Comic legend Jerry Lewis had a roving eye for the ladies, two marriages, seven kids and a rumored love child, but one of his greatest loves was for Dean Martin.
The 91-year-old died at his Las Vegas home on Sunday after spending the majority of his life making crowds roar with laughter with his sometimes controversial material.
The funnyman lived a full life, complete with seven children but also had a rumored love child with a young model when he was rising into stardom.
Lewis was married twice, making headlines for quickly tying the knot with his second wife less than a month after his divorce was finalized with his first bride.
Still, holy matrimony didn’t keep the comedian from playing the field, as he was rumored to have had a fling with Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe.
However, one of Lewis’ greatest loves was his former comedy partner Dean Martin, writing Dean & Me (A Love Story) to honor their time together.
Comic legend Jerry Lewis died on Sunday aged 91. The Oscar-winner had six boys with his first wife Patti Palmer (pictured with Patti and sons Gary and Ronald around 1960)
Lewis had numerous affairs during his marriage to Patti, leading to their divorce in 1983. It was during his first marriage that he claims he slept with Marilyn Monroe and had a rumored love child with a model. Lewis married SanDee Pitnick in February of 1983. Pictured: Lewis with Patti in 1956 (left) and Lewis with wife SanDee in 2011 (right)
One of Lewis’ greatest loves was his former comedy partner Dean Martin, writing Dean & Me (A Love Story) to honor their time together (pictured together around 1953)
Lewis met his first wife Patti Palmer when she was a singer with Ted Fio Rito, wedding in October of 1944. They had only met two months before they tied the knot in Detroit.
Two years after the wedding they welcomed their first son, Gary Lewis in 1946.
The couple went on to have five more boys, Ronald Steven ‘Ronnie’ Lewis in 1949, Scott Anthony Lewis in 1956, Christopher Lewis, in 1957, Anthony Lewis in 1959 and Joseph Lewis in 1964. Ronnie was adopted.
Although the marriage lasted a total of 36 years, Lewis often had trysts with various women.
He once mentioned the era was marred with infidelity, commenting: ‘This is when I’m f**king everybody in Hollywood.’
It was during this time Lewis was rumored to have a three-year long affair with model Lynn Dixon, who gave birth to Suzan Minoret in 1952, reported Philadelphia Weekly.
Minoret lived a life of high-society, residing in a wealthy part of Manhattan and had her marriage featured on the society pages of The New York Times.
She stepped forward earlier this year to reveal she was living on the streets of Philadelphia and was still waiting for Lewis to acknowledge her as his daughter.
Lewis never confirmed or denied that Minoret was his biological daughter.
American actor and comedian Jerry Lewis with all six of his sons and first wife Patti in 1967
Lewis and his second wife SanDee Pitnick kiss each other in 1984 at the Opera in Paris. The two had met when SanDee, a Las Vegas dancer, auditioned for one of his films
It was also during his first marriage that Lewis had an affair with blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe, commenting that after sleeping with the siren he was ‘crippled for a month.’
Eventually, Patti requested a legal separation in 1980 and $450,000 a year to support herself and her youngest song.
She wrote Lewis ‘displayed an open disregard for our marriage’ and was a ‘financial puppet’ at the mercy of his office, with no money of her own, reported People.
Lewis had reportedly announced the separation to his children by bringing a copy of a National Enquirer which headlined ‘Jerry and Patti Lewis split!’ to the dinner table, reported Mental Floss.
Their divorce was finalized in January 1983 and Lewis married SanDee Pitnick in February 1983.
The Las Vegas dancer was said to be the final straw for Patti, after the couple met when SanDee auditioned for a role on Lewis’ film Hardly Working.
Lewis and SanDee adopted Danielle Sara Lewis in 2004 and were married for 33 years until Lewis died.
In 2009, Lewis’ youngest son Joseph Lewis committed suicide after becoming a drug addict. He was 45 years old.
Lewis’ oldest son Gary Lewis, known for his band Gary Lewis & the Playboys, spoke out and blamed their father over the death.
Lewis’ oldest son Gary Lewis, known for his band Gary Lewis & the Playboys (pictured together in 2004) blamed Lewis for the death of his brother Joseph who committed suicide in 2009
Jerry, with first wife Patti and his four of his sons in 1958. He later lost his son Joseph, and adopted a daughter with second wife SanDee
He slammed the Oscar-winner, reported Contact Music, saying: ‘Jerry Lewis is a mean and evil person. He was never loving and caring toward me or my brothers.
‘I don’t know if Joe’s death is drug related, but I believe it could have been prevented if he and my father had been on better terms. I believe he partly died of a broken heart.
‘[My father] doesn’t really care. He’s more worried about his career and his image than his own family.’
Lewis spoke out about his son’s death to Hollywood Reporter in 2014 and said: ‘To this day I don’t understand it because it’s unfair — not unfair to me, but unfair to him.
‘That he went that way made the unfairness stupidity. But he was my son and he’s gone, and there’s not a lot I can do about that. I beat myself a thousand times.
‘What he did with his time away from you is what the end result showed. But I’ll tell you this: You don’t get over that.’
Although Lewis had a bustling family, devoted wives and scandalous affairs, one of his greatest loves was his former comedy partner Dean Martin.
Lewis and SanDee (pictured together in 1982) adopted Danielle Sara Lewis in 2004 and the couple was married for 33 years until Lewis died on Sunday
Together, the duo gained famed in their double act, relying on their interaction instead of playing out planned skits.
They began with a nightclub routine, then a radio show, before moving to TV with shows like Toast of the Town, later renamed The Ed Sullivan Show.
The pair took their comedy double act into the movies, starting with My Friend Irma in 1949, and starred in 14 movies together.
But the pair, once inseparable, fell into a bitter feud that lasted for decades and on only a few occasions did they see each other before Martin died of emphysema in 1995.
Lewis penned a book over their relationship entitled Dean & Me (A Love Story) and published it in 2005.
In an interview about the book Lewis said: ‘The night that Frank [Sinatra] brought Dean on the telethon [Lewis’ annual Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976], we were so thrilled to see one another. You can see it in his eyes, you can see it in mine.
Lewis (right) first shot into the limelight after teaming up with singer and Rat Pack member, Dean Martin (left) who played the straight man to Lewis’ funnyman (together in an undated photo) (a photo shoot of the comedy duo together in 1951)
‘When Dean’s son was killed, I knew that Dean was dead. I made myself accessible. I went to the funeral without his knowledge.
‘Dean heard that I was there. He called me and we talked for a couple of hours. He sobbed for the first time I’d ever heard. He said “Don’t you understand? I just lost one of the only two male loves I had in my life. Him and you.”
‘That was the first time he had said that or ever related to loving me. He showed it enough, it was just difficult for him to say.’
Lewis died from natural causes at the age of 91 on Sunday.
Over his long career in showbiz, Lewis starred in several hit movies including Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy and The Nutty Professor.
But arguably his most famous achievement is founding the annual Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy telethon in the 1960s, which raised more than $2.45billion over the decades, led by Lewis until he was relieved as host in 2011.