest facial expressions, much to the delight of photographers and the watching public. A true entertainer. (Photo | AP)

In this Aug. 26, 1999, file photo, talk show host Larry King, a funny man himself, wipes his eyes after laughing at a joke by Jerry Lewis, on the set of 'Larry King Live' at CNN Studios in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (Photo | AP)

Actor-comedian Jerry Lewis and his wife, actor-singer Patti Palmer, pose with their third son, Scott Anthony Lewis, 6 1/2 weeks old, in Los Angeles, Ca., April 12, 1956. They later went on to have five more children. The couple divorced after a 35-year marriage in 1983. Lewis married again, to SanDee Pitnick the same year. The funnyman had a total of seven children and a rumored love child. He had numerous affairs during his first marriage, boasting that he had a fling with Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe. (Photo | AP)

Lewis is honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on Saturday, April 12, 2014 in Los Angeles. (Photo | AP)

As a comic actor, Lewis directed himself with a consummate mastery of technique. (Photo | AP)

Jerry Lewis tries to figure out how Pierre, a five-year old chimpanzee, and fellow Hollywood actor, managed to get seven aces and three red threes during a canasta game they were playing on Jan. 27, 1950. After all Jerry dealt the cards. (Photo | AP)

In a April 24, 1971 file photo, France's first lady Madame Claude Pompidou, holding a rose, is shown with Jerry Lewis, dressed as a clown, at a gala in Paris. At right, looking down, is opera singer Maria Callas. (Photo | AP)

In this Sept. 7, 1976, file photo, entertainers Dean Martin, left, and Jerry Lewis appear together on Lewis's annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lewis, the manic, rubber-faced showman who jumped and hollered to fame in a lucrative partnership with Martin, settled down to become a self-conscious screen auteur and found an even greater following as the tireless, teary host of the annual muscular dystrophy telethons. (Photo | AP)

Longtime host Jerry Lewis performs during the Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon in Beverly Hills, California. Lewis' fundraising telethons became as famous as his hit movies. (Photo | AP)

Director Quentin Tarantino reacts as actor and comedian Jerry Lewis playfully bites his hand as Jerry Lewis is honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on April 12, 2014. (Photo | AP)

Lewis posing with his Oscar for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in Cannes. The only Oscar Lewis received was for his lifetime achievements in American cinema. (Photo | AFP)

Jerry Lewis, center, his second wife, SanDee Pitnick, right, and his daughter Danielle Lewis pose together as he is honored with a hand and footprint ceremony at TCL Chinese Theatre on Saturday, April 12, 2014 in Los Angeles. (Photo | AP)

Jerry Lewis arrives at the Laureus Sports Awards ceremony in Monaco. This annual ceremony celebrates sporting excellence across all disciplines and all continents . (File Photo)