R.I.P. Jerry Lewis, dead at age 91

R.I.P. He got to live a long life and be beloved by many. 

RIP Jerry Lewis

 Watching him right now on Antenna TV's Tonight Show rerun. It took him about a minute or less to stick two pencils in his upper lip and imitate a walrus.  You could always count on him for something like that.

 So long, Jerry, and thanks for all the laughs, especially from The Nutty Professor, his version of "The Typewriter," and one of the only truly funny
moments, IMO, in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World. R.I.P.
 

Why would you expect to be "strung up" ? 

We are getting used to your rather traditional habit of dissing the dead in their obituaries or in their Birthday Tributes. 

Have to wonder if "proper time and place" ever enter your mind". 

...a general rule of etiquette is that if you don't have anything nice to say about a person, say nothing. This is especially true of deceased celebrities...

I disagree, koskiewicz.
I believe that all posters are entitiled to air their opinions, even after the person spoken has died.
It's called "freedom of speech".

I must even say that about the bully-troll Bat OuttaHeck.

I just confessed that I do not like Jerry Lewis, and if you disagree, well, it's your right.

BTW, I said pretty much the same thing when, IMO, the overrated Mary Tyler Moore died last January.

I wonder if, when Trump croaks. there will be posts praising him.
I feel sick just thinking about that!

I've never understood why it should be considered any less respectful to express uncomplimentary opinions about the recently-deceased than to do so about the living but, be that as it may, I mean no unkindness when I say that I generally had no great appreciation of Lewis as a performer, in spite of recognizing individual moments of occasional brilliance among his work. It may perhaps be with those performers who might not usually move us that such moments really stand out. "I don't normally like this guy, but that was really good" is always more pleasing to me as a viewer than, "He's one of my favorites, but that was way below his standards." I'd rather be pleasantly surprised by someone for whom I don't much care than disappointed by someone for whom I do.

But I'll add that I found him fascinating as a person. Intelligent and articulate, outspoken, mercurial and full of contradictions, he could go from self-absorbed and arrogant to eager-to-please in an instant, and it was always endlessly interesting to hear him talk about his work; his approach to it, his methods, execution and assessments of relative degrees of success therein.

I recall being struck by something that occurred during his appearance with James Lipton on his Inside the Actors' Studio series about 20 years ago. Interrupting himself in the middle of an answer, Lewis suddenly zeroed in on a young woman in the audience who appeared on the verge of tears, asking, "What's the matter, dear?" When she confessed her worries about being able to make it in a business as tough as that of entertainment, he replied (as near as I can remember), "Look, I don't know you, so I could never possibly care as much about you as you need to care about you. You need to be able to look at that person in the mirror every day and see value." Brutally honest and insightful, yet compassionate and encouraging, he was delivering just the advice this woman needed in a way that was so much more personal and pointed than a cliche like "believe in yourself." I don't know how much of an impression it made on her, but it made one on me. 

There have been plenty of performers whose work I love, but who were simply not very interesting to listen to as people. So although I'll rarely make a special effort to watch one of Lewis's films, I'll often do so for one of the many interviews he gave over the years, and that, in its own way, is entertainment too. However one feels about their work, it's always the most complex people who prove the most interesting.          

Your point's well taken, B. I guess I lean toward the more cynical view expressed by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder in Sunset Blvd:

"Funny how gentle people get with you once you're dead."

Brackett and Wilder were very wise men.
BTW, how is Duncan the Dangerous doing, LOL?