Al Lewis Video | Speeches and Interviews

Al Lewis (born Albert Meister or Alexander Meister, April 30, 1923 – February 3, 2006) was an American character actor best known for his role as "Grandpa Munster" on the television series The Munsters and its subsequent film versions. Later in life, he was also a restaurant owner, political candidate, and radio broadcaster. Lewis is thought to have been born April 30, 1923. 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... MORE

Al Lewis (born Albert Meister or Alexander Meister, April 30, 1923 – February 3, 2006) was an American character actor best known for his role as "Grandpa Munster" on the television series The Munsters and its subsequent film versions. Later in life, he was also a restaurant owner, political candidate, and radio broadcaster. Lewis is thought to have been born April 30, 1923. 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 Barry of the New York Times wrote in reference to Lewis: "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." Lewis was born under the name Albert Meister or possibly Alexander Meister to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. Other sources place 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 LESS