Maybe your first experience was seeing him in his role as the goofy partner of the suave, romantic Dean Martin. From 1946, when the two performed together for the first time in Atlantic City’s 500 Club, till a decade later when the partners split; we were entertained with club appearances and no less than a dozen movies. The first, My Friend Irma, premiered at New York’s Paramount Theatre. The opening stage act starred Martin and Lewis in person. 

Jerry Lewis’ mugging skills became the central force behind many of the movies the two made. Films like That’s My Boy and The Caddy catapulted him into stardom. From 1951 through 1959, Jerry’s name appeared in the top ten of box-office stars (6 years with his partner and 3 solo). In fact, in 1959, Paramount signed him to a fourteen-film contract for ten million dollars -- probably the most expensive contract signed with a performer at the time. He was back in the top ten from 1961 through 1964 and had received acclaim as Best Director for The Nutty Professor from the French. 

Comedian, film star and director was never enough for the zany, talented Lewis. He had a top-ten hit in 1956, Rock-A-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody; his own TV variety show from 1965 to 1974 and he continued to make movies, work the club circuit, and teach film at USC. His devotion to supporting the Muscular Dystrophy Association is known world wide. There are few who have never seen the annual Labor Day Telethon for MDA hosted by the untiring Jerry Lewis. Undaunted by protesters he continues the quest to raise money to help those stricken with neuromuscular diseases. 

And, undaunted by the fact that his talents have never been truly recognized by his fellow Americans, Jerry Lewis continues to entertain us. A cult hero to the French, he remains ‘Le Roi du Crazy’. 

On this day in 1926 comedian Jerry Lewis was born in Newark, New Jersey. One of the world's best loved entertainers, Lewis first rose to fame as the stage, and later film, partner of crooner Dean Martin. The most popular comedy team in the nation by the end of the 1940s, the pair made countless appearances, Martin playing the straight man to Lewis' bumbling persona. Splitting in 1956, Lewis has honed his skills and acted in many American and French productions, notably a stage revival in 'Damn Yankees'. 
 1926 - Jerry Lewis (Joseph Levitch)
comedian, actor; see Le Roi du Crazy Day [above], geboren
1926 - Jerry Lewis (76), amerikanischer Entertainer, Sänger und ilmschauspieler («Der verrückte Professor»), geboren
1926 - Jerry Lewis (75), amerikanischer Schauspieler, Komiker und Regisseur («Der Tolpatsch», «Der verrückte Professor»), geboren
Jerry Lewis
(eigentlich: Joseph Levitch) US-amerikanischer Komiker, Schauspieler und Regisseur., geboren
Als einer der populärsten Komiker des Films verkörpert Lewis eine Mischung aus kindlicher Naivität und tolpatschiger Unangepaßtheit. Lewis trat im Kabarett und Film mit seinem langjährigen Freund Dean Martin als Komikerpaar auf (»Der Tolpatsch«, 1953). Ab 1962 führt Lewis auch selbst Regie (»Der verrückte Professor«).

 1927 - Ruby (Reuben) Braff
modern jazz musician: trumpet, cornet; actor: Pipe Dream, geboren

Ellen Tiedtke, deutsche Kabarettistin und Sängerin, geboren

 1932 - R. Walter Cunningham
astronaut: Apollo 7 mission [circled Earth 173 times: Oct, 1968]; chief of Skylab applications program [supervised development and design], geboren

 1932 - Betty Johnson
singer: I Dreamed, Little White Lies, The Little Blue Man, Dream, geboren

Selma Lagerlöf, schwedische Schriftstellerin, gestorben

 1942 - MacArthur Lane
football: Green Bay Packers, geboren
Jerry Jeff Walker
US-amerikanischer Sänger und Gitarrist ("Mr. Bojangle"), geboren
 1942 - Jerry Jeff Walker (Paul Crosby)
country singer, guitarist: Mr. Bojangles, Good Loving Grace, My Old Man, Hill Country Rain, Charlie Dunn, geboren

 1954 - Hollis Stacy
golf champion: U.S. Open [1977, 1978, 1984]; Du Maurier Classic [1983], geboren

 1954 - Nancy Wilson (Nancy Lamoureux Wilson)