Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926) is an American (United States) comedian, actor, film producer, writer (screenwriter), film director and singer. He is best-known for his slapstick humor in stage, radio, screen, recording and television. Lewis is also known for his charity fund-raising telethons (Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon) and position as national chairman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Lewis has won several awards for lifetime achievements from The American Comedy Awards, The Golden Camera, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and The Venice Film Festival, and he has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2005, he received the Governors Award of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Board of Governors, which is the highest Emmy Award presented.

On February 22, 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Lewis the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. As an innovative filmmaker, Lewis is credited with inventing the video assist system (video assist) in cinematography (some doubt now exists about this, due to a patent predating Lewis by more than a decade ). Lewis was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the comedy team of Martin and Lewis. In addition to the teams popular nightclub work, they starred in a successful series of comedy films for Paramount Pictures. The act broke up ten years later.