Dig A Hole: Jerry’s real kid Joseph Lewis
January 10th, 2010 by Scott Marks
Jerry Lewis’ estranged son Joseph, 45, died on October 24, 2009 in St. George, Utah after suffering a seizure. I had to learn about it by reading a comment on EC? Aside from the Globe, no one appears to be covering this story.
The Medical Examiners Office in Salt Lake City determined the cause of death was a narcotic overdose.
Joseph Lewis was the youngest son of comedian Jerry Lewis and his first wife, the former big band singer Patti Palmer Lewis, 88, who is battling dementia in a nursing home.
Of the six Lewis boys, Joe was easily the black sheep of the family. Jerry turned his back on his son in 1989 after Joe sold an explosive tell all to the National Enquirer. The two-and-a-half page tirade detailed how his father viciously abused his children. From that moment on, Jerry never spoke about Joe in public. When asked about his family Jerry would curtly reply, “I have five sons and one daughter.”
Here are a few of the accusations Joe went public with:
- The Lewis family occupied a 32-room Bel Air mansion. Joe told the Enquirer, “The house was huge and posh, but there was no love in it.”
- The Nutty Bathroom: It was Jerry’s fortress of solitude. A “Do Not Disturb” sign warned passersby to steer clear. According to Joe, this was no ordinary comfort station. It came stocked with a color TV, two telephones, two revolvers, a wet bar, refrigerator, bookcase, marijuana, Quaaludes, Nembutal, coke paraphernalia and an intercom system hooked up to each bedroom so Jerry could eavesdrop.
- The Strap: A thick leather belt Jerry used to administer punishment.
- The Rubber Snake: Joe and brother Christopher were roughhousing with a toy snake. The noise bothered Jerry so much that he took the toy and proceeded to whip Christopher with it. He took the snake into his dressing room and proceeded to chop it to shreds with his pocketknife. Once finished, he threw the pieces on their bed and said, “That will teach you stupid kids.”
Joe was not the only one of Jerry’s sons to cause the comedian heartache. Oldest son Gary Lewis returned from Vietnam a heroin addict. Christopher Lewis pleaded innocent in August 1991 to felony counts of grand theft and receiving stolen property.
Now it is Gary’s turn to speak out. The rock ‘n’ roll icon of the 1960s group Gary Lewis and the Playboys blames his father is in part responsible for the death of his younger brother. He told the Globe, “Joe had problems his entire life and I blame our father. Jerry Lewis is a mean and evil person. He was never loving and caring toward me or my brothers.
“I don’t know if Joe’s death is drug related, but I believe it could have been prevented if he and my father had been on better terms. I believe he partly died of a broken heart.
“(My father) doesn’t really care. He’s more worried about his career and his image than his own family.”
The Globe mentions that the last time Gary saw his brother was in 1999 when Joe came to see The Playboys perform in Las Vegas. Sounds like Jerry wasn’t the only member of the family neglecting Joe.
If half of Joe’s allegations are true, Jerry must have been a holy terror to live with. Still, I can’t help feeling a little sorry for Jer. No father should have to bury a son. Joe was obviously a troubled soul who spent a lifetime searching for his father’s love. In the Enquirer piece Joe recalls how he learned of his parent’s divorce: “My father came to the dinner table and held up The Enquirer cover that announced my parents were splitting…A week later my father moved out of our house.” Joe wanted to hit his father where he breathed so he sold his story to Jerry’s nemesis The National Enquirer.
At the time of his death Joe Lewis was managing a Beatles tribute band. He is survived by his second wife Cheri Wilson and three sons.
Tags: Gary Lewis, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, Jerry Lewis, Jerry Lewis son dead, Jerry Lewis son dies, Joe Lewis, Joseph Lewis, Joseph Lewis dead, Joseph Lewis dies, Obituary, the globe, the National EnquirerShare: 
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24 Responses to “Dig A Hole: Jerry’s real kid Joseph Lewis”
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For what it’s worth Joe was a very nice person who had some problems. He was trying to turn his life around when he died. I think he had a lot of pain from his childhood but he never wanted to hurt anyone else. I’m just sad that his father doesn’t even care that his youngest son is dead, regardless of the past. What is even more troubling is that Jerry has a wonderful and talented grandson that he doesn’t know. The grandson had nothing to do with the rift between Joe & Jerry. This is a prime example of the pathetic lives of the rich & famous. What a curse!
You’ll notice that I retracted my claws out of respect to both Joe and Jerry. The entire situation is a tragic one. I’d be pissed if I had a son who sold me down the river, but by the same token I recognize that there must have been something horrible that forced Joe’s hand. I didn’t always see eye to eye with my old man, but for the most part I was raised in a loving environment and could never imagine being disowned by either of my folks. One might only imagine the overload of guilt that Jerry is packing around. And you are right when you say that Jerry missed out on knowing his grandson. The whole thing stinks.
Maybe Joe’s son will get together some day and have sex with his aunt Danni!
Well, she is adopted.
Don’t forget Joe had 3 sons. They all are wonderful kids that are being punished and judged by nothing having to do with them.
The idea that “Oldest son Gary Lewis returned from Vietnam a heroin addict,” has no basis in fact. The only element of truth in that line is that Gary is Jerry Lewis’ oldest son. That story has been floating around for years. Gary served his country proudly during the Vietnam era, and was honorably discharged after completing his two year tour of duty. There is no connection with Gary Lewis’ service to his country and a narcotic problem that he faced some time later. By the way, Gary Lewis and the Playboys are still entertaining audiences with the happiest rock n roll show in the world!
I feel sory for Jerry’s daughter Suzan.It
was proven with Gary’s DNA she is his daughter,but
maybe she is not missing anything.I had a friend yrs ago who as a child went to see Jerry and Dean
with his father,when they were in town.He took
a look at Ken,cripled Ken said something like
We don’t have time for the local yocals and locked
himself in a trailer ,leaving outside a furious
father ,a hurt child and a very apolotetic Dean Martin.This was told to me as God is my witness
a number of yrs ago as I did not understand
why Ken would never donate to MDA.He could not
stand Jerry Lewis for what he did yrs before
hurting the feelings of a little boy.That’s cold.
He’ll answer one day when he meets his maker for
all he’s done the good and the BAD !
Gary is a good person and I am glad
he took the DNA test with Suzan Lewis.
Janice, you refer to the child as “cripled (sic) Ken” and accuse Jerry of being insensitive?!?!?
And hello again, Rick. I spent a few hours trying to find the interview in which Jerry blames the Vietnam war for Gary’s addiction and came up empty. I also remember him discussing it on a talk show, but I have no concrete proof to back it up. I don’t think you’d drop a comment unless you were sure of the facts, so I’ll bow to your superior wisdom even though something inside me says Jerry helped to perpetuate the story.
And is the Globe accurate in reporting that it had been a decade since Gary saw Joe? Kind of hypocritical to knock the old man if he also treated Joe like a pariah.
Pages 359-360 of Shawn Levy’s 1996 biography entitled “King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis” has some enlightening info:
When Gary Lewis returned from Vietnam, Gary suffered post-combat stress, spending months in his withdrawn state.
Jerry revealed to a reporter that his son was “an absolute fu**ing zucchini”.
Gary indeed smoked pot, took pills, “and this and that” according to Jerry. “He hid them in his shoes, his jackets, in the lampshades - Christ knows where!”
Eventually, Jerry (whose own addiction to Percodan was growing daily) sympathized with Gary.
“I got him cleaned out,” Jerry confessed, “but then I started supplying him with marijuana. He needed it for whatever his pains were.”
Hello Scott. The interview by JL you are looking for was in a Chicago newspaper. Sometime in the future, Gary will address all the stories about his career, his time in the military, his drug troubles, and his family entanglements. Until then, he will just sit back and let all the fabrications surface. As for now, Gary works with the band many weeks out of the year, and he enjoys his life with his new, extended family. He’s been through hell, and is enjoying a piece of heaven now.
The reason Gary didn’t see his brother Joseph since the 1990s was largely logistical. Joe was living (floating around) the West Coast, while Gary has been on the East Coast. I Joseph became reclusive from time to time, and for long periods, vanished from sight. Joseph had two boys from his first marriage, and those boys do not remember ever seeing their father. They were very young when he and his first wife divorced. To the best of my knowledge, Joseph did not attempt to contact his sons. Those two boys, now young adults, have never met their grandfather.
It’s important to remember that Gary and Joseph didn’t grow up together. When Joe was born in 1964, Gary was already in the recording studio, traveling, and on his way to stardom. Two years later, at the height of his career, Gary answered the call to service, and for the next two years was in the military. In the interim, Gary married and had a child. So, Gary was a veteran, a husband, a father, and a superstar, while his brother Joseph was only about five or six years old. When they were together, the two brothers did have a good relationship, but Gary was old enough to be Joseph’s father! Interestingly, there is about the same difference in age between Jerry Lewis and Gary Lewis.
Regarding the comments by “Bob,” You can not put much faith in anything JL says to a reporter or biographer. You can take that statement to the bank!
The media do makes Jerry Lewis look like a Jerk but no one really knows what his kid put him through. He May be silent out of his own pain and grief.
Even the Best Parents are made out to be wicked by Drug Using Children.They are Excellent and Convincing Liars …..Believe me, I know. I have a 26 year old daughter who had a wonderful childhood. I am at the point of disowning her too. It is so hurtul knowing your kid is killing herself and hurting the grandchildren as the same time. My hands are tied but my heart is in Knots 24/7 - Signed a Mom in Ohio
The media do makes Jerry Lewis look like a Jerk but no one really knows what his kid put him through. He May be silent out of his own pain and grief.
Even the Best Parents are made out to be wicked by Drug Using Children.They are Excellent and Convincing Liars …..Believe me, I know. I have a 26 year old daughter who had a wonderful childhood. I am at the point of disowning her too. It is so hurtul knowing your kid is killing herself and hurting the grandchildren as the same time. My hands are tied but my heart is in Knots 24/7 - Signed a Mom in Ohio
Hi, Mom. When I first saw the name Purdy, I thought that you were making a “Nutty Professor” reference. Wish that I could give you advice, but movies have always been my narcotic of choice. Don’t disown your kid no matter how adept she is at puling the wool over your eyes and ripping your heart out. Hopefully the time will come that the two of you will be brought back together. From the sound of it, she needs a mother now more than ever.
Thanks for the backstory, Rick. Coming from Chicago I knew that it was a local story I was searching for. And speaking of Gary, I saw him on the big screen tonight. No, not a 35mm revival of “The Family Jewels” (I wish), but a terrific documentary called “The Wrecking Crew.” (Please hold the Matt Helm jokes.) It’s probably the best documentary about the music industry that no one has seen. Learning that so many respected groups didn’t play instruments on their famous recordings was tantamount to discovering that there was no Santa. I knew about The Monkees and The Association, but The Beach Boys?!?! Gary’s comments, and the clips, were wonderfully insightful. I hope the director, whom I plan to interview, can come up with a distribution deal.
After 7 kid’s of my own, three of them “special needs” adoptions and over 40 foster kids in the past 15 years I have discovered that there are a lot of unfortunate family issues out there. It isn’t just a curse of the rich and famous. I use to think “keep the family together no matter what” but now I believe that it is for the best sometimes that some families have some distance between them. We have had to do that to protect the children. Sometimes from other children.
I don’t think Jerry had a good example of an attentive father himself. Just because you have a child doesn’t mean you will automatically know how to be a good parent. I know I’ve made mistakes. It seems as though Jerry has changed a few things between Gary and Danni.
I have had friends who no longer speak to one or both of their parents and my heart goes out to them. I didn’t always get along with my old man, but I never spent one day of my life feeling unloved by my parents. In that sense I have always considered myself very lucky. You’ll notice that I don’t have any kids of my own. I’m too selfish, know it and wouldn’t do that to a child. Sadly, there are parents out there that are little more than sperm/egg donors who are incapable of raising a pet let alone a child.
Danny Lewis was an example of a father who was outdone by his son and I believe he took it out on Jerry. One of the happiest times in Jerry’s life was appearing in “Damn Yankees.” In spite of all his monumental success, Danny always rubbed Jerry’s face in the fact that he never played Broadway. Jerry told me that one of his biggest regrets was that his dad didn’t live to see it happen.
No matter what happened in the past, Jerry’s response to his son’s death is inadequate and pathetic.
‘Shawn Levy’s 1996 biography entitled “King of Comedy: The Life and Art of Jerry Lewis” has some enlightening info:’
I hate that book. Shawn Levy is a hack who hated Jerry Lewis.
There’s a reason they call it non-’fiction’. There are no true books out there about real life, period. All writers are manipulative to their own beliefs, for better or worse.
Can’t agree with you on this one, William. It’s not a definitive study of JL, but it’s far from the work of a hack. Why do you say he hated Jerry?
I haven’t read the book in years, yet I remember Shawn seemed to be going at Jerry hard like he worked for TMZ or something.
I think at the end of the book he had a falling out with Jerry, and some words were exchanged?
I could write a book about Jerry or anyone, fill it with lies, and 100 years from now someone could write another book, and use my book as a resource and say my lies are facts.
People will believe anything, especially in print,and especially if it’s bad.
I strongly feel an artist has the right to have a life out of the public eye, despite the fascination.
John Ford is a good example of this.
Writers try to bad mouth him like ‘Searching for John Ford’ and have no proof to back up their claims.
(Disclaimer: only slightly related to post topic)
I just saw that the TCM Film Festival is holding a special screening of “The King of Comedy” with special guest Jerry Lewis. http://www.tcm.com/festival/
I hope you get a chance to go, Scott, and I’d love to read the resulting blog post(s).
Don’t think I’ll be able to make it to that screening. If anything, I’d love to attend the evening of censored Warner Bros. cartoons scheduled to play. “Coal Black” on the big screen?!?!? Who needs Marty and Jerry?
I’M KIDDING!!!
HAPPY 84th BIRTHDAY JERRY!
OH, YEAH!!!