Celebrities including Jim Carrey and Jamie Lee Curtis honored the late comic legend.
Tributes to Jerry Lewis poured in from around the world Sunday, including from top comics who said they owed their success to him.
Jim Carrey said he wouldn’ t be the superstar he is today without Lewis’ trail-blazing brand of physical comedy.
“That fool was no dummy, ” Carrey tweeted, along with a picture of Lewis. “Jerry Lewis was an undeniable genius an unfathomable blessing, comedy’s absolute! I am because he was!”
Dick Cavett — who was a writer for “The Jerry Lewis Show” in the early 1960s long before he became a legendary talk-show host — agreed.
“So long, Jerry. You made me howl with laughter, ” Cavett tweeted. “And you paid me to write for you, proving you REALLY had a zany streak. Miss ya, man, bad.”
Actress Jamie Lee Curtis fondly recalled growing up with Lewis, who was a pal of her mom, Janet Leigh.
“Jerry Lewis loomed large in my family. Many movies with my mom & he made home movies with Janet and Tony, ” she tweeted, referring to her father, Tony Curtis. “He made me and many laugh.”
Rose Marie, herself a comedy pioneer, said she lost a great friend Sunday.
“Jerry Lewis was an angel to me. Loved him & will never forget what he did for me during one of the worst times in my life. RIP, Love Roe, ” the 94-year-old, best known for her work on “ The Dick Van Dyke Show, ” tweeted.
Even comics who came to fame decades after Lewis’ peak in the said their craft wouldn’ t have been the same without him.
“We lost one of the great ones today, ” “Will & Grace” star Sean Hayes tweeted, “possibly the greatest. Jerry Lewis was one of my comedy heroes & was a gigantic inspiration to me. I am so grateful to have shared some valuable time with him.”
