Dean Martin thought Jerry Lewis was joking when he offered him the role of a uniformed police officer in his 1957 movie, The Delicate Delinquent. “Dean said, 'We're partners. I should at least be a detective!'” recalls the crooner's daughter Deana Martin to Closer. “But Jerry said, “No, that's the part.' It was the straw that broke the camel's back."
After their comedy team, Martin & Lewis, split up, Jerry's star continued to rise. In 1959, he signed a $10 million, seven-year contract with Paramount – a record at the time. But although the public loved Jerry for the adorable misfits he played, he hid a darker, often malevolent side that reflected his deep insecurities.
Born to two vaudeville performers, Jerry learned how to make people laugh as a youngster. “Jerry was an only child largely left by his parents in the care of his grandmother,” Shawn Levy, author of King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis, tells Closer. “His parents were so remote they almost didn't attend his bar mitzvah."
This story is from the April 18, 2022 edition of Closer US.
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This story is from the April 18, 2022 edition of Closer US.
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