Who played grandpa munster

Monstrously funny, the 1960s sitcom The Munsters only ran for two seasons but remains one of the era’s most iconic programs.

Featuring an American family made up of a Frankenstein monster, vampires, a werewolf, and a pet dragon, the Munsters were anything but average. Their show debuted in 1964 and still does well in reruns.

Al Lewis recalled in a 2002 interview how he discovered the show he was on was a little different from any other.

How ‘Eddie’ star Butch Patrick became a Munster

Former child star Butch Patrick opened up to WGN radio in October and explained how he got into acting at such a young age.

“An agent was looking at my little sister,” Patrick said. “I went along for the ride for the photo shoot. The gentleman had a couple of shots left over in his camera and he thought I was kind of cute and had a look about me, so he took a few photos.”

Patrick explained that the photographer posted one of those pictures in his studio window on Hollywood Boulevard and it was ultimately noticed by a director and producer. The young actor, through that photo, gained a role on what he called a “small B-movie.”

Now 67, Patrick is also part of soap opera history.

“I was on the first year of General Hospital, did The Real McCoys after that, and from there, The Munsters came along.”

‘Grandpa’ actor Al Lewis on getting cast for ‘The Munsters’

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In his 2002 interview with the Archive of American Television Al Lewis, who portrayed Grandpa on the series, revealed how he was cast for the role.

Lewis and Fred Gwynne, who played head-of-house Herman Munster on the comedy, had worked together on a previous comedy, Car 54, Where Are You? just the year before, in 1963.

The actor, who went on to play the elder vampire in the series, explained that he had received a call from a “development director” at Universal, asking if Lewis was up for a part in a new series. He was, and soon learned that Gwynne would also be part of the new project.

“Fred and I were on the same plane, we flew out to California,” he said. “They parked us in a motel across the street from Universal.”

How they found out what kind of show they were in

Even after receiving scripts from the director, Lewis wasn’t entirely sure what the project was about, until he got into makeup upon his arrival in California.

“Monday, we went in and sat for about eight, nine, ten hours of tests of makeup. Then we realized what kind of show it was,” Lewis said, laughing. “Because on the page, it doesn’t say anything. And that was it.”

According to Lewis, the show worked for a reason.

“It was about a family. Obviously, an off-the-wall family. It was perfectly cast. And we liked each other, off camera. Although it’s obvious the show was written for Fred and I. It’s obvious. And we did it, on camera, with that passion and enthusiasm.”

Al Lewis at his Greenwich Village restaurant, Grampa's, in 1988.

NEW YORK (AP) -- 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.

Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away 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.

Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, 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 one of the stars 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 notoriety as a basketball talent scout familiar to coaching greats like 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, signing autographs.

In 2000, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent 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 managed to collect more 52,000 votes.

Lewis was born Alexander 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.

Lewis, as Officer Schnauzer, played opposite Gwynne's Officer Francis Muldoon in Car 54, Where Are You? -- a comedy about a Bronx police precinct that aired from 1961-63. One year later, the duo appeared together 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 Lewis in as the memorably twisted character; decades later, strangers would greet him on the street 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 hosting his WBAI radio program. At one point during the '90s, he was a frequent guest on the Howard Stern radio show, once sending the shock jock diving for the delay button by leading an undeniably obscene chant against the Federal Communications Commission.

He also popped up in a number of movies, including the acclaimed 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.

But 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.

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.