Al Lewis, 95; Grandpa on TV’s ‘Munsters’

Actor Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of “The Munsters” whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa in the television sitcom, has died. He was 95.

Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, died Friday night after several years of failing health, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM (99.5), where the actor was host of a weekly radio program for years. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot in which Lewis usually appeared.

Dressed in a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, Lewis became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne’s ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He was also in the cast of another classic TV comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on “Car 54, Where Are You?”

But Lewis’ life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. A former ballplayer at Thomas Jefferson High School, he achieved recognition as a basketball talent scout familiar to such coaching greats as Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.

He operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa’s, where he was a regular presence -- chatting with customers, posing for pictures and signing autographs.

Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent New York Gov. George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against draconian drug laws and the death penalty, while going to court in a losing battle to have his name appear on the ballot as “Grandpa Al Lewis.”

He didn’t defeat Pataki, but he did receive more than 52,000 votes.

Lewis was born Albert Meister in upstate Wolcott. His family later moved to Brooklyn, where the 6-foot-1 teen began a lifelong love affair with basketball. He became a vaudeville and circus performer, but his career didn’t take off until TV did the same.

Lewis played opposite Gwynne’s Officer Francis Muldoon and Joe E. Ross’s Office Gunther Toody in “Car 54, Where Are You?” -- a comedy about a Bronx police precinct that aired from 1961 to 1963. One year later, Gwynne and Lewis appeared together in “The Munsters,” taking up residence together at fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

The series, about a family of clueless ghouls plunked down in Middle America, ran through 1966. It forever cemented Lewis as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him with shouts of “Grandpa!”

Unlike some television stars, Lewis never complained about getting typecast and made appearances in character for decades.

“Why would I mind?” he asked in a 1997 interview. “It pays my mortgage.”

Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant and doing his radio program.

He also popped up in a number of films, including “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” and “Married to the Mob.” Lewis reprised his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of “Car 54” and appeared as a guest star on television shows such as “Taxi,” “Green Acres” and “Lost in Space.”

In 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty. Complications during surgery led to an emergency bypass and the amputation of his right leg below the knee and all the toes on his left foot. Lewis spent the next month in a coma.

He is survived by his wife, Karen Ingenthron-Lewis; three sons; and four grandchildren.