Shari Lewis

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Shari Lewis (born Sonia Hurwitz; January 17, 1933 - August 2, 1998) was an American ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children's television show host, most popular during the 1960s.

She began hosting children's television programs on local station in New York in 1953, graduating to network television in 1960 with The Shari Lewis Show as host and puppeteer. The programs featured such characters as Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and Lamb Chop. The last, who was little more than a sock with eyes, served as a sort of sassy alter-ego for Shari. Subsequent television programs introduced these characters to a new generation of children. In 1992, her new Emmy-winning show Lamb Chop's Play-Along began a five year run on PBS.

On August 2, 1998, while undergoing treatment at the world famous Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California for Uterine Cancer that she was previously diagnosed with only two months before in June, Shari Lewis unexpectedly died of pneumonia which--with her cancer--proved to be a fatal combination. Lewis was 65 years old. Two years later, her daughter, Mallory Tarcher, resumed her mother's work with the Lamb Chop character.

Lewis was the recipient of numerous awards during her lifetime, including:

  • 12 Emmy Awards
  • Peabody Award
  • John F. Kennedy Center Award for Excellence and Creativity
  • 7 Parent's Choice Awards
  • Action for Children's Television Award

In addition to writing over 60 books for children, she and her second husband wrote an episode of Star Trek, entitled "The Lights of Zetar".

Her first husband was Stan Lewis. Her second husband, Jeremy Tarcher, is the brother of Judith Krantz. Her only child, Mallory Tarcher, was a writer on Lamb Chop's Play-Along and The Charlie Horse Music Pizza.

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Television shows

  • The Shari Lewis Show - 1960
  • The Shari Lewis Show - BBC 1975
  • Lamb Chop's Play-Along - 1992
  • The Charlie Horse Music Pizza - 1996

Shari Lewis (with Lamb Chop) also guest starred in episode Episode 2.20 of The Nanny, which premiered on February 13, 1995.fr:Shari Lewis

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