I didn't know the guy but I wanted to note the passing of famed Jerry Lewis impersonator Sammy Petrillo, who died yesterday at the age of 75. As a kid, back when Lewis was teamed with Dean Martin, Petrillo so resembled Jerry that his first real job in show business was playing Jerry's baby son on the Colgate Comedy Hour. Thereafter, Lewis had Petrillo signed for a time to a personal contract that some have claimed was just to keep the look-alike off the market.
Eventually, Petrillo broke free of Jerry and went off with a succession of different partners, most of whom could mimic Dino. The main one was Duke Mitchell and in 1952, Mitchell and Petrillo replicated Dean and Jerry when they starred in a cinema classic…Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. It was kind of the low point in Mr. Lugosi's career and the high point in Mr. Petrillo's.
A few years after that, the Mitchell-Petrillo team split up. They claimed their club act wasn't getting bookings because proprietors were afraid of pissing off Jerry. In any case, Sammy drifted through an array of small parts in small films…and I really don't know what else he did. I don't know if anyone does. We only know he looked and sounded amazingly like Jerry Lewis in this film…