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Home / Hollywood and TV / Jerry Lewis's will excluded all six sons from his first marriage and their children
Case file s490 · Hollywood and TV · 2017
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2017
Jerry Lewis: Jerry Lewis (Paramount photo by Bud Fraker)
Jerry Lewis. According to Bonhams, the reverse side was stamped with "Paramount Photo by Bud Fraker". A. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
August 20, 2017
Place
Las Vegas, Nevada · United States
Field
Comedian, film director and telethon host · Film and television on the timeline
Legal tradition
Nevada probate (US common law) · Common law
Historical event
The Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon Lewis hosted for decades
Religion
Jerry Lewis: Jewish (recorded as 20th-century American Jews, 21st-century American Jews, Jewish American activists on Wikipedia)
Member of
Republican Party (Wikidata)
Hollywood and TVCut out of the willNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Jerry Lewis's will excluded all six sons from his first marriage and their children

Jerry Lewis had six sons with his first wife, Patti Palmer: Gary, Ronald, Scott, Christopher, Anthony and Joseph. Joseph died in 2009. Lewis and his second wife, SanDee Pitnick, adopted a daughter, Danielle. Lewis died in August 2017 at 91. In September 2017 his will was reported. It says: "I have intentionally excluded GARY LEWIS, RONALD LEWIS, ANTHONY JOSEPH LEWIS" and the other sons and their descendants, "it being my intention ... that they shall receive no benefits hereunder." SanDee Pitnick inherits the estate, and Danielle is second in line. CBS Philadelphia reported the estate at an estimated $50 million. A homeless woman in Philadelphia, Suzan Lewis, told Inside Edition she was Lewis's daughter from a 1950s affair with Lynn Dixon and cited a DNA test showing 88.7 percent certainty. She said he saw her when he could but never acknowledged her. The will as reported names only the six sons as excluded. Gary Lewis said he was not concerned about being disinherited because he had long supported himself†. In 2009 Gary called his father a "mean and evil person" and blamed him for Joseph's death†. No court contest by the sons appears in the sources cited here.

What the law took from it

Naming each excluded child and his descendants in the will is what prevents a pretermitted-heir claim; an unacknowledged child is a separate risk the will does not address.

Sources
  1. avclub.comPress
  2. CBS NewsPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Jerry Lewis's will excluded all six sons from his first marriage and their children,” story s490, https://www.celebrity.estate/jerry-lewis-2017, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Hollywood and TVCut out of the willNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States