Al Lewis Movies and Career Information

Al Lewis (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 was born Albert Meister on 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." 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 York, 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 Times wrote: "Lewis was born Albert Meister, probably in 1923, although he insisted that