Jerry Lewis, the “king of comedy” who dominated 1950s Hollywood, has died at the age of 91.
He also kick-started what would become his annual Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, which went on to raise $2.45bn for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Lewis, at his prime, was embraced as the ultimate 20th-century village idiot, a pocket tornado who blended slapstick prowess with squeaky-voiced histrionics.
Jerry Lewis, for his part, was bullish about his legacy.