John Astin is one of television's most prolific character actors, but will always be recognized as Gomez Addams from Classic TV's "The Addams Family."
Though he started out with the goal of becoming a mathematician, Astin developed an affinity for acting in college. As with many actors, he started slowly in community theater and moved to New York to try for Broadway. He managed to get to Off-Broadway, and began doing commercial voice-overs to make ends meet. At the encouragement of his friend Tony Randall, Astin made the big move to Hollywood to pursue a film career, which turned out to be a wise move. Not long after his move, Astin began getting parts on the big and small screen in the film West Side Story and TV shows like Twilight Zone and Dennis The Menace.
His first leading role was in the short-lived comedy "I'm Dickens, He's Fenster" with gravely-voiced co-star Marty Ingels. He next made TV Land history by taking the part of Gomez Addams in the TV show based on the macabre comic strip.
After the "Addams Family," Astin went on to countless guest spots as an actor and soon began directing episodes of various comedy and drama series. He continues to act in theater often and has recently appeared in TV's "The Nanny" and "Mad About You" as well as in the 1996 shocker The Frighteners.
Did You Know:
John Astin guest-starred and directed four episodes of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery"
He was originally considered for the part of Lurch, not Gomez on The Addams Family
He was nominated for an Academy Award for the 1968 short film "Prelude," which he produced
He was married to actress Patty Duke from 1973 to 1985.
John Astin has most recently been on stage as Edgar Allan Poe
Wednesday is somber and delicate with her mother's dead white complexion and black hair. Wednesday is quiet and sensitive and loves picnics in underground caverns. She has a pet tarantula named Homer and her favorite doll is Marie Antoinette, whose head she chopped off with her toy guillotine.
Lisa Loring will always be remembered as morose Wednesday Addams, though her own life has been more bizarre than her signature character. A navy brat, born on the Pacific Island of Kwajalein, Lisa's life was thrown into upheaval when her parents divorced in 1960, when she was two years old. She moved with her mother to Los Angeles soon after, where she began modeling at age three. It wasn't long before she began appearing on episodic television in shows like "Dr. Kildare." At age six, she scored the part of Wednesday (even before she was able to read a script).
Post-Addams life was difficult for Loring who married at age fifteen, had her first child at sixteen and was divorced by seventeen. Her mother died of chronic alcoholism in 1974, when Lisa was sixteen, and a life of drug abuse followed for the former child actress.
In 1980, Loring began to turn things around, and joined the cast of "As The World Turns" for four years in the part of Cricket Montgomery. She was also seen in a handful of films through the late '80s including the 1989 B-flick "Death Feud." She has more recently done the "child stars gone bad" talk show circuit, though has cleaned up her life considerably. She has appeared recently in small theater productions, and turns up at many celebrity autograph shows.
Lisa Loring reprised the role of Wednesday Addams in the cartoon version of the show in 1973
Ken Weatherwax had a brief, but memorable career as a child actor. He is the nephew of actress Ruby Keeler, and half-brother of Donald Keeler, who played Porky Brockway on Lassie. Not coincidentally, his Uncle, Rudd Weatherwax was Lassie's trainer. With all this talent around him, he was almost a shoo-in for the part of Pugsley Addams on "The Addams Family."
Pugsley was his only part in a TV series, though he played it three times; first in the original 1964 series, next as the voice of Pugsley in the 1973 animated version and then finally in 1977 provided the voice of Pugsley again in "The All New Addams Family Halloween" cartoon special.
As an adult, Ken has switched to a behind-the-scenes vocation as a grip for TV shows including long stints on "The A-Team" and "Full House."
Ken Weatherwax got his start in show biz in a series of early '60s Gleem Toothpaste commercials as a kid named Chester
Carolyn Jones (1929-1983) had already costarring in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and House of Wax (1953) with Vincent Price, and been nominated for an Oscar ("The Bachelor Party," 1957), when she got the role of Morticia in the 1960s tv series. In fact, she had an extensive body of work on Broadway and in Hollywood, making as many as 3 movies a year 1952-63. After The Addams Family, she made 2 movies in 1969 ("Color Me Dead" and "Heaven With A Gun"), and a low-budget one in 1977 ("Eaten Alive") before retiring.
Anjelica Huston has a continuing movie career.
Lurch is the towering butler with a morose presence. Though not a particularly good butler, he is very loyal. He is especially fond of the children and will go the extra mile to protect them from good influences.
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