# Grandpa Munster, Al Lewis, Dead at 95 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020 "2006-02-04T20:07:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/21 "2006-02-05T04:38:35Z")
I have to pull out my copy of “Crucified by the FCC”. Howard Stern was having an anti-FCC/ pro-free speech in public and live on the air. I’ll repeat that. Live on the air. He had several speakers come up, then it was Grandpa’s turn. He gets the microphone and starts chanting “Fuck the FCC” over and over until the mic is wrestled from his hand. Live on the air. He was unique. I also had the honor of eating at his resturant. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/22 "2006-02-05T04:54:59Z")
The A&E program on him also gave his age as about 10 years younger than it most sources said. Don’t know which is correct, though. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/23 "2006-02-05T05:03:16Z")
> [@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker](#): > > The A&E program on him also gave his age as about 10 years younger than it most sources said. Don’t know which is correct, though. I predict big problems in the Death Pool thread. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/24 "2006-02-05T06:13:53Z")
CNN now says that, per his son, Lewis was only 82. Who knew death could take 13 years off a man’s age? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/25 "2006-02-05T06:15:07Z")
I should say that’s what the _AP_ is reporting, not CNN. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/26 "2006-02-05T08:07:07Z")
According to [Dead or Alive](http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com/dead.nsf/lnames-nf/Lewis+Al) and [Whos alive & whos Dead](http://www.wa-wd.com/h_intro.asp#allewis) he was 82 according to his birth certificate. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/27 "2006-02-05T08:39:53Z")
Two months from now, he’ll appear in the latest release of the Social Security Death Index, with dates of birth and death. I assume under his real name, Albert Meister. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/28 "2006-02-05T09:31:20Z")
Update: The [Reuters](http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=peopleNews&storyID=2006-02-05T003322Z_01_N04336246_RTRIDST_0_PEOPLE-LEWIS-DC.XML) obituary says that he was raised in the heavily Jewish Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. The [AP](http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/am-lewis0204,0,5199141.story?coll=ny-entertainment-headlines) obituary says that his real name was Alexander Meister. In the U.S. census taken on January 1, 1920, I do find an “Alex Meister”, age 8 (hence, born 1911). He was living with his parents, Yiddish-speaking immigrants, at 39 Watkins St., which is [indeed](http://www.brooklyn.net/my_bklyn/my_bklyn_211.html) in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. There were only five people named Alex— Meister in the 1920 U.S. census, and the others were living in Kansas (born 1903); Michigan (1893); Lancaster, New York (1918); and Wisconsin (1891). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/29 "2006-02-05T09:49:08Z")
Further update, from the Social Security Death Index: 1. Alex C. Meister, born 22 June 1924, died 28 Feb. 1999, residing in in Black Earth, Dane County, Wisconsin. 2. Alexander Meister, 1 June 1911—May 1986, Englishtown, New Jersey. (Social Security no. issued in New York, 1936-1950.) 3. Alexander Meister, 9 August 1918—18 Jan. 1992, Medina, Orleans County, New York. 4. Alexander Meister, 7 Nov. 1903—August 1972, Ringwood, Major County, Oklahoma. The death of #2 seems to remove the possibility that he was Al Lewis. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/30 "2006-02-05T10:00:39Z")
I still like to believe he was born in Transylvania in the 16th century. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/31 "2006-02-05T21:05:42Z")
Would someone who reads the paper edition of _The New York Times_ please check the paid death notices (not the news articles) for Al Lewis? Does it list any surviving siblings? If so, what are their names? This would help me find him in the 1920 and/or 1930 U.S. censuses. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/32 "2006-02-05T21:32:43Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > Would someone who reads the paper edition of _The New York Times_ please check the paid death notices (not the news articles) for Al Lewis? Does it list any surviving siblings? If so, what are their names? This would help me find him in the 1920 and/or 1930 U.S. censuses. Being in Chicago it is the National Edition, if that makes a difference, but it does not list any siblings. Even his parents names are absent. It does say he was born upstate in Wolcott before the family moved to Brooklyn if that is any help. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/33 "2006-02-05T21:34:06Z")
Sorrym misreading of your question. That is the obit itself. As of today’s paper there are not any paid notices shown for him. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/34 "2006-02-06T02:50:31Z")
**Walloon,** are these sources online? I’d like to look up my grandma’s family in Harlem; she said in later life she’d lost two sisters to diptheria around 1908 and I’d like to find out more. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/35 "2006-02-06T03:45:36Z")
BBC also reports that his son said he was born 1923. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4683026.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4683026.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/36 "2006-02-06T06:25:13Z")
**Mehitabel** , many libraries subscribe to [Ancestry.com](http://Ancestry.com), which has all of the existing U.S. population censuses online from 1790 to 1930. (Almost all of the 1890 census was destroyed by a fire in 1921.) [Ancestry.com](http://Ancestry.com) also has every-name indexes of the 1850-1930 censuses, except 1910, for which there is a head-of-household index (they’re working on an every-name index for that too). The 1910 U.S. census asks every married or widowed woman how many children she has given birth to, and how many are still living. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/37 "2006-02-06T14:52:25Z")
Actually, he was Lily’s father, wasn’t he? So wouldn’t that make him Grandpa Dracula, or something like that? I have many fond childhood memories of The Munsters. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/38 "2006-02-06T18:52:38Z")
Yep. In one ep, his real name is revealed to be “Sam Dracula.” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020/39 "2006-02-06T19:30:32Z")
Back in the 1980s or thereabouts he recorded intros to some reaslly bad films, under the heading of “Grandpa’s Foavorites” (Or something like that) – stuff like **Monster from Green Hell**. He dressed up in his old **Munster’s Garb** and spoke glowingly and vaguely about the movie to come (the name and other particulars were supposed to be filled in by another voice, but on the version I had not even that appeared, it was so cheap). Interesting to see. Even 20 years ago I couldn’t help but think “I thought he was dead!”. I’m kinda surprised they didn’t get him to do the horror show host from **Gremlins 2** He would’ve been perfect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grandpa-munster-al-lewis-dead-at-95/343020.md?page=1)