Kathleen was quite a character.
I can’t speak to his acting, directing or comedy but when he died my father texted to tell me that the best stockboy our family fruit store ever had had passed away.
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From what I’ve read, he walked the walk when it came to making some very sick children happier. Whatever else one does with one’s life, that point really shines forth.
My sister loved his movies and I could never understand why. He was so over the top that I could never take him or the characters he played in the movies seriously. It’s always been my belief that anyone willing to act like an idiot could do what he did. I feel the same about Jim Carrey. I’ve never had any respect whatsoever for the so-called comedic acting of either and neither one has ever elicited so much as a grin from me. Disgust would probably be the most apt description of my feelings while watching their movies. Lewis was great in the King of Comedy however, and I’m sure I’d have liked him a great deal had he opted to play serious dramatic roles.
Now, having said all that, Lewis had an incredible work ethic and he was talented in many ways off screen. I found his personality during the telethons to be grating and never really came to like him as a person until he’d already become a fairly old man and had begun appearing on talk shows like Larry King and so forth. I appreciated his honesty and his willingness to say what he thought, critics be damned. He also contended admirably with quite a few serious health issues, including painkiller addiction, diabetes, prostate cancer, and a debilitating and painful back injury caused by the pratfalls he did in his movies. And as others have said, he did a tremendous amount of good for others and left the world a much better place than it would have been without him. And now, at the time of his death, I find that I think of him fondly and am sorry he’s gone. I was expecting him to make it to 100.