Al Shean

Who was Al Shean?

Al Shean was the stage name for comedian Abraham Elieser Adolph Schönberg, although other sources give his birth name variously as Adolf Schönberg, Albert Schönberg, or Alfred Schönberg. 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, the son of Fanny and Levi or Louis Schoenberg. Schönberg's 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. While the act was successful, the men apparently did not like each other much.

Shean went on to some solo film roles: as the professor in San Francisco, as a priest in Hitler's Madman, as the grandfather in The Blue Bird, 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. Shean's son, also named Al Shean, worked on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.