About Al Lewis

Al Lewiswas an American actor and activist, best known for his role as Grandpa on the television series The Munsters from 1964 to 1966 and its film versions. He previously also co-starred with The Munsters’s Fred Gwynne in the television show Car 54, Where Are You?

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More quotes from Al Lewis

I probably worked every single entertainment medium, including some that don’t exist. I worked the circus, carnival, I had my own medicine show, I worked 18 years of radio.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

Understood what the struggle was about. My mother. Couldn’t read or write, but she had more sense than many a graduate from Harvard.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I went to all the Love-Ins. I took my kids. I enjoyed myself.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I think people need housing. And there’s empty buildings, I think people should live in there. If you want to call them squatters, trespassers, hey, I call Wall Street thieves!

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

There’s more to anybody. Just because you haven’t noticed it, that’s your problem, that’s not mine.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I have an old brain but a terrific memory.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

As long as you gave it your best shot, even if in the opinion of others “you failed,” you didn’t fail.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

What motivated me? My mother. My mother was an immigrant woman, a peasant woman, struggled all her life, worked in the garment center.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

But find something that you absolutely love doing. And then get to love the way you do it. That’s the uniqueness of all of us. That’s it.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I’m for everyone having the opportunity to accept a $150,000 bribe.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I’m more important to me than any body you can mention. Do you know that?

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I’ve been in the struggle over seventy years – it doesn’t bother me I may not win.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

Oscar Wilde said the rich and the poor are equal – they can both sleep under the bridge. Right? Do they have a right? You’re damn right they have a right!

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I prefer that for my own satisfaction over radio, there’s no audience. TV, there’s no audience. I need the response of the audience, even if it’s a silent response.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

The United States, per capita, at a certain period in its history, had the most junkies of any country ever in the world – right after the Civil War. The most brutal war, the greatest amount of casualties that America’s ever had.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

The struggle goes on. The victory is in the struggle, for me. And I accepted that a long time ago.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

My secret for success? I don’t know what the hell success means.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I was an organizer in the Food, Agricultural and Tobacco Workers Union down in North Carolina.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

Every Friday I used to have about fifty, sixty kids who would wait for me on Sunset Boulevard and I’d take them all to dinner. All runaways.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

The ruling class is smarter than you, and they’re more creative. And if you forget that lesson, you go down the drain. Because if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be around as long as they have been and as strong as they have been.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

America gets the politicians they deserve. That’s it. And you keep struggling.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)

I know who I am. I don’t have to brag. I know what I contributed. I know what I did. You think you can do it better? Hey, go right ahead. The stage is yours.

Al Lewis

actor, radio personality, politician (1923-2006)