Martin and Lewis Martin and Lewis Martin and Lewis were an American comedy duo, comprising singer Dean Martin and comedian Jerry Lewis. They met in 1945 and debuted at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 25, 1946; the team lasted ten years to the day. Dean Martin is the stage name of Dino Paul Crocetti, born June 7, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, while Jerry Lewis is the stage name of Joseph Levitch, born March 16, 1926, in Newark, New Jersey. Martin died on December 25, 1995, and then Lewis died on August 20, 2017. Before they teamed up, Martin was a nightclub singer,
Jerry Lewis "He was kind and loving and patient and limitlessly generous with his genius. He was unbelievably complicated and shockingly self-aware." Actor and comedian Jeffrey Tambor wrote after Lewis' death, "You invented the whole thing. Thank you doesn't even get close." There have been numerous retrospectives of Lewis' films in the U.S. and abroad, most notably "Jerry Lewis: A Film and Television Retrospective" at Museum of the Moving Image, the 2013 Viennale, the 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival, "The Innovator: Jerry Lewis at Paramount", at American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, and "Happy Birthday Mr. Lewis: The Kid Turns 90", at MOMA.