final credits - al lewis
Basketball scout, restaurateur, radio host, political candidate and TV icon "Grandpa Munster." Al Lewis died February 3, 2006 at the age of 82.
Lewis was born Alexander Meister in upstate New York near the Canadian border and later moved with his family to Brooklyn. In his early teens he worked as a circus performer for Barnum and Bailey, Cole Brothers' Circus, and Clyde Beatty. Soon 6-foot-1, the teenager began a lifelong love affair with basketball, eventually scouting for coaching greats such as Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.
Later, Lewis worked as a waiter, owner of a poolroom, a store detective, earned a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia University, taught school and wrote two children's books.
By 1949, Lewis turned to acting, working in burlesque and vaudeville theatres across the country, eventually returning to Broadway just as television was emerging. Lewis took advantage of the work appearing on almost every live show out of his homebase of New York City.
Lewis appeared in TV's first cop-comedy Car 54, Where Are You? the 1961-1963 sit-com about a fictitious Bronx police precinct that starred Joe E. Ross and Fred Gwynne as bumbling officers Toody & Muldoon. Lewis made several appearances (playing a building demolition foreman, a paint shop employee) before coming on board as Officer Leo Schnauzer. Lewis upstaged Ross to the point the producers were considering replacing Ross -- something that might have happened run a third season.
A year later, Lewis and Gwynne appeared together in "The Munsters," taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Mockingbird Heights. "The Munsters," while not as subtle as The Addams Family which also ran 1964-1966, made much of the premise that a family of horror movie monsters considered themselves no different than their next-door neighbors.
Lewis played "Grandpa," who was at least 400 years old, and was usually found in his laboratory cooking up plot devices. The character, looking like a second-rate touring version of Bela Lugosi's Dracula, made such an impression that decades later strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of "Grandpa!" Lewis never complained about the typecasting and made appearances in character for decades. "Why would I mind?" he asked once in an interview. "It pays my mortgage."
In addition to small appearances in various re-makes of his two Tv series, Lewis also popped up in a 1969's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and 1988's "Married to the Mob." Especially remembered is his turn as a hanging judge in 1980's "Used Cars," toying with a miniature guillotine on his bench. He also guest starred on television shows such as "Taxi," "Green Acres" and "Lost in Space." His last film appearance was in 2002's practically unheard of movie "Night Terror."
Lewis kept busy, operating a successful Greenwich Village Italian restaurant called "Grandpa's," of course. He was a regular presence -- chatting with customers, posing for pictures and signing autographs.
In 1998, the 88-year-old and ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent New York Governor George Pataki, campaigning against drug laws and the death penalty. While he lost a court battle to have his name appear on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis," he did win 52,533 votes (about 1% of those cast). However, the results insured an automatic ballot line for the Green Party for the succeeding four years under New York's election laws.
Lewis also hosted a weekly show on WBAI 99.5 FM radio. He was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, once embarking on such an obscenity-laden tirade against the Federal Communications Commission that Stern had to dive for the delay button.
In 2003, Lewis was hospitalised for an angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot.
Fans of Lewis' legendary caustic wit will want to read his interview with Shadow Magazine, a New York undergound paper. Lewis claims to have read a different book every day of his life and has a Bacon number of 2.
Early media reports gave Lewis' age as 92. One story suggested he lied about his age to get the part of Grandpa, and he supposedly lied about it ever since. His son, Ted, corrected the reports saying his father was born in 1923.
Al's wild tales didn't end with his age. He claimed that he had worked on the Sacco and Vanzetti defence committee to try to free the two Italian anarchists who were executed by the state of Massachusetts in 1927. If Lewis' son is correct, Al would have been four years old at the time.
He also claimed to have accommodated the Beatles in his studio trailer, about the same time that he employed Charles Manson to babysit his sons. “He didn’t chop no heads off,” he said. “He was very nice with me.”
Other TV actor tributes can be found here.