An American character actor best known for his role as Count Dracula lookalike Grandpa opposite Fred Gwynnes and Yvonne De Carlos characters on the CBS television series The Munsters from 1964 to 1966 and its subsequent film versions Later in life he was also a restaurant owner political candidate and radio broadcaster His acting career begins the welldocumented portion of his life He worked in burlesque and vaudeville theaters then on Broadway in the dramas The Night Circus 1958 and One More River 1960 and as the character Moe Shtarker in the musical comedy Do Re Mi 1962 His earliest television work includes appearances on the Beverly Garland crime drama Decoy and The Phil Silvers Show From 195963 he appeared in four episodes of Naked City Lewis first wellknown television role was as Officer Leo Schnauser on the NBC sitcom Car 54 Where Are You from 196163 also starring Fred Gwynne Lewis reprised the role in the 1994 movie of the same name In the series Lewis first played Al Spencer the Auto Body Man in two early firstseason episodes before landing the more familiar role of Officer Schnauser But he is best remembered as Grandpa on The Munsters which ran on CBS from 196466 In 1967 Lewis played the part of Zalto the wizard in the Lost in Space episode Rocket to Earth His first role in a movie was as Machine Gun Manny in Pretty Boy Floyd 1960 He had small roles in The World of Henry Orient 1964 They Shoot Horses Dont They 1969 They Might Be Giants 1971 He appeared as Hanging Judge Harrison in Used Cars 1980 and had a minor role in Married to the Mob 1988 His last film role was in Night Terror 2002 Lewis was a recurring guest on The Howard Stern Show In 1987 during a Howard Stern Freedom Rally against the Federal Communications Commission FCC that was broadcast live Lewis repeatedly shouted F the FCC until Stern was able to take the microphone away from him Stern and the station were not punished for Lewis comments Unlike some actors Lewis did not mind being typecast He enjoyed acting out his Grandpa characterin the original costumeand got a surprising amount of mileage from such a shortlived role Why not he said It pays the bills In 1991 he appeared as Grandpa Munster in an episode of Hi Honey Im Home on ABC In 1991 he appeared in a lowbudget New Zealand family movie called Grampire My Grandpa Is a Vampire in the US version wearing much the same costume as he did in The Munsters From 198789 Lewis hosted Super Scary Saturday on TBS in his Grandpa Munster outfit This would later be parodied in Gremlins 2 The New Batch with the character of Grandpa Fred Robert Prosky Biography from Wikipedia
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