
Al Shean
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.
25
Films
0
TV Shows
Known For
25 Credits
Ziegfeld Girl
as Al
1941

San Francisco
as Professor
1936

The Road Back
as Markheim
1937

Live, Love and Learn
as Professor Fraum
1937

Hitler's Madman
as Father Cemlanek
1943

That's Entertainment, Part II
as (archive footage)
1976

The Great Waltz
as Cellist
1938

Too Hot to Handle
as Gumpert
1938

The Blue Bird
as Grandpa Tyl
1940

Broadway Serenade
as Herman
1939

Crime Doctor
as Dave, a Convict
1943

Tim Tyler's Luck
as Professor Tyler
1937