Here’s What Happened to the Cast of ‘The Addams Family’ — and Not a Lot of it Was Good!

Carolyn Jones (Morticia Addams)

Born on April 28, 1930 in Amarillo, Texas, Carolyn’s desire to become an actress came from a pretty unique source: As a child she suffered from a severe case of asthma and, although she loved going to the movies, she seldom could. Instead, she read fan magazines, which fueled that desire to perform. At 17, she enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, where she was spotted by a talent scout from Paramount Pictures. As a result, she made her film debut in 1952’s The Turning Point, followed by episodes of Dragnet and had roles in The Big Heat and House of Wax (both 1953). She was originally cast in From Here to Eternity in the role ultimately played by Donna Reed (Alma “Lorene” Burke), but was forced to drop out due to a case of pneumonia.

In the years leading up to The Addams Family, she appeared in films like The Seven Year Itch (1955), The Tender Trap (1955), the sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Alfred Hitchcock’s remake of his own The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), opposite Elvis Presley in King Creole (1958), The Bachelor Party (1957, for which she was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Supporting Actress) and How the West Was Won (1962). Television roles included multiple appearances on anthology series, among them The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse, Studio 57, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and such episodic series as Wagon Train, Dr. Kildare and Burke’s Law (for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe). Following the run of The Addams Family, she went back to episodic TV work, appearing on a couple of dozen shows, as well as the miniseries Roots and reprised the role of Morticia on the 1977 NBC reunion film, Halloween with the New Addams Family.

In her personal life, Carolyn was married a total of four times. First to Don Donaldson, a fellow student at the Pasadena Playhouse, but that marriage only lasted a year from 1950-1951. Then it was Aaron Spelling, future uber-producer (and father to Tori Spelling) from 1953-1964. This was followed by Herbert Greene, a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical director, from 1968-1977. In March of 1981 she was diagnosed with colon cancer (though she told others she was suffering from ulcers) and decided, in September of the following year, to marry her boyfriend of five years, actor Peter Bailey-Britton. Sadly, in July of 1983, she slipped into a coma as a result of her cancer battle, passing away on August 3 of that year. Carolyn Jones was only 53 years old.

Unfortunately, due to her death at such a young age, there weren’t many opportunities for her to look back at The Addams Family in the wake of its enduring popularity. Back in 1965 she did do an interview with columnist Hedda Hopper, commenting, “I’ve always enjoyed the humor of Charles Addams. I have a collection of Addams memorabilia and some of his drawings. When I was in the hospital for an operation, he sent me a drawing of a nurse coming out of an operating room carrying a great tray with my head on it. At the top, he printed, ‘KEEP KALM!’”

Additionally, in his book The Addams Chronicles, author Stephen Cox writes, “Jones, who always enjoyed her spidery character on the show, frequently answered her telephone, ‘You rang?’ She even appeared on The Danny Kaye Show dressed as Morticia. Flown from city to city on promotional tours for the show, she admitted being relieved when the rigors of travel ended, so Astin could resume ‘chewing’ on her arm.”

Speaking of “chewing,” in a documentary about the actress, costar John Astin commented on the seeming connection between the two of them: “We heard a lot about the chemistry between us and it was there undoubtedly. As we continued to do the show, I think we both began to realize that we really were attracted to one another.”

John Astin (Gomez Adams)

In comparison to his costars, it seems John has had the longest-sustained career with the smallest amount of personal drama. He was born on March 30, 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland, beginning his career in theater. His first Broadway appearance was as an understudy in Major Barbara, which was followed by voiceover work in commercials and a small part in the film version of West Side Story (1961). On the recommendation of Tony Randall (The Odd Couple), John started guest starring roles on such comedies as Dennis the Menace and The Donna Reed Show. From 1962-1963 he costarred with Marty Ingels in the sitcom I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster.

Although The Addams Family concluded its run in 1966, it was far from out of his life. In 1977 he reprised the role of Gomez in the TV film Halloween and the New Addams Family, the 1992-1993 animated The Addams Family and, in the role of Grandpapa Addams, the 1998-1999 series The New Addams Family. Many recurring and starring roles on TV shows followed, including The Pruitts of Southampton, McMillan & Wife, Welcome Back, Kotter, Operation Petticoat, Mary, Night Court, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Eerie Indiana and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. On top of that he made guest star appearances (including a two-episode stint as The Riddler on the Adam West version of Batman). Plus, many moves on the big screen and the small.

One of the most personally satisfying roles that John has played was in the one-man stage show, Edgar Allan Poe: Once Upon a Midnight, written by Paul Day Clemens and Ron Magid. Describes Wikipedia, “The story is told through Poe’s eyes, as he narrates his own life to the audience. He tells of his childhood, his time in the military and the troubles he caused while at West Point; his marriage and his struggles to make his mark as a poet, publisher and writer.”

While he was doing the show, he was interviewed by wolerton-mountain.com, which wondered if playing Gomez had become a hindrance when seeking projects like Edgar Allan Poe. “My work is to reach people with ideas,” he replied, “hopes, dreams, encouragement, insight and revelation. That’s what an actor wants to do. The feedback that I get from my association with Gomez is heartwarming.

“It is very difficult for me to take anything but a positive view of the Gomez phenomenon,” he adds. “Probably, it had kept me out of roles that I might otherwise have played, because of the extremely intense identification with that character. But there is no way that I can diminish my indebtedness to that program. Just your smile now is an indication that there is something good about the character of Gomez. I wouldn’t trade the association with him for anything or any role that I might have missed.”

In addition to acting, John is the director of the Theater Arts and Studies Department and Homewood Professor of the Arts at John Hopkins University. In his personal life, he has five sons, three — David, Allen and Tom — from his marriage with Suzanne Hahn (married from 1956-1972), and two (Sean, who he adopted; and Mackenzie) with second wife Patty Duke (1972-1985). He is currently married to Valerie Ann Sandobal, whom he wed in 1989.

Jackie Coogan (Uncle Fester)

Of all the cast members of The Addams Family, it would seem that Jackie, who played Uncle Fester, had in many ways the most challenging life, but somehow managed to keep pushing forward. He was born John Leslie Coogan on October 26, 1914 in Los Angeles. As an infant he started his career performing in vaudeville and film. Discovered by legendary comedian Charlie Chaplin, Jackie found himself cast in 1919’s A Day’s Pleasure and then costarred with him in The Kid (1921). The next year he played the title role in an adaptation of Oliver Twist, and as a result of all of that found himself Hollywood’s first child superstar. Additionally, he was heavily merchandised on a wide variety of products.

Although things were going well for Jackie, by the early ’30s life definitely took a downturn. In 1933, one of his friends, Brooke Hart (22-year-old heir to a successful San Jose department store) was kidnapped and murdered. The killers were taken from jail by an angry mob, who hung both of them from a tree. By all reports, Jackie was there, holding the rope used to hang them. Then, two years later, he was the sole survivor of a car crash that claimed the life of his father, actors Junior Durkin and Robert J. Horner, and Coogan ranch foreman Charles Jones.

Sadly, the bad news continued for Jackie when he turned 21 in 1935, discovering that his $4 million trust from his childhood acting career (the equivalent of $75 million today) had pretty much been squandered by his mother and stepfather she’d married in the aftermath of his father’s death. He ultimately sued them (and they, in turn, showed absolutely no remorse for what they’d done), and he ended up with a paltry amount after legal fees were paid. However, in the aftermath of what had happened, in 1939 the state passed The California Child Actor’s Bill (also known as the Coogan Act) which would prevent the same thing from happening to any other young performer.

During World War II, Jackie (who had been doing some film and radio work in the interim) joined the U.S. Army but, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested and was switched to the Army Air Forces. Following the war he made numerous appearances on television, but battled his personal demons with alcohol and drugs. He was also married four times, to actress Betty Grable (1937-1939), Flower Parry (1941-1943), Ann McCormack (1946-1951) and Dorothea Lamphere (married in 1952 and remained together until his death). He fathered four children over the years. Suffering from heart and kidney ailments, he passed away on March 1, 1984 at the age of 69.

Jackie’s daughter, Leslie, related to author Stephen Cox one particular Addams Family-related memory concerning her father: “He had been doing the part for a while, I guess, and he came home crying-sober. He said, ‘I used to be the most beautiful child in the world and now I’m a hideous monster.’ That was heavy. Something just dawned on him one day. It hit him. He’d let go of it later, but it really had to do with his lost childhood. Later he came to cope with the Fester character and loved doing the character and loved doing the show. Then he cherished it.”

Ted Cassidy (Lurch)

He’s the Addams’ zombie butler, but Ted’s Lurch is probably one of the most iconic characters to come out of ‘60s television. The 6-foot-9 actor was born Theodore Crawford Cassidy on July 31, 1932 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In high school and college, Ted’s passion was sports, though he did end up graduating from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida with a degree in speech and drama. His career in show business began as a disc jockey on a Dallas radio station (his deep bass voice was undoubtedly perfect for that job).

That unique voice was put to good use on animated series like the Saturday morning cartoon Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles and Meteor Man in Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. He appeared in one episode of Star Trek and voiced characters in two others, and on shows like I Dream of Jeannie, Mannix, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman (as Bigfoot on both!) as well as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Between 1959 and 1978, he appeared in a total of 14 movies, among them Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Harrad Experiment (1973), Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976), The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977) and the Donny Osmond and Marie Osmond film, Goin’ Coconuts (1978).

Unfortunately, Ted felt trapped by the role of Lurch and, while he didn’t do many interviews, he did admit to journalist Joel Eisner in 1970, “It was terrific until the second year, then I began to see that playing that guy, who really didn’t do anything besides this schtick, was no fun. I began to react badly, not to the cast, the producer or director — because they were good folk — but to myself. I thought, ‘I must get out of this show. This is terrible. I want nothing to do with this character, it’s ruining me.’ Everybody began to know me by the character name instead of my name. I really began to panic, because if that keeps up, you never work again … so I was really glad when The Addams Family was cancelled.” He nonetheless voiced the character in an episode of the animated The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972), the animated series of The Addams Family the next year, and in the 1977 reunion film Halloween with the New Addams Family.

Ted would end up dying on January 16, 1979 at the age of 46, following an operation to remove a non-malignant tumor from his heart.

Blossom Rock (Grandmama)

Although her career spanned from vaudeville to stage, film and television, Blossom Rock (born Edith Marie Blossom MacDonald on August 21, 1895 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was best known for her Addams Family role of Grandmama. She initially performed on the vaudeville stage and had roles in the films Mannequin (1937), Rich Man, Poor Girl (1938), Jennie (1940) and Good Morning, Judge (1943). She recurred in the Dr. Kildare film series of the ’30s and ‘40s as switchboard operator Sally. Blossom was married to Clarence Warren Rock from 1926 until his death in 1960). Sadly, she suffered a stroke in 1966 that prevented her from acting. She died on January 14, 1978 at the age of 82.

Ken Weatherwax (Pugsley)

Morticia and Gomez’ only son is Pugsley, played by actor Ken Weatherwax, who had previously spent three seasons on Lassie (he was nephew to the trainers and owners of the show’s original Collie). Ken was born September 29, 1955 in Los Angeles and got his start acting at the age of nine when he starred in a toothpaste commercial. Following the two-year run of The Addams Family, he left acting and joined the U.S. Army when he turned 17. When he was 21, he reprised the role of Pugsley in the TV movie Halloween with the New Addams Family. He suffered a fatal heart attack on December 7, 2014 at the age of 59.

Lisa Loring (Wednesday)

The career of Lisa Loring — who was born Lisa Ann DeCinces on February 16,1958 in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands — was a fairly limited one. It began at the age of 3 with an episode of Dr. Kildare and was followed by The Addams Family the next year. The Pruitts of Southampton was next in 1966, and she was cast in the role of Cricket Montgomery on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns from 1980 to 1983.

Her personal life has not been an easy one. Her mother died as a result of alcoholism in 1974 at the age of 34. A year earlier, Lisa married Farrell Foumberg, her childhood sweetheart, and gave birth to their daughter when she was only 16. They divorced in 1974, and she married husband No. 2, actor Doug Stevenson, in 1981. That marriage ended in 1983. Four years after that, she married adult film star Jerry Butler, though his vocation ultimately destroyed the marriage and they divorced in 1992. Fast-forward to 2003, and she married Graham Rich and, by last reports, had gotten divorced. In 1991, she spent a year addicted to heroin, but successfully completed treatment.