Al Shean

Birthday: 1868-05-12
Deathday: 1949-08-12
Birthplace: Dornum, Germany
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Abraham Elieser Adolph Schönberg (12 May 1868 – 12 August 1949), known as Al Shean, was a comedian and vaudeville performer. Other sources give his birth name variously as Adolf Schönberg, Albert Schönberg, or Alfred Schönberg.[6] He is most remembered for being half of the vaudeville team Gallagher and Shean, and as the uncle of the Marx Brothers.

Shean was born in Dornum, Germany, on 12 May 1868, the son of Fanny and Levi or Louis Schoenberg. His father was a magician. His sister, Minnie, married Sam "Frenchie" Marx; their children would become the Marx Brothers.

After making a name for himself in vaudeville, Shean teamed up with Edward Gallagher to create the act Gallagher and Shean in the 1920s. While the act was successful, the men apparently did not like each other much. After their act's final Ziegfeld Follies pairing, Shean went on to perform solo in eight Broadway shows, even playing the title character in Father Malachy's Miracle.

Shean had some solo film roles: as the piano player, known as "The Professor" in San Francisco (1936), as a priest in Hitler's Madman (1943), as grandfather in The Blue Bird (1940), and in some three dozen other films. He and Gallagher also made an early sound film at the Theodore Case studio in Auburn, New York, in 1925.

He died on 12 August 1949.

Credits

Year Title Character
1944-09-15 Atlantic City Al Shean
1943-06-22 Crime Doctor Dave, a Convict
1943-06-10 Hitler's Madman Father Cemlanek
1942-07-04 The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady Old Dann
1941-04-25 Ziegfeld Girl Al
1940-11-17 Friendly Neighbors Doc
1940-01-15 The Blue Bird Grandpa Tyl
1939-12-01 Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President Father Reicher
1939-04-07 Broadway Serenade Herman
1938-11-04 The Great Waltz Cellist
1938-09-16 Too Hot to Handle Gumpert
1937-12-27 Tim Tyler's Luck Professor Tyler
1937-10-29 Live, Love and Learn Professor Fraum
1937-06-28 It Could Happen to You Max 'Pa' Barrett
1937-06-01 The Road Back Markheim
1936-06-26 San Francisco Professor
1936-04-04 At Sea Ashore Adolph Rumplemeyer
1936-03-12 Hitch Hike To Heaven Herman Blatz
1935-10-10 It's in the Air Mr. Johnson
1935-09-07 Page Miss Glory Mr. Hamburgher
1935-03-28 Traveling Saleslady Schmidt
1935-02-23 Sweet Music Sigmund Selzer
1935-01-19 Symphony of Living Adolph Greig
1934-12-13 Music in the Air Dr. Walter Lessing
1930-04-26 Chills and Fever Betty's Uncle Emil