RIP Al Lewis
02-07-2006, 10:02 AM
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RIP Al Lewis
Munster Goes Home
By Joal Ryan Mon Feb 6, 4:19 PM ET
Even among Munsters, Al Lewis was, in a word, different. For instance, he once observed, "I can consort with, and meet with, Hell's Angels."
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Lewis, forever known for playing Grandpa on the ghoulish 1960s sitcom, The Munsters, died Friday at his New York home.
He was 82. Probably.
Up until his death, Lewis biographies listed his birth year as 1910. But Lewis' son Ted fessed up to the Associated Press last weekend that his father was actually born in 1923, making him one year younger than Munsters TV daughter
Yvonne De Carlo.
The revised birth year casts doubt on some of the fantastic factoids found in Lewis biographies: That he earned a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia University in 1941, when he would have been 18; or, that he toiled as a circus clown in the late 1920s, when he would have been a grade-schooler.
There is no doubt, however, that Lewis was a character.
In 1964, at the age of 41, apparently, he made a TV nation believe he was the wizened old bat known as Grandpa, father of the vampire known as Lily (De Carlo), father-in-law of the Munster known as Herman (Fred Gwynne) and grandfather of the Wolfie-cuddling boy known as Eddie (
Butch Patrick). The Munsters, not to be confused with The Addams Family, although it was, ran on CBS from 1964-66.
Though short-lived, the comedy lived an eternal life in reruns, and rated a big-screen outing for its original cast, 1966's Munster, Go Home, which was most notable for its greenish Technicolor presentation of the previously black-and-white monster clan.
Much of the TV family, including Lewis, reunited for the 1981 telepic, The Munsters' Revenge. Lewis cameoed, but did not play Grandpa, in the 1995 made for TV movie, Here Come the Munsters, in which a new generation of actors donned the fangs and capes.
Lewis' lot was such that he costarred in not one, but two, sitcoms often granted classic status. Before he was Grandpa on The Munsters, he was Officer Schnauzer on Car 54, Where Are You?, the 1961-63 comedy about bumbling cops that costarred Gwynne. Lewis went on to appear in the 1994 big screen version, starring
David Johansen and
John C. McGinley.
Movies in which Lewis was not called upon to recreate his sitcom personas included Married to the Mob and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.
In the end, though, it didn't matter what part Lewis played, he was always "Grandpa." It was a claim to fame he relished, and used to great effect on the autograph circuit--and elsewhere.
In 1998, when Lewis ran for governor of New York on the Green Party ticket, he petitioned to be listed on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis." A judge turned down his request. Lewis, sorry, Grandpa was indignant.
"If I went with that judge to Tokyo, Mexico City, Rome, London, Paris, Marseilles, Copenhagen, Prague--we walk out of the hotel, everybody would yell, 'Grandpa,'" he told reporters at the time.
Lewis was just as bold when declaring his intentions toward his chief Election Day opponent, incumbent New York Governor George Pataki. "In plain street language," Lewis said, "I would KICK...HIS...ASS!"
Pataki bore up well against Grandpa's challenge--he got 2.6 million votes; Lewis about 52,000. Still, Lewis' showing was celebrated by the Green Party, which earned spots on the next four years' worth of statewide ballots because of it.
Lewis talked politics on the weekly radio show he hosted for years on New York's WBAI-FM. And, according to a 1998 article in the Green-friendly journal, Synthesis/Regeneration, Lewis didn't just talk politics.
"I first met Grandpa in 1970 in New Haven, at the Free Bobby Seale and Erica Huggins protests," Mitchel Cohen wrote. "I've seen Al at many demos since. Black Panther support demos. Free Mumia Abu-Jamal demos. Anti-war marches. Always, just one of us peons. Putting his body where his mouth was. Like the rest of us."
A seventysomething Lewis said he didn't have anything to lose by speaking his mind. "I'm in the November-December part of my life," he said. "I can name names! I don't have to walk on egg shells!"
In 2003, following complications from an angioplasty procedure, Lewis slipped into a monthlong coma, during which his right leg was amputated below the knee, and the toes from his left foot removed.
When he awoke, Lewis was his usual feisty self, quoted in Newsday as saying he'd beaten long odds just to be alive, and noting, "I'm glad I didn't have a vote on the amputation."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20060206/en_celeb_eo/18305
By Joal Ryan Mon Feb 6, 4:19 PM ET
Even among Munsters, Al Lewis was, in a word, different. For instance, he once observed, "I can consort with, and meet with, Hell's Angels."
ADVERTISEMENT
Adblock
Lewis, forever known for playing Grandpa on the ghoulish 1960s sitcom, The Munsters, died Friday at his New York home.
He was 82. Probably.
Up until his death, Lewis biographies listed his birth year as 1910. But Lewis' son Ted fessed up to the Associated Press last weekend that his father was actually born in 1923, making him one year younger than Munsters TV daughter
Yvonne De Carlo.
The revised birth year casts doubt on some of the fantastic factoids found in Lewis biographies: That he earned a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia University in 1941, when he would have been 18; or, that he toiled as a circus clown in the late 1920s, when he would have been a grade-schooler.
There is no doubt, however, that Lewis was a character.
In 1964, at the age of 41, apparently, he made a TV nation believe he was the wizened old bat known as Grandpa, father of the vampire known as Lily (De Carlo), father-in-law of the Munster known as Herman (Fred Gwynne) and grandfather of the Wolfie-cuddling boy known as Eddie (
Butch Patrick). The Munsters, not to be confused with The Addams Family, although it was, ran on CBS from 1964-66.
Though short-lived, the comedy lived an eternal life in reruns, and rated a big-screen outing for its original cast, 1966's Munster, Go Home, which was most notable for its greenish Technicolor presentation of the previously black-and-white monster clan.
Much of the TV family, including Lewis, reunited for the 1981 telepic, The Munsters' Revenge. Lewis cameoed, but did not play Grandpa, in the 1995 made for TV movie, Here Come the Munsters, in which a new generation of actors donned the fangs and capes.
Lewis' lot was such that he costarred in not one, but two, sitcoms often granted classic status. Before he was Grandpa on The Munsters, he was Officer Schnauzer on Car 54, Where Are You?, the 1961-63 comedy about bumbling cops that costarred Gwynne. Lewis went on to appear in the 1994 big screen version, starring
David Johansen and
John C. McGinley.
Movies in which Lewis was not called upon to recreate his sitcom personas included Married to the Mob and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.
In the end, though, it didn't matter what part Lewis played, he was always "Grandpa." It was a claim to fame he relished, and used to great effect on the autograph circuit--and elsewhere.
In 1998, when Lewis ran for governor of New York on the Green Party ticket, he petitioned to be listed on the ballot as "Grandpa Al Lewis." A judge turned down his request. Lewis, sorry, Grandpa was indignant.
"If I went with that judge to Tokyo, Mexico City, Rome, London, Paris, Marseilles, Copenhagen, Prague--we walk out of the hotel, everybody would yell, 'Grandpa,'" he told reporters at the time.
Lewis was just as bold when declaring his intentions toward his chief Election Day opponent, incumbent New York Governor George Pataki. "In plain street language," Lewis said, "I would KICK...HIS...ASS!"
Pataki bore up well against Grandpa's challenge--he got 2.6 million votes; Lewis about 52,000. Still, Lewis' showing was celebrated by the Green Party, which earned spots on the next four years' worth of statewide ballots because of it.
Lewis talked politics on the weekly radio show he hosted for years on New York's WBAI-FM. And, according to a 1998 article in the Green-friendly journal, Synthesis/Regeneration, Lewis didn't just talk politics.
"I first met Grandpa in 1970 in New Haven, at the Free Bobby Seale and Erica Huggins protests," Mitchel Cohen wrote. "I've seen Al at many demos since. Black Panther support demos. Free Mumia Abu-Jamal demos. Anti-war marches. Always, just one of us peons. Putting his body where his mouth was. Like the rest of us."
A seventysomething Lewis said he didn't have anything to lose by speaking his mind. "I'm in the November-December part of my life," he said. "I can name names! I don't have to walk on egg shells!"
In 2003, following complications from an angioplasty procedure, Lewis slipped into a monthlong coma, during which his right leg was amputated below the knee, and the toes from his left foot removed.
When he awoke, Lewis was his usual feisty self, quoted in Newsday as saying he'd beaten long odds just to be alive, and noting, "I'm glad I didn't have a vote on the amputation."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20060206/en_celeb_eo/18305
02-07-2006, 10:16 AM
#4
un-Touch'd krew
I was never a big fan of the Munsters but I always liked al Lewis' work in all the shows he was involved with.
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