Early life

Lewis was born Richard Phillip Lewis in Brooklyn, New York City and was raised in Englewood, New Jersey. His father worked as a caterer and his mother was an actress. Lewis is Jewish. He later attended Ohio State University.

Career

Lewis began performing stand-up comedy in the 1970s. He worked as a copywriter for an ad agency by day, while honing his stand-up act at night. The ad agency was named Contemporary Graphics (now defunct) and was located above Lovey's pizzeria in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Lewis gained popularity in the 1980s with numerous appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and his own television specials on HBO. He starred with Jamie Lee Curtis in Anything but Love, which ran for four seasons. He co-starred with Don Rickles on Daddy Dearest. He had a recurring role in Rude Awakening, as Rabbi Richard Glass in 7th Heaven, and appeared in the Tales from the Crypt episode "Whirlpool." Lewis has written comic articles for magazines such as Playboy, and endorsed the popular early-1990s beverage Boku, as well as Snapple and Certs breath mints. In 2007, he made a cameo appearance as Phillip in George Lopez. Recently, he also made cameos in Everybody Hates Chris as an old man in the hospital bed next to Chris Rock and as Charlie Sheen's accountant in Two and a Half Men.

Lewis has also achieved moderate success in films, appearing as Prince John in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, as a frontier doctor in Wagons East!, as an unemployed actor in Once Upon A Crime and as himself in The Wrong Guys. He played the lead role of Jimmy Epstein in Drunks and in Game Day. Lewis also appeared in the dramatic pictures Leaving Las Vegas, Hugo Pool, and The Maze. He made his acting debut in Diary of a Young Comic.

On January 9, 2001, Lewis visited The Howard Stern Show to promote his book The Other Great Depression, which described his recovery from alcoholism. Lewis has been sober since August 4, 1994.

He had a frequent recurring role as a character based on himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David and Lewis met at summer camp in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York when they were 13.

He is #45 on Comedy Central's list of 100 Greatest Standups of All Time.

"The ______ from hell"

Lewis claims to be the originator of the phrase "The ______ from hell" as in "the night from hell", "the date from hell" or "the roommate from hell". This theory is expounded in the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode "The Nanny from Hell." Lewis has petitioned the editors of Bartlett's to be given credit for the coinage, but the editors claim that the phrase was a common idiom prior to Lewis's use of it. For example, during World War I, kilted Scottish soldiers were given the nickname "The Ladies from Hell" (translation of German "Die Damen aus der Hölle") by German troops. However, the Yale Book of Quotations does erroneously attribute the phrase to Lewis.

Fashion style

Lewis is noted for always wearing an all-black outfit.

Personal life

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1977	Diary of a Young Comic	Billy Goldstein	Gary Weis	TV Movie
1980	House Calls	Dr. Leon Prometheus	Bob Claver	TV Series (1 Episode : "The Phantom of Kensington")
1985	Temporary Insanity			TV Movie
1986	Riptide	Andrew Fitzsimmons Carlton III	Michael Switzer	TV Series (1 Episode : "The Wedding Bell Blues")
1987	Harry	Richard Breskin		TV Series (7 Episodes)
	CBS Summer Playhouse	Joey	James Komack	TV Series (1 Episode : "King of the Building")
1988	The Wrong Guys	Himself	Danny Bilson
	Tattingers	Longo	Allan Arkush	TV Series (1 Episode : "Death and Taxis")
1989	That's Adequate	Pimples Lapedes	Harry Hurwitz
1989-92	Anything But Love	Marty Gold		TV Series (56 Episodes)
1992	Once Upon a Crime	Julian Peters	Eugene Levy
	The Danger of Love: The Carolyn Warmus Story	Edward Sanders	Joyce Chopra	TV Movie
1993	Daddy Dearest	Steven Mitchell		TV Series (13 Episodes)
	TriBeCa	Joseph	Melanie Mayron	TV Series (1 Episode : "Stepping Back")
	The Larry Sanders Show	Himself	Todd Holland	TV Series (1 Episode : "Life Behind Larry")
	Robin Hood: Men in Tights	Prince John	Mel Brooks
1994	Wagons East!	Phil Taylor	Peter Markle
	Tales from the Crypt	Vern	Mick Garris	TV Series (1 Episode : "Whirlpool")
1995	A.J.'s Time Travelers	Edgar Allan Poe	Mike Finney	TV Series (1 Episode : "Edgar Allan Poe")
	Drunks	Jim	Peter Cohn
	Leaving Las Vegas	Peter	Mike Figgis
1996	A Weekend in the Country	Bobby Stein	Martin Bergman	TV Movie
	The Elevator	Phil Milowski	Arthur Borman Nigel Dick Rafal Zielinski
1997	Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child	Old Beggar	Ed Bell	TV Series (1 Episode : "The Golden Goose")
	Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist	Richard		TV Series (1 Episode : "Undercover")
	Hugo Pool	Chick Chicalini	Robert Downey, Sr.
	The Maze	Markov	Joëlle Bentolila
1997-98	Hiller and Diller	Neil Diller		TV Series (13 Episodes)
1998	Rude Awakening	Harve Schwartz		TV Series (6 Episodes)
1999	Hercules	Neurosis	Eddy Houchins	TV Series (1 Episode : "Hercules and the Tiff on Olympus")
	Game Day	Steve Adler	Steve Klein
	V.I.P.	Ronald Zane	Patrick R. Norris	TV Series (1 Episode : "Big Top Val")
	Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm	Himself	Robert B. Weide	TV Movie
2002	Presidio Med	Francis Weinod	Christopher Chulack	TV Series (1 Episode : "Once Upon a Family")
2003	Alias	Mitchell Yaeger	Ken Olin	TV Series (1 Episode : "A Dark Turn")
2002-04	7th Heaven	Rabbi Richard Glass	Ken Olin	TV Series (9 Episodes)
2004	Two and a Half Men	Stan	Rob Schiller	TV Series (1 Episode : "I Can't Afford Hyenas")
	The Dead Zone	Jack Jericho	Anthony Michael Hall	TV Series (1 Episode : "The Cold Hard Truth")
2005	Sledge: The Untold Story	Himself	Brad Martin
	Las Vegas	Stan	Tim Matheson	TV Series (1 Episode : "Fake the Money and Run")
	George Lopez	Phillip Nickleson	Victor Gonzalez	TV Series (1 Episode : "George Finds Therapy Benny-ficial")
2006	The Simpsons	Golem	Matthew Faughnan David Silverman	TV Series (1 Episode : "Treehouse of Horror XVII")
	Everybody Hates Chris	Kris	Victor Nelli, Jr.	TV Series (1 Episode : "Everybody Hates Kris")
2007	BelzerVizion	Himself	Richard Goldstone Matthew D. Panepinto	Short
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Sportsman Larry	Peter Leto	TV Series (1 Episode : "Closet")
2009	The Cleaner	Henry	David Barrett	TV Series (1 Episode : "Trick Candles")
2010	Funny or Die Presents	Shades		TV Series (1 Episode)
	'Til Death	Miles Tunnicliff	Rob Schiller (2)	TV Series (3 Episodes)
2000-11	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Himself		TV Series (27 Episodes)
2011	Lewis on Film: The Oscar Edition		Seth Morris	Short
	Pound Puppies	Buddy	Greg Sullivan	TV Series (1 Episode : "Rebel Without a Collar")
2012	Vamps	Danny	Amy Heckerling
2014	She's Funny That Way	Al Patterson	Peter Bogdanovich

[ Source: Wikipedia ]