(AP Photo/Julie Markes, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jerry Lewis, the manic, rubber-faced showman who jumped and hollered to fame in a lucrative partnership with Dean Martin, settled down to become a self-conscious screen auteur and found an even greater following as the tireless, teary host of the annual muscular dystrophy telethons, has died. Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John Katsilometes tweeted a statement from Lewis' family that read, "Legendary entertainer Jerry Lewis passed away peacefully today of natural causes at 91 at his home w/ family by his side." “I feel pretty satisfied about the 61 years of constant looking to make children better.”

The 1976 telethon also marked a special reunion for Lewis and Dean Martin, who were a popular comedy duo from 1946 until 1956. After their split in 1956, he starred in and directed a slew of hit films such as “The Nutty Professor.”

Later generations knew him primarily as the tireless conductor of the Labor Day weekend telethons to raise funds for victims of muscular dystrophy.
American comedian and Muscular Dystrophy Association chairman Jerry Lewis dies in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 91.