Al Lewis (April 30, 1923 – February 3, 2006), born
Albert Meister, was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor best known for his role as "Grandpa" on the television series
The MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. The show was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era, such as Leave It to Beaver. It ran concurrently with the The Addams Family. Although the...
. Later in life, he was also a restaurant owner, political candidate, and
radio broadcasterBroadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults....
.
Parents
In a 1998 interview with Walt Shepperd, Al Lewis said:
My mother was a worker, worked in the garment trades. My mother was an indomitable spirit. My grandfather had no sons. He had six daughters. They lived in Poland or Russia, every five years it would change. My mother being the oldest daughter, they saved their money, and when she was about 16 they sent her to the United States, not knowing a word of English. She went to work in the garment center, worked her back and rear-end off and brought over to the United States her five sisters and two parents. I remember going on picket lines with my mother. My mother wouldn't back down to anyone.
Birth
He was born on 30 April 1923, but few other facts about Lewis are known with any certainty; most of the information comes from interviews he gave, but there are inconsistencies in his statements. Sometimes he gave his birth year as 1910, other times 1923. Ted Lewis, his son, said his father was born in 1923.
Dan BarryDan Barry is a reporter for The New York Times. His column, "About New York", appeared on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the NY Region section of the paper. While working for the Providence Journal-Bulletin in 1994, Barry won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting after exposing corruption in...
of the
New York Times writes: "Actors who lie about their age usually subtract, not add, years, and few would have the nerve to fudge those years by more than a decade." Al may have been born under the name
Albert Meister or
Alexander Meister to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York.
Other sources place his birth in
Wolcott, New YorkWolcott, New York is the name of two places in Wayne County, New York:*Wolcott , New York*Wolcott , New YorkSee also Wolcott for other places named "Wolcott."...
, but no official record of his birth has been published to date, and officials in Wolcott say they have no record of any Meister.
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
wrote: "Lewis was born Albert Meister, probably in 1923, although he insisted that he was born in 1910. This, and Lewis' many other questionable stories, means that much of the actors life is a broth of conjecture that his fans will no doubt squabble over for years to come."
On his application for a Social Security number, completed sometime between 1936 and 1950, Lewis gave a date of birth of 30 April 1923. The date of birth must be verified by a birth certificate for the enrollee to receive age-related benefits.
As to why Lewis might have lied about his age, the most common theory is that in 1964 he might have been concerned about being a year younger than
Yvonne De CarloYvonne De Carlo was a Canadian-born American film and television actress, dancer and singer. In her six-decade career, her most prolific appearances in film came in the 1940s and 1950s and included her best-known film roles, such as Salome Where She Danced and The Ten Commandments, opposite...
, who was cast to play his daughter, Lily.
Education
He said he moved to Brooklyn, New York with his family as a child and attended Thomas Jefferson High School, from which he left in his junior year. He later attended Oswego State Teachers College (now SUNY Oswego). He also claimed he earned a
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
in child psychology from
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
in 1941. The university, though, has no record of this. In other interviews he also claimed he joined the
Merchant MarineThe United States Merchant Marine refers to the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant ships, operated by either the government or the private sector, that are engaged in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is...
prior to
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and spent time in Italy.
Career
In interviews he said he worked as a circus performer and as a hot dog vendor at
Ebbets FieldEbbets Field was a Major League Baseball park located in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York, USA. It was the home of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League. It was also a venue for professional football. The first National Football League team in New York City, the New York Brickley...
, the former ballpark for the
Brooklyn DodgersThe Los Angeles Dodgers are a Major League Baseball team based in Los Angeles, California, USA. The team is in the Western Division of the National League. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming the Brooklyn...
. In 1987 he opened an Italian restaurant called Grampa's Bella Gente at 252 Bleecker Street in
Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village , often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families. Greenwich Village, however, was known in the late 19th – earlier to mid 20th...
,
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
Acting
His acting career begins the well documented portion of his life. He worked in
burlesqueBurlesque is a humorous theatrical entertainment involving parody and sometimes grotesque exaggeration. In 20th century America, the form became associated with a variety show in which striptease is the chief attraction.-Etymology and early history:...
and
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
theaters, then on
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
in the dramas
The Night Circus (1958) and
One More River (1960), and as the character Moe Shtarker in the musical comedy
Do Re MiDo Re Mi is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and a book by Garson Kanin, who also directed the original 1960 Broadway production. The plot centers on a minor-league con man who decides to go straight by going into the business of juke boxes and music...
(1962). His earliest television work includes two episodes of
The Phil Silvers ShowThe Phil Silvers Show was a comedy television series which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1959 for a total of 143 episodes . The series starred Phil Silvers as master sergeant Ernest G...
in 1959, and four episodes of
Naked CityNaked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format.-Synopsis:...
from 1959 to 1963. His first well-known television role was as Officer Leo Schnauser on
Car 54, Where Are You?Car 54, Where Are You? is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from 1961 to 1963. Episodes had various directors, the most recognized being Al De Caprio. Stanley Prager and Nat Hiken also directed several episodes...
from 1961 to 1963, although he is best remembered as Grandpa on
The MunstersThe Munsters is a 1960s American television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. The show was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era, such as Leave It to Beaver. It ran concurrently with the The Addams Family. Although the...
, which ran on American
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
from 1964 to 1966 and for years later in re-runs. He had a guest role as a clumsy space magician in a
Lost in SpaceLost in Space is a science fiction television program created and produced by Irwin Allen, produced by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between 1965 and March 6, 1968. The first season was shot with black and white film, the...
episode called "Rocket To Earth." His first role in a movie was playing Machine Gun Manny in
Pretty Boy Floyd (1960). He played the role of a bank robber in
Green AcresGreen Acres is an American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a farm in the country...
(1968). He also played the character Turkey in
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Lewis had also played the role of a stern judge in
Used CarsUsed Cars is a 1980 comedy satire film. It stars Kurt Russell, Jack Warden , Deborah Harmon, and Gerrit Graham.Kurt Russell portrays a devious car salesman working for affable but monumentally unsuccessful used car dealer Luke Fuchs . Luke's principal rival, located directly across the street, is...
(1980) His last role in a movie was Father Hanlon in
Night Terror (2002).
He was also a recurring guest on
The Howard Stern Show. In 1987 during a "Howard Stern Freedom Rally" against the FCC which was broadcast live on the air, Al repeatedly shouted "fuck the FCC!" until Howard was able to take the microphone away from him. Stern and the station were not punished for his actions.
From 1987 to 1989 Lewis hosted an afternoon horror movie show on the Turner Broadcasting network in his Grandpa Munster outfit.
Al Lewis was featured in the
Atari 7800The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in June 1986. The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 was designed to replace Atari Inc.'s unsuccessful Atari 5200 and later to re-establish Atari...
game
Midnight MutantsMidnight Mutants is an adventure-based video game for the Atari 7800 prosystem, programmed by Radioactive Software and published by Atari Corporation in 1990. The game, along with Sentinel, was one of the last releases by Atari for the Atari 7800...
, an action-adventure title with a Halloween theme. His appearance in the game mirrored his Grandpa persona in the Munsters television series.
Politics
Lewis has claimed that he was member of the
Sacco and VanzettiFerdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian-born laborers and anarchists who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of a pay-clerk and a security guard in Braintree, Massachusetts.Today,...
Defense Committee in 1927, and that he worked in the 1930s to free the
Scottsboro BoysThe Scottsboro Boys were nine black defendants in a 1931 rape case initiated in Scottsboro, Alabama. The case was heard by the United States Supreme Court twice and the decisions established the principles that criminal defendants are entitled to effective assistance of counsel and that people may...
. However, both of these occurrences would be unlikely if he had been born in 1923.
In a 1997 interview, Lewis also claimed that he was an organizer in the Food, Agricultural and Tobacco Workers Union in
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
in the 1930s. Once on his WBAI-FM radio program Lewis said, "If anything I consider myself an anarchist."
As an activist, he hosted a politically oriented radio program on WBAI, and ran as
Green PartyThe Green Party of the United States is one of the political parties in the United States, and similar in mission to many of the worldwide Green Parties. The Greens, a voluntary association of state parties, have been active as a nationally recognized political party since 2001...
candidate for Governor of New York in 1998. In that race he sought to be listed on the ballot as Grandpa Al Lewis, arguing that he was most widely known by that name. His request was rejected by the Board of Elections, a decision upheld in court against his challenge. Despite this setback, he achieved one of his campaign objectives. His total of 52,533 votes exceeded the threshold of votes set by New York law (50,000), and hence guaranteed the
Green Party of New YorkThe Green Party of New York is a political party in that state. It is a part of the wider Green Party movement.-History:The Green Party of New York had its roots in local Green organizing of the mid-eighties. In 1998 the Green Party in New York achieved ballot status when its candidate for...
an automatic ballot line for the next four years. (See
Election results, New York governorThere have been 89 gubernatorial elections in the state of New York since 1777.-General Information:Originally the term was three years long and began on July 1, the election being held in the last week of April or May 1. In 1817, following the resignation of Daniel D...
) He said that, with no [political]
machineA political machine is a disciplined political organization in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters , who receive rewards for their efforts...
and no money backing him, the likelihood of winning the governorship would be like climbing Mount Everest barefooted.
Marriages
Al Lewis was married twice. He married Marge Domowitz in 1956. They had three sons, including one who was a high school football player. Al and Marge divorced in 1977. In 1984, he married
Karen IngenthronKaren Ingenthron is an American actress and radio commentator.-Education:Ingenthron graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Dramatic Art...
and they were still married at the time of his death.
Death
He lived on
Roosevelt IslandRoosevelt Island, formerly known as Welfare Island , and before that Blackwell's Island, is a narrow island in the East River of New York City. It lies between the island of Manhattan to its west and the borough of Queens to its east...
, an island that lies between
ManhattanManhattan is one of the five boroughs of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.New York County, which has the same boundaries as the Borough of Manhattan , is the most densely populated county in the United States, with a 2008 population of 1,634,795...
and
QueensQueens is the largest in area, the second-largest in population, and the easternmost of the Five Boroughs which form New York City. The Borough of Queens' boundaries are identical to those of the County of Queens , a subdivision of the State of New York in the Northeastern United States.Located on...
in the
East RiverThe East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
of New York City. In 2003, he was hospitalized for an
angioplastyAngioplasty is the technique of mechanically widening a narrowed or obstructed blood vessel; typically as a result of atherosclerosis. Tightly folded balloons are passed into the narrowed locations and then inflated to a fixed size using water pressures some 75 to 500 times normal blood pressure...
, and complications from the surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot. He died on 3 February 2006, of natural causes in a hospital. He was cremated, and his funeral was held at
Riverside ChurchThe Riverside Church in the City of New York is an interdenominational church in New York City, famous not only for its elaborate Gothic architecture—which includes the world's largest carillon—but also as a center for the promotion of progressive causes...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. (It is unclear if he had converted from
JudaismJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
.) His favorite
gospel musicGospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
was played, and he was buried on 18 February 2006 in his favorite cigar box.
Timeline
- 1923 Birth, most likely in Brooklyn, New York
- 1956 Marriage to Marge Domowitz on November 1
- 1958 The Night Circus on Broadway
- 1959 The Phil Silvers Show first appearance on this TV show
- 1959 Naked City first appearance on this TV show
- 1960 One More River on Broadway
- 1960 Pretty Boy Floyd as 'Machine Gun Manny in movies
- 1961 Car 54, Where Are You?
Car 54, Where Are You? is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from 1961 to 1963. Episodes had various directors, the most recognized being Al De Caprio. Stanley Prager and Nat Hiken also directed several episodes...
starts on TV
- 1962 Do Re Mi as Moe Shtarker on Broadway
- 1963 Car 54, Where Are You?
Car 54, Where Are You? is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from 1961 to 1963. Episodes had various directors, the most recognized being Al De Caprio. Stanley Prager and Nat Hiken also directed several episodes...
ends on TV
- 1964 The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. The show was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era, such as Leave It to Beaver. It ran concurrently with the The Addams Family. Although the...
starts on TV
- 1966 The Munsters ends on TV
- 1968 Green Acres as bank robber
- 1969 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? as Turkey in movie
- 1977 Divorce from Marge Domowitz on 11 October
- 1984 Marriage to Karen Ingenthron
Karen Ingenthron is an American actress and radio commentator.-Education:Ingenthron graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Dramatic Art...
- 1987 Opens "Grampa's Bella Gente" restaurant
- 1995 Attended Mr. & Mrs. Nude Universe, Roselawn, Indiana
- 1998 Green Party
The Green Party of the United States is one of the political parties in the United States, and similar in mission to many of the worldwide Green Parties. The Greens, a voluntary association of state parties, have been active as a nationally recognized political party since 2001...
candidate for Governor of New York
- 2002 Night Terror as Father Hanlon in movie
- 2003 Angioplasty and leg amputation
- 2003 A&E Biography
The Biography Channel is an American digital cable television channel owned by A&E and based on the television series of the same name. A version of the channel also airs on ONO and Telefónica in Spain and on Sky Digital and cable television in the United Kingdom, a version of the channel also...
released
- 2004 Release of Ramones Raw containing interview with Lewis
- 2005 Release of the video Porn King: The Trials of Al Goldstein containing interview with Lewis
- 2006 Death of Al Lewis on 3 February
- 2006 Buried on 18 February
- 2006 Goodbye, America, as Himself - http://www.eliasquerejeta.com/goodbyeamerica/
External links
- TV's Grandpa Munster dies at 82 BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
, 5 February 2006.
- Goodbye 'Grandpa' - 'Munsters' icon Lewis dead Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fifth most-widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 632,595, as of June 13, 2009. The first U.S. daily printed in tabloid form, it was founded in 1919, and as of 2007 is owned and run by Mortimer Zuckerman...
, 5 February 2006
- New Times Interview
- Shadow Interview, 21 October 1997