AL LEWIS

April 30, 1923 (or 1910)

Al Lewis was born Alexander Meister on April 30th in New York City; the son of a house painter from Minsk, and a garment worker from the Russian Empire. He had two brothers; Phillip and Henry.  The year of his birth was generally accepted to be 1923, but could be as early as 1910 based on Lewis’s statements. 

His acting career begins the well-documented portion of his life. He worked in burlesque and vaudeville theaters, then on Broadway in the 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 debut came on an episode of the the crime drama “Decoy” in late December 1957. Even in this earliest appearance he wore a tuxedo and smoked a cigar, two of his most identifiable traits. 

Lewis will be best remembered for two television roles. The first is Officer Leo Schnauser with Fred Gwynn on “Car 54, Where Are You?” (1961 to 1963).  He also played the character in the 1994 re-boot. 

After the series was canceled, Lewis re-teamed with Gwynn on “The Munsters” a sitcom look at the Universal monsters where Lewis played Grandpa (aka Count Dracula) and Fred Gwynn played his son-in-law Herman Munster, the spitting image of the Frankenstein monster. He played Grandpa (or versions of him) for the rest of his career, including a color featured film based on the series in 1966. 

In December 1968, he did day of filming at Desilu Studios just before it was turned over to Paramount. He was in an episode of “Gomer Pyle USMC” along with Kathleen Freeman. The series did a cross-over cameo with “The Lucy Show” in 1966.  

On New Year’s Eve 1973, Al Lewis appeared on “Here’s Lucy” in “Lucy Plays  Cops and Robbers” (HL S6;E14). Lewis and Mary Wickes played Lucy Carter’s neighbors, the Barkers, in a suburban crime-themed episode.  

Lewis was an eccentric New Yorker who had his own radio show and often made appearances on “The Howard Stern Show.”  He also made a run for Governor of New York.  

He died on February 3, 2006, at the age of 83.  He was married twice, and had three sons who he was very proud of .