Lisa Loring, Who Played As Wednesday Addams in The Original Addams Family Show, Passes Away At 64
Lisa Loring, who pioneered the spooky yet lovable part of Wednesday Addams on the 1960s tv show “The Addams Family,” passed away on Saturday in Burbank, California. The character has since been reincarnated in movies and, lately, a well-liked Netflix series. She was 64 at the time of her passing. Her daughter Vanessa Callies Dominguez, who stated that Ms. Loring had been taken off a ventilator after suffering a stroke, affirmed her medical death.
When Ms. Loring was five years old, she tried out for the part of Wednesday. Ms. Loring did a little child acting before receiving the part on “The Addams Family” in 1964 thanks to contacts she gained with the help of her grandmother’s prominent Mexican restaurant on Ventura Boulevard in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, according to Ms. Dominguez.
Lisa was the only offspring of James P . DeCinces and Judith Ann. Her parents were posted in Marshall Island as part of the U.S. Navy. Lisa Loring was born in Kwajalein on February 16, 1958. Lisa’s parents split up when she was a child after the family relocated to Los Angeles. The eerie but amiable creatures Charles Addams developed for a sequence of cartoons that ran in The New Yorker beginning in 1938 served as the inspiration for “The Addams Family,” which made its A.B.C. television debut in 1964.
Gomez (John Astin) and Morticia (Carolyn Jones), Wednesday’s parents, were the main characters of the tv series. They were the leaders of a crazy family that featured Uncle Fester, Grandmama, Wednesday’s sibling Pugsley, and a disembodied hand called Thing that protruded from a box. The characters were named when the show’s development started in the 1960s. The Addams Family was a C.B.S. sitcom that aired concurrently with The Munsters, a similarly eerie series that continued for two seasons and 64 episodes. Astin is the only living member of The Addams Family’s original group with the passing of Loring.
Ms. Loring portrayed Wednesday as a child who was fascinated with death and talked about hacking off her doll’s head or nourishing her pet spider. She wore black clothing, and her pigtails framed a pallid face. Following the cancellation of “The Addams Family” in 1966, Ms. Loring went back to school. According to her daughter, her first marriage occurred when she was 15. She had her first kid and then filed for divorce a year after.
After The Addams Family concluded, emerging actress Loring immediately found acting work. She subsequently co-starred with Astin in a show called The Pruitts of Southampton on A.B.C., a series developed by Phyllis Diller. David Levy acted as the head producer for both programs. Nevertheless, The Pruitts would only survive one season because of poor feedback. Additionally, Loring had a cameo on an edition of the show called The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. in 1966, but her acting career remained dormant for a while afterward.
Lisa played the iconic Wednesday character again in a special Halloween episode, The Addams Family reunion, in 1977. She has also been in Barnaby Jones and Fantasy Island. Savage Harbor (1987), Way Down in Chinatown (2014), and Doctor Spine are a few of the movies she has acted in. She was chosen to play Cricket Montgomery in the 1980 season of the C.B.S. serial drama “As the World Turns.” When Lisa was only five and a half, she started working for the dark comedy show after securing the Wednesday role. She later stated in interviews that she figured out how to memorize before she could read to remember her lines.
Loring has highlighted her experience on The Addams Family in conversations and at fan events. In a 2017 YouTube video at Monsterpalooza, Loring said, “You couldn’t have chosen a finer staff and cast. It felt like a true family.” “Gomez and Morticia were more like parents to me. They were excellent.
According to Ms. Dominguez, as a divorced mom, Lisa considered acting as a method to provide for her family. According to Ms. Dominguez, performing “was not her passion.” It was an event that took place in her life. Ms. Loring also leaves behind Marianne Stevenson Keller, another daughter, and two grandkids. The first three unions of Ms. Loring resulted in divorce. Graham Ritch, Ms. Loring’s spouse, passed away last year, according to Ms. Dominguez.
Foumberg and Loring’s marriage disintegrated in 1974. Eventually, in 1981, Lisa wed action star Doug Stevenson; however, they eventually divorced. In 1987 she wedded pornographic movie actor Jerry Butler; Jerry had promised to stop filming for the porn industry. The couple eventually separated in 1992 as a result of Butler’s repeated, covert performances in pornographic films without Loring’s consent. In 2003, she wed Graham Rich; they separated in 2014.
Wednesday Addams has been reimagined numerous times for tv, film, and theater productions, notably twice by Christina Ricci. In the most recent iteration, Jenna Ortega plays a younger incarnation of the titular character who is taken to a private school for freaks, vampires, and werewolves in the Netflix show “Wednesday.” Ms. Loring was one of the sources of motivation for Ms. Ortega’s version of Wednesday’s dance maneuvers, which went viral on TikTok and in nightclubs. Ms. Loring stated that she was so tiny when she auditioned for the role of Wednesday that she had not yet been taught to read, let alone dance, in an appearance at Silicon Valley Comic Con in 2018.
Following Lisa Loring’s passing, Jenna Ortega has made her own public comment. On January 31, the Netflix celebrity uploaded two black-and-white images of Loring as a little girl on her Instagram Account. She commented, “utterly devastated. Thank you for everything.”
Loring’s friend Laurice Jacobson posted on Facebook about her passing and the circumstances surrounding it before Foumberg made an official announcement. “I must inform you with deep sorrow about the passing of our friend Lisa Loring. She had a severe stroke just four days ago as a result of smoking and high blood pressure. For three days, she was on life support. She died last night after her family made the painful choice to remove her from life support yesterday, according to Jacobson. She is permanently ingrained as Wednesday Addams in our hearts and the fabric of popular culture. Lisa has left a significant impact on the entertainment industry. She is beautiful, sweet, and a devoted mother. “And the memory she leaves behind for her friends and family will live on in our thoughts for a very long time.
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