Al Lewis (30 April, 1923 – 3 February 2006) was an American actor best known for his role as "Grandpa" on the television series The Munsters. Later in life, he added restaurant owner, political candidate, and radio broadcaster to his résumé.

Parents

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In a 1998 interview with Walt Shepperd, Al Lewis said:

My mother was a worker, worked in the garment trades. My mother was an indomitable spirit. My grandfather had no sons. He had six daughters. They lived in Poland or Russia, every five years it would change. My mother being the oldest daughter, they saved their money, and when she was about 16 they sent her to the United States, not knowing a word of English. She went to work in the garment center, worked her back and rear-end off and brought over to the United States her five sisters and two parents. I remember going on picket lines with my mother. My mother wouldn't back down to anyone (see ^*).

He stated the same information in an 10 April 1997 interview with correspondents Amy Goodman and Bernard White (see ^*).

Birth

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He was born on 30 April, 1923Record of Al Lewis, #050-18-4924. Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index (Death Master File). Provo, Utah: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2006., but 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 testimonies. 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 writes: "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."Dan Barry, "Hey, Whose Grandpa Didn't Tell Some Tales?", The New York Times, February 11, 2006, Pg. B1 Al may have been born under the name Albert Meister or Alexander Meister (seeto a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York (see [http://www.abc.net.au/arts/news/artsnews_1562560.htm).

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