Authorities in Las Vegas have revealed Jerry Lewis died of end-stage heart disease.
Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said Monday that Lewis’ official cause of death was end-stage cardiac disease and peripheral vascular disease.
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 $2.45 billion over the decades, led by Lewis until he was relieved as host in 2011.
Authorities in Las Vegas have revealed Jerry Lewis died of end-stage heart disease
He died Sunday of natural causes in Las Vegas at age 91.
‘Sadly I can confirm that today the world lost one of the most significant human beings of the 20th century,’ his representative Mark Rozzano told ABC News.
Fudenberg says coroner deputies had been told Lewis died of ischemic cardiomyopathy.
Ferozan Malal is the hospice and palliative medicine physician in Las Vegas who signed Lewis’ death certificate.
She said peripheral vascular disease and ischemic cardiomyopathy both fall under the category of end-stage cardiac disease.
Clark County Coroner John Fudenberg said Monday that Lewis’ official cause of death was end-stage cardiac disease and peripheral vascular disease. Pictured with his comedy partner Dean Martin
Comedy legend Jerry Lewis (pictured at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes 2013) has died at the age of 91
Over his long career in showbiz, Lewis starred in several hit movies including Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy and The Nutty Professor (pictured, Lewis in The Nutty professor)
Lewis’ most famous achievement is founding the annual Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy telethon in the 1960s, which raised more than $2.45 billion over the decades (pictured hosting the show in 1990)
He received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his fund-raising work on behalf of the Muscular Dystrophy Association at the Academy Awards ceremony in 2009. The actor was he was also nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 for his work.
The Association has since posted a video, ‘In Loving Memory of Jerry Lewis’ recalling his many decades hosting the telethon that brought in some much money for the charity.
Yet he was always elusive about what motivated him to raise money for that charity.
‘The important thing is that I do it, not the why,’ he told The New York Times.
Lewis (left in 1979 and right, in an undated photo) died at home in Las Vegas at 9.15 am Sunday, his agent confirmed
Lewis (bottom) first shot into the limelight after teaming up with singer and Rat Pack member, Dean Martin (top) who played the straight man to Lewis’ funnyman (together in an undated photo)
Lewis had a long, illustrious career, starring in 50 movies including My Friend Irma, The Bellboy, and Cinderfella, as well as long running TV shows and even a stint on Broadway in the musical Damn Yankees.
His material could controversial, and in his later years the comedian was forced to make numerous apologies for jokes criticized for being homophobic and racist.
He also appears to have had a nasty temper.
Lewis once threatened to murder Joan Rivers after the comedian once dared to criticize him.
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 (a photo shoot of the comedy duo together in 1951)
American actor and comedian Jerry Lewis sitting on a couch with his first wife, Patti Palmer, and their two sons, Gary and Ronald around 1960
Jery, with first wife Patti and his six children in 1967. He later lost his son Joseph, and adopted a daughter with second wife SanDee
She had spoken out after she said, calling him ‘unfunny’ and saying he was lucky to have the telethon to help his career after she saw him during the telethon event, standing next to a child and talking about how ‘this kid is gonna die’ as he appeared for call-ins.
In response, he had written Rivers a note, Chicago Now reports, that read: ‘Dear Ms. Rivers, we’ve never met, and I’m looking forward to keeping it that way. If you find it necessary to discuss me, my career, or my kids ever again, I promise you I will get somebody from Chicago to beat your goddamn head off.’
Rivers took the threat seriously enough to employ bodyguards, and kept uncharacteristically quiet about Lewis from then on.
In a sexist statement in 200, Lewis later opined that he didn’t ‘like female comedians’.