They're creepy and they're kooky!
The ookiness of the Addams family's four films feature a cast that has shared circumstances
as macabre as the characters they've portrayed on screen.
Keep watching to see the horrors they've had to withstand.
Raul Julia, who played Gomez Addams in the 1991 and 1993 film adaptations of The Addams
Family, was a notable actor who had a Shakespearean pedigree and a Tony Award nomination.
Yet, the last film he would make would be 1994's Street Fighter, an adaptation of a
video game.
The film gained unfavorable reviews due to poor script and weak plot.
Julia signed on because his kids were fans of the game and potentially knew he didn't
have much time left with them.
Julia, who was of Puerto Rican descent, incorporated a British accent for the role of M. Bison
all while struggling with stomach cancer.
His children would visit the set to see the film in production.
While the film was harshly criticized, his performance was received positively.
Unfortunately, Julia died before the film was released.
He was only 54.
The final cut features a dedication to the star.
Jimmy Workman, the actor who played Puglsey Addams in both films was embroiled in a
custody dispute involving two of his sisters.
He filed paperwork to get custody of his 15-year-old sister Ariel Winter who was under the custody
of their other sister, Shanelle Gray.
Allegedly, Workman claimed that Gray was a terrible guardian and a bad role model who
exploited Winter's fame from her starring role in Modern Family.
Workman claims Gray had prior drug problems, and that she persuaded Winter to spend her
money on parties.
Workman also said Gray was turning their little sister against her mother and asked for Winter's
custody to be transferred to him.
Winter, however, was happy with Gray being her guardian.
An agreement was eventually reached in which Winter stayed under Gray's guardianship.
During the proceedings, Workman left the courtroom in tears when the judge formally granted Gray
guardianship of Winter.
In 2020, Christina Ricci, who played Wednesday in both Addams Family films, filed for divorce
from her husband, James Heerdegen.
Six months later, she was granted a domestic violence restraining order against him.
The court order required Heerdegen to stay 100 yards away from Ricci, and prohibit visiting
their 6-year-old, Freddie.
Ricci claimed she was exposed to severe physical and emotional abuse by her husband and claimed
many of the acts of abuse occurred while their son was present.
Ricci said the abuse started when she became pregnant in October 2013.
She recalled feeling "extremely isolated" and remembered during a vacation in New Zealand
in which Heerdegen said:
"[...] that the only way he could feel sorry for me is if I were dismembered into small
pieces."
She then proceeded to hide the knives in the cabin and slept with Freddie in a separate
bedroom, because she feared for her and her son's life.
She also said he brutally attacked her in December 2019.
Things got worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was afraid to sleep at night.
Heerdegen denied the allegations.
Ricci married her second husband, Mark Hampton, in October 2021, and in December they welcomed
their first child, a daughter.
In 2008, Anjelica Huston, who played Morticia Adams in the Addams Family movies, struggled
deeply after the death of her husband, sculptor Robert Graham.
He died from a rare disease called Wegener's Syndrome, which causes inflammation of blood
vessels.
After his passing, Huston struggled to stay afloat financially, because Graham had no
health insurance and she was forced to pay out of pocket for his medical bills.
She told Vulture in 2019:
"I was left with no money, less than no money."
Huston stated that she was never able to relax because she always had to keep working.
She added:
"It was the worst time of my life, partly because everyone thought that I had lots and
lots of money."
Carel Struycken, the 7 foot tall Lurch in the Addams Family movies, has acromegaly,
aka gigantism.
Those who have the disease typically are tall and have large hands, feet, noses, and jaws.
The skeleton and soft tissue grows much larger than the average human's.
It's a rare condition caused by a tumor — with only four out of one million people developing
it per year.
Most aren't diagnosed with acromegaly until eight to 10 years after the tumor begins growing.
Some people are never diagnosed, which can have some terrible consequences.
Struycken was diagnosed with acromegaly when he was 20 years old, but he pointed out that
many medical professionals are unaware of the disease.
He stated:
"What I've always noticed going through the medical mill is that there are people — even
endocrinologists who should know their stuff — who are really very uneducated as far
as acromegaly is concerned."
Left untreated, acromegaly can cause a variety of conditions, including diabetes, heart disease,
hypertension, cancer, blindness, and arthritis.
John Franklin played Cousin Itt in the Addams Family movies.
The short-statured actor has a growth hormone deficiency that makes him look younger than
his actual age.
While he had a promising career, starring in films such as Children of the Corn, he
left acting in the early 2000s after suffering some tragedies.
In 2016 he revealed one of his closest friends was murdered while three months pregnant.
When his agent, whom he considered a second mother, passed away he said:
"I just really, really loved her.
And she died of cancer...
It was just all this death ― boom, boom, boom."
His grief was further amplified after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The culmination of devastating events made him want to quit acting, and contemplate what
his legacy would be.
He chose to teach English for 14 years, before returning to acting in small roles on TV shows
like Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Fresh Off the Boat.
Paul Benedict, known best for his role on The Jeffersons, played Judge George Womack
in 1991's The Addams Family.
He had an unique look with an oversized jaw and angular features caused by acromegaly.
Benedict didn't know he had the disease until a radiologist spotted something unusual about
Benedict at the Theatre Company of Boston in the mid-'60s and recommended he be diagnosed.
Benedict had a 20-minute operation.
He explained:
"It would've killed me if it hadn't been caught at that time.
My headaches had grown worse and I was completely exhausted."
Following the procedure, he didn't have any recurring issues and became a character actor.
Carol Kane played Grandmama Addams in Addams Family Values.
Most people recognize her for her distinctive, breathy voice, which Kane isn't too keen on,
even though it's her signature.
“Aaah…listen to me!”
In fact, she revealed in 2020 that she felt shame over it, explaining, quote, "It's just
an odd voice."
She added that her voice particularly bothers her when she's speaking to strangers on the
phone and they recognize who she is.
Instead, Kane wished her voice was deep and sexy.
As for her looks, Kane is much more confident about her features now than she was when she
was a young woman.
When asked if she had any advice for her younger self, she said:
"To try and enjoy my beauty that I had when I was young.
I thought I wasn't pretty enough.
I look back and I think, 'Boy, I wasted those 15 years.'"
Nathan Lane made a cameo as the police desk sergeant in Addams Family Values.
He later played Gomez in the Addams Family musical on Broadway.
While the star came out to his family when he was 21 years old, he did not come out publicly
for several years.
However, after his appearance in the 1996 film The Birdcage, his publicist warned him
that his sexual orientation would be a subject of interest because people wanted to know
that truth.
At one point, Lane was sitting in a cab in Manhattan when a man in a truck kept calling
him a derogatory slur that Lane found humiliating — and it was just the beginning.
While many assumed he was gay, Lane simply wasn't ready to address it publicly.
Yet, people pressed him to open up about his personal life.
Before an appearance on Oprah, Lane expressed that he was not ready to tell her that he
was gay.
Lane's co-star Robin Williams diverted Oprah's pressing questions, but Lane didn't officially
come out publicly until 1999 during an interview with The Advocate.
By then, most fans knew he was gay and weren't as supportive as the actor had hoped.
He explained,
"It was all so intimidating.
Honestly, I was terrified."
Tony Shalhoub had a small cameo as Jorge in Addams Family Values, but is most known for
his role in the USA TV series Monk.
In 2003, Shalhoub won his first Emmy Award for best actor in a comedy series for his
role as the obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk, and while most people would have
been celebrating such an achievement, Shalhoub's win was bittersweet.
Instead of enjoying the post-Emmy afterparties, a personal tragedy weighed heavily on the
actor's mind.
The day before the ceremony, the star's 34-year-old nephew passed away of undisclosed causes in
Wisconsin.
Shalhoub is very close to his family, according to those who know him well.
While he tried to celebrate his Emmy win, he was mourning the death of his nephew.
During his acceptance speech, he had a hard time keeping his emotions contained.
USA Networks president Doug Herzog said of the moment:
"He was happy but also completely heartbroken and filled with sorrow.
He didn't stay long at the party."
David Hoberman, the executive producer of Monk, noted that Shalhoub had mixed emotions.
The star was happy yet also dealing with a great personal loss.
He skipped the obligatory interviews the following morning and instead flew to Wisconsin to spend
time with family members.
Charlize Theron voiced the character Morticia Addams in the 2019 computer-animated film
The Addams Family, as well as the 2021 sequel The Addams Family 2.
But years prior to the star's success in Hollywood, her mother, Gerda Theron, killed her father
in self-defense.
Charlize opened up about the incident, explaining her father was an alcoholic and, quote, "a
very sick man."
She added that her home life was unhealthy and that her father's actions were scarring.
When she was 15 years old, her dad came home drunk with a gun and terrorized the women
by trying to push through the bedroom door to get to Charlize and her mother.
Charlize notes, quote:
"He took a step back and just shot through the door three times.
[...] None of those bullets ever hit us, which is just a miracle.
But in self-defense, my mother ended the threat."
The actress noted that she's not ashamed to talk about her father's violence or the incident
because it can be cathartic, adding that her story is, quote, "about growing up with addicts
and what that does to a person."
Snoop Dogg voiced the character of Cousin It in the 2019 and 2021 computer-animated
Addams Family films.
In 1993, Snoop was charged with murder after his bodyguard, McKinley Lee, shot and killed
rival gang member, Philip Woldemariam.
The rapper was acquitted by a jury in 1996 and told reporters he had prayed to God for
the outcome.
"I left it in God's hands."
The defense team had argued that Snoop Dogg, real name Calvin Broadus, and Lee responded
in self-defense after an armed Woldemariam confronted the pair in a park in Los Angeles.
Following the incident, Snoop changed the style of lyrics for his second album, Tha
Doggfather, and started writing about life instead of death.
He noted that he didn't want to, quote, "glamorize and glorify" death and that his life had changed,
and his lyrics were a reflection of that.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.