Al Lewis

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Al Lewis (born Abraham Meister; April 30, 1923 – February 3, 2006) was an American character actor best known for his role as Count Dracula lookalike "Grandpa", opposite Fred Gwynne's and Yvonne De Carlo's characters on the CBS television series The Munsters from 1964 to 1966 and its subsequent film versions.

Later in life, he was also a restaurant owner, political candidate, and radio broadcaster.

Early life

Lewis was born Abraham Meister on April 30, 1923 in Manhattan; the son of Alexander Meister, house painter and immigrant from Minsk, Belarus, and Ida Neidel, garment worker and immigrant from the Russian Empire; his family was Jewish. Two brothers were Phillip and Henry. He had originally given his birth year as 1910. His reputed early radio work in the mid-1930s would indicate the earlier birth date, as did an off-the-cuff remark on the TVLegends interview, 2002, where he says "not a bad memory for 92". Ted Lewis, his son, firmly said his father was born in 1923 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. Other sources placed his birth in Wolcott, New York, but no official record of his birth has been published to date (2006), and officials in Wolcott say they have no record of any Meister. The Times wrote: "Lewis was born Albert Meister, probably in 1923, but he insisted that he was born in 1910. This, and Lewis's many other questionable stories, means that much of the actor's 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 his date of birth as April 30, 1923. The 1940 census lists an Albert Meister "age 16" living on Douglass (today's Strauss) Street in Brooklyn, New York.

In a 1998 interview with Walt Shepperd, Lewis said:

According to a report in The Jewish Week, Al Lewis attended Yeshiva Chaim Berlin in Brooklyn, New York in his youth and "asked annoying questions to the teachers." Lewis then attended Thomas Jefferson High School, which he left in his junior year. He claimed to have attended Oswego State Teachers College (now SUNY Oswego), notwithstanding his lack of a high school diploma, and to have earned a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia University in 1941, of which Columbia has no record. Lewis did send at least one of his children to Yeshiva in the San Fernando Valley.

Personal life and final years

Lewis married Marge Domowitz in 1956, with whom he had three sons, Dave, Ted, and Paul. The marriage ended in divorce in 1977. In 1984, he married actress Karen Ingenthron, to whom he remained married for the rest of his life.

In his final years, he resided on Roosevelt Island in New York City. In 2003, he was hospitalized for an angioplasty, and complications from the surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee as well as all of the toes on his left foot. He died on February 3, 2006, of natural causes in a hospital. Following his body's cremation, his ashes were reportedly "placed in his favorite cigar box."

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Career

His acting career debuts in a well-documented way. He appeared in burlesque and vaudeville theatres, then in the dramatic dramas The Night Circus (1958) and One More River (1960) and as the character Moe Shtarker in the musical comedy Do Re Mi (1962).

His earliest television appearances include appearances on Crime Drama Decoy and The Phil Silvers Show. He appeared in four episodes of Naked City from 1959 to 1963. Where Are You? Lewis' first television appearance was as Officer Leo Schnauser on the sitcom Car 54. Fred Gwynne appeared in 1961 to 1963, and Lewis reprised his role in the 1994 film of the same name. Lewis first appeared in two early first-season episodes as Al Spencer the Auto Body Man, then moved to Officer Schnauser's more familiar role. He is best known as Grandpa on The Munsters, which appeared on CBS from 1964 to 1966.

Lewis appeared in the Lost in Space episode "Rocket to Earth" in 1967. In Pretty Boy Floyd (1960), Manny Manny's first appearance in a film was as Machine Gun Manny. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? He had small parts in Henry Orient (1964). (1969), and They Might Be Giants (1971). In Used Cars (1980), he appeared as Hanging Judge Harrison, served as a security guard on an episode of Taxi, and played a minor role in Married to the Mob (1988). In Night Terror (2002), his last film appearance was in Night Terror.

Lewis was a frequent visitor on The Howard Stern Show. Lewis shouted "fuck the FCC" on live broadcasting of "Howard Stern Freedom Rally" against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Stern wouldn't have been able to take the microphone away from him until he was able to. Lewis' remarks were not punished by Stern and the station.

Lewis did not object being typecast, unlike some actors. He loved being out his Grandpa character in the original costume, and he got a surprising amount of mileage from such a short-lived role.

"Why not?"

He said, "Italian people are the product of wartime." "It pays the bills."

In 1991, he appeared as Grandpa in an episode of Hi Honey, I'm Home on ABC. In 1991, he appeared in Grampire (My Grandpa Is a Vampire in the United States version), wearing much the same costume as he did in The Munsters. Lewis appeared on TBS in his Grandpa outfit from 1987 to 1989. In Gremlins 2: The New Batch's parody was parodied (Robert Prosky), who was introduced as Grandpa Fred.

Lewis recalled his experiences on Coney Island, which he frequently visited and worked at as a game barker, in an episode of The American Experience. He was included in the Atari 7800 videogame Midnight Mutants, an action-adventure game with a Halloween theme. In The Munsters, his appearance in the game resembled his Grandpa persona.

Grampa's Bella Gente, an Italian restaurant established in 1988, is located at 252 Bleecker Street in Manhattan. On New Dorp Plaza in Staten Island in September 1989, he licensed a comedy troupe named Grampa's to an entrepreneurial family.

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