Al Shean
Known For
Acting
Born
1868-05-12 in Dornum, Germany
Died
1949-08-12
Biography
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.
Most Known For
Ziegfeld Girl
as Al
San Francisco
as Professor
The Blue Bird
as Grandpa Tyl
Too Hot to Handle
as Gumpert
Hitler's Madman
as Father Cemlanek
Music in the Air
as Dr. Walter Lessing
Sweet Music
as Sigmund Selzer
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
Broadway Serenade
as Herman
The Road Back
as Markheim
Live, Love and Learn
as Professor Fraum
Page Miss Glory
as Mr. Hamburgher
The Great Waltz
as Cellist
Crime Doctor
as Dave, a Convict
It's in the Air
as Mr. Johnson
Atlantic City
as Al Shean
Traveling Saleslady
as Schmidt
Tim Tyler's Luck
as Professor Tyler
Hitch Hike To Heaven
as Herman Blatz
Symphony of Living
as Adolph Greig