Family, friends plan gathering to remember comic Jerry Lewis

LAS VEGAS – Family and invited guests will gather Monday to celebrate the life of famed comedian Jerry Lewis.

Spokeswoman Candi Cazau says Hollywood celebrities will join family members to remember the clownish comic and longtime host of the annual muscular dystrophy telethons.

The gathering at the South Point hotel-casino where Lewis last performed as telethon host will be closed to the public and press. The family is not releasing a guest list.

Lewis died Aug. 20 at age 91 in Las Vegas of heart disease and was cremated. His show business career began at age 5 in his parents’ vaudeville show. He gained fame with his comic partnership with Dean Martin and went on to make such movie favourites as “The Bellboy” and “The Nutty Professor.”