Showbiz icon Jerry Lewis died haunted by a bitter regret — being booted from the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon he’d hosted for 45 years despite raising an astronomical $2.6 billion for the crippled-kids charity!
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Showbiz icon
Jerry Lewis died haunted by a bitter regret — being booted from the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon he’d hosted for 45 years despite raising an astronomical $2.6
billion for
the crippled-kids charity!
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Photo credit: Getty Images
Shortly before his Aug. 20 passing at age 91 from heart failure, the "
Nutty Professor" legend (shown here in the film with
Stella Stevens) was still full of fury and bitterness over his shameful 2011 dismissal as chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). He refused to talk publicly about it. “That’s not a place I want to go,” he said.
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“Because if I go there, you’ll never get me back. “I have already ingested all that I want from that whole f***ing adventure.”
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"Law & Order: SVU" star
Richard Belzer says his buddy Jerry was “a hurt man.” Belzer slammed Lewis’ firing as “a moral outrage.” But many note Lewis — despite incredible talents as a comic, singer, writer and movie director — could be an arrogant, insulting and cruel jerk.
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Before his youngest son
Joe, a junkie,
committed suicide in 2009 at age 45, he blasted Jerry as an “empty, shallow and vicious” man who brutally beat his children. After Joe’s death, heartbroken brother
Gary (right) — who fronted the 1960s band Gary Lewis and the Playboys — called their dad “a mean and evil person.”
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Jerry also was a junkie who’d popped the painkiller Percodan for 13 years after it was prescribed for a 1985 back injury. He was caught cheating on his first wife — and is said to have
fathered at least one love child.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
But the bossy control freak was also a showbiz genius. After he and
comic partner Dean Martin split, Jerry went on to write, produce and headline in a slew of hit flicks that made him the top comedic filmmaker of the 1960s.
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By 2011, the charity was fed up with Jerry’s bizarre behavior and canned him. The telethon was canceled just three years later.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
“Jerry was haunted by his firing,"
The National ENQUIRER learned from a source. "He felt he’d been kicked to the curb like a stray dog. He
never forgave the insult. It hurt him more than his bust-up with Dino or even the tragic loss of his son.”
Showbiz icon
Jerry Lewis died haunted by a bitter regret — being booted from the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon he’d hosted for 45 years despite raising an astronomical $2.6
billion for
the crippled-kids charity!
Photo credit: Getty Images
Shortly before his Aug. 20 passing at age 91 from heart failure, the "
Nutty Professor" legend (shown here in the film with
Stella Stevens) was still full of fury and bitterness over his shameful 2011 dismissal as chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). He refused to talk publicly about it. “That’s not a place I want to go,” he said.
Photo credit: Getty Images
“Because if I go there, you’ll never get me back. “I have already ingested all that I want from that whole f***ing adventure.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
"Law & Order: SVU" star
Richard Belzer says his buddy Jerry was “a hurt man.” Belzer slammed Lewis’ firing as “a moral outrage.” But many note Lewis — despite incredible talents as a comic, singer, writer and movie director — could be an arrogant, insulting and cruel jerk.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Before his youngest son
Joe, a junkie,
committed suicide in 2009 at age 45, he blasted Jerry as an “empty, shallow and vicious” man who brutally beat his children. After Joe’s death, heartbroken brother
Gary (right) — who fronted the 1960s band Gary Lewis and the Playboys — called their dad “a mean and evil person.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
Jerry also was a junkie who’d popped the painkiller Percodan for 13 years after it was prescribed for a 1985 back injury. He was caught cheating on his first wife — and is said to have
fathered at least one love child.
Photo credit: Getty Images
But the bossy control freak was also a showbiz genius. After he and
comic partner Dean Martin split, Jerry went on to write, produce and headline in a slew of hit flicks that made him the top comedic filmmaker of the 1960s.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images
By 2011, the charity was fed up with Jerry’s bizarre behavior and canned him. The telethon was canceled just three years later.
Photo credit: Getty Images
“Jerry was haunted by his firing,"
The National ENQUIRER learned from a source. "He felt he’d been kicked to the curb like a stray dog. He
never forgave the insult. It hurt him more than his bust-up with Dino or even the tragic loss of his son.”
Photo credit: Getty Images
