J.H. Lewis

Biography

J.H. Lewis first earned his keep under canvas skies, guiding pachyderms for traveling circuses. At seventeen he swapped sawdust for spotlights and never looked back. Broadway marquees and the nation’s railroad towns knew his voice from Graustark’s royal courts to the jungle heat of Tiger Rose and the comic wards of A Cure for Curables. Between curtain calls he raised a son, James Jr., who followed him onto the boards but left the stage twenty years before his father. In the autumn of life Lewis folded his programs, turned to philanthropy and coaching young performers, and exited in mid-preparation for a benefit, swift and unexpected as a final blackout.