Al Lewis, Grandpa on "The Munsters," dies

NEW YORK — 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 from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 82.

The actor was widely reported to have been born in 1910, but his son Ted Lewis said Saturday that his father was born in 1923.

Mr. Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, died Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.

"To say that we will miss his generous, cantankerous, engaging spirit is a profound understatement," White said.

Mr. Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop-culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne's bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. Mr. Lewis also was one of the stars of another classic TV comedy, portraying Officer Leo Schnauzer on "Car 54, Where Are You?"

But Mr. Lewis' life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. A former high-school ballplayer, he achieved notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar to coaching greats such as Jerry Tarkanian and Red Auerbach.

Mr. Lewis operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa's, where he was a regular presence — chatting with customers, posing for pictures, signing autographs.

In 1998, Mr. Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent Gov. George Pataki. Mr. Lewis campaigned against the death penalty and what he considered to be draconian drug laws. He didn't beat Pataki, but he received more than 52,000 votes.

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

Mr. Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon from 1961-63 in "Car 54, Where Are You?" — a comedy about a Bronx police precinct. The duo appeared together one year later in "The Munsters," taking up residence at the fictional 1313 Mockingbird Lane.

The series, about a family of clueless creatures plunked down in middle America, was a success and ran through 1966. It forever locked Mr. Lewis in as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him on the street with shouts of "Grandpa!"

Mr. Lewis rarely slowed down, opening his restaurant and hosting his WBAI radio program. He was a frequent guest on Howard Stern's radio show at one point during the '90s, once sending the shock jock diving for the delay button by leading an undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.

Mr. Lewis also popped up in several movies, including "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Married to the Mob." He also reprised his role of Schnauzer in the movie remake of "Car 54."

Mr. Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty in 2003. 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. He spent the next month in a coma.

A year later, he was back offering his recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD "Ramones Raw."

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