'Crazy' life of comedy star Lewis

Lewis has been plagued with ill health for the last two decades

American star Jerry Lewis, who is recovering in hospital after suffering a heart attack, is a comedy genius to some but remains an acquired taste to others.

Born Joseph Levitch in March 1926, he is best known for his comedy partnership with Dean Martin and his charity work for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

In recent years, he has battled with prostate cancer, pulmonary fibrosis and meningitis.

The son of a Jewish-American vaudeville performer, the young Lewis began performing in burlesque theatre in the early 1940s.

Joining forces with Martin, his wacky antics helped them become one of the most popular double-acts of the 1950s.

Between 1949 and 1956 the pair appeared in 17 films together, among them My Friend Irma, The Caddy and Hollywood or Bust.

Comic auteur

Following their acrimonious separation, however, Lewis embarked on a solo career with 1957's The Delicate Delinquent.

His best-known films include The Bellboy and The Nutty Professor

Initially working with director Frank Tashlin, the star would step behind the camera in 1960 with The Bellboy - shot in the Miami hotel where he was performing at the time.

Subsequent films like The Ladies Man, The Errand Boy and The Nutty Professor - subsequently remade by Eddie Murphy - saw him embraced in France as a comic auteur.

He became known there as 'Le Roi du Crazy', a nickname recalled earlier this year when he received the country's top accolade, the Legion of Honour.

Lewis fell out of favour in the 1960s, and his 1972 film The Day the Clown Cried - a drama set inside a Nazi concentration camp - was never released.

However, his role as host of the Muscular Dystrophy Association's annual telethon ensured he remained a popular celebrity.

In 1983 he made a well-received comeback in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy, playing a TV star stalked by Robert De Niro's aspiring stand-up.

Open-heart surgery

More recently he has been seen in the British film Funny Bones and on the Broadway and West End stage in the musical Damn Yankees.

His partnership with Dean Martin dissolved acrimoniously in 1956

For the last two decades, though, he has been dogged by ill health that has limited his public engagements.

He had open-heart surgery in 1983, had surgery for prostate cancer in 1992 and received treatment in 2003 for his dependence on prescription drugs.

He has also been plagued by constant back pain - the result of a misjudged pratfall on a 1965 edition of The Andy Williams Show.

In recent years he has been censured by disability activists for comments he made in 1990 about wheelchair users.

His generosity, though, remains legendary - typified by his habit of giving away his socks after only wearing them once.

"I shall pass through this world but once," he is quoted as saying.

"Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now."