in his last film appearance, lewis played nicolas cage's father in "the trust," released last year. jerry lewis, hollywood legend, was 91 years old. and dick gregory, who helped break the comedy color barrier and then used laughter to morph into biting and satirical commentary on social and racial issues, died in washington last night after a short illness. gregory emerged from poverty in st. louis in the 1960's to find unconventional, unexpected fame as one of the first black standup comics that had crossover appeal with white audiences, paving the way for such other black comic greats as richard pryor. one of his big breaks came in 1961, when he found himself on" the tonight show." gregory was able to make people, white and black, laugh about sensitive race issues, once saying "i gave the country a new way out-- healthy racial jokes"" >> baseball is a great sport for my people; it's the only sport in the world in which a negro can shake a stick at a white man and not start a riot. >> sreenivasan: but comedy wasn't gregory's only passion. he would go on hunger strikes to protest th