Jerry Lewis accused of sexual assault and harassment by former co-stars

Actors Karen Kramer and Hope Holiday spoke out in a short film

Jerry Lewis at a gala on 12 March 1984 in Paris (JOEL ROBINE/AFP via Getty Images)

Former costars of Jerry Lewis have come forward with allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment against the comedian.

Actors Karen Kramer and Hope Holiday spoke out in a short film made in collaboration between Vanity Fair and filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick, who previously worked together on the documentary series Allen v Farrow.

Vanity Fair unveiled the short film, titled “The Dark Side of a Hollywood Icon”, on Wednesday (23 February).

Kramer says she knew Lewis (who died in 2017 aged 91) “socially”, through a young actor she was dating. She recounts getting an offer from Lewis to play “his leading lady” in an upcoming film.

Kramer agreed to meet with Lewis, by then a major star. She says Lewis promised her he’d triple her salary, and told her she’d have a “fantastic dressing room”, that a top designer would make her clothes, and that she would “treated like the lady you should be treated”.

“I said, ‘It’s an offer I can’t refuse, so I’ll do it, absolutely,’” Kramer says in the film.

Lewis, she said, “was very specific about how he wanted [her] to dress”. “I thought that was unique and interesting that he wanted to look at the sketches, he wanted to look at the clothes on me to make sure he didn’t want to delete something or add something to the way I looked,” she adds.

Kramer says she was asked to meet up with Lewis. “Before I knew it, he was all over me,” she says. “He had grabbed me. He began to fondle me.”

She later adds: “I said, ‘I don’t know what you think, but I don’t do this.’ I got the feeling that that had never really happened to him very much. ... I could see that he was furious.”

Hope Holiday, who is also featured in the film, says Lewis was a friend of her father’s, meaning she had known him from the age of 13.

“To me, he was family,” she says.

Holiday recounts Lewis, the star of dozens of hit movies including The Nutty Professor and The King of Comedy, asking her if she wanted to be in one of his films, to which she said yes.

On the first day they were working together, she says Lewis asked her to come to a dressing room, saying he wanted to discuss a scene they were due to shoot the next day.

Holiday says she went to the “garish” dressing room, where Lewis pressed a button, locking her inside with him.

“He said, ‘You’ve got a great figure.’ He said, ‘You’ve got nice boobs.’ He said, ‘You’ve got lovely legs.’ He said, ‘That’s what I like to see,’” she recalls.

Holiday says Lewis then unzipped his pants and started masturbating in front of her.

“I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat there. I sat there,” she says. “I wanted to leave – I wanted to leave so badly. I wanted to get out of there, and I couldn’t.”

Reflecting on the incident’s impact on her, she adds: “It made me very depressed, and I didn’t want to date. I didn’t want to go on dates. It wasn’t good.”

An accompanying feature published by Vanity Fair includes more accounts of Lewis’s alleged behaviour.

If you have been raped or sexually assaulted, you can contact your nearest Rape Crisis organisation for specialist, independent and confidential support. For more information, visit their website here. In the US, RAINN’s hotline offers free and confidential support. You can reach them by phone at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or chat online.