Al Shean
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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.
Acting
Movie
San Francisco
as Professor
1936
Movie
The Blue Bird
as Grandpa Tyl
1940
Movie
That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
1976
Movie
Ziegfeld Girl
as Al
1941
Movie
Too Hot to Handle
as Gumpert
1938
Movie
The Great Waltz
as Cellist
1938
Movie
Crime Doctor
as Dave, a Convict
1943
Movie
Hitler's Madman
as Father Cemlanek
1943
Movie
The Road Back
as Markheim
1937
Movie
Live, Love and Learn
as Professor Fraum
1937
Movie
Traveling Saleslady
as Schmidt
1935
Movie
Page Miss Glory
as Mr. Hamburgher
1935
Movie
Music in the Air
as Dr. Walter Lessing
1934
Movie
Broadway Serenade
as Herman
1939
Movie
Sweet Music
as Sigmund Selzer
1935
Movie
Symphony of Living
as Adolph Greig
1935
Movie
It's in the Air
as Mr. Johnson
1935
Movie
Atlantic City
as Al Shean
1944
Movie
It Could Happen to You
as Max 'Pa' Barrett
1937
Movie
Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President
as Father Reicher
1939
Movie
The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady
as Old Dann
1942
Movie
Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean
as Self
1931
Movie
At Sea Ashore
as Adolph Rumplemeyer
1936
Movie
Tim Tyler's Luck
as Professor Tyler
1937