Netflix’s Wednesday has turned young up-and-coming actress Jenna Ortega into a superstar of sorts
for the modern generation, but the television world was first introduced to the character
Wednesday Addams back in 1964 when the macabre black comedy sitcom The Addams Family premiered
on ABC.
Sadly, we've just learned that actress Lisa Loring, who started playing Wednesday at the
age of six, has just passed away at the age of 64.
Ms. Loring died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, on
January 28, 2023, just four days after experiencing a massive stroke.
After suffering from said stroke, she was placed on life support, but after Loring’s
doctors informed her family that she was essentially too far gone, they made the heart-wrenching
decision to take her off of life support and allow her to pass on.
Loring's death was announced on Facebook in a post by her longtime friend Laurie Jacobson.
According to that post, she died peacefully with her daughters by her side holding her
hand.
Join us as we take a look back at Lisa Loring's life and career.
Following her death, actor John Astin remains the last surviving cast member of the original
Addams Family television series.
So, we'll also be paying our respects to the other cast members of that series that are
no longer with us.
Facts Verse Presents: Lisa Loring's Cause of Death is Utterly Tragic
She Struggled To Find Roles After The Addams Family
Loring's parents both served in the US Army.
She was born Lisa Ann DeCinces on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands on February
16, 1958, which at the time was a UN Trust Territory that had been administered by the
US.
Not long after she was born, Loring's parents separated and divorced.
She grew up with her mother, first living in Hawaii, but they later relocated to Los
Angeles.
At the age of three, Loring began modeling.
In 1964, she appeared in an episode of Dr. Kildare, thus beginning her career as a child
actress.
That same year, Loring was cast as Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family.
She would remain in that role throughout the series' two-season run, which began on September
18, 1964, and ended on April 8, 1966.
While that role ultimately proved to be the one she was best known and remembered for,
Loring would continue to keep her acting career going for the next two decades or so.
Still, she suffered a fate not unfamiliar to former child actors, as she never was quite
able to find the same level of success that she enjoyed while appearing on the series
that made her a star in the first place.
After The Addams Family was canceled, Loring joined the cast of the short-lived ABC sitcom
The Pruitts of Southampton.
Then from 1980 to 1983, she portrayed the character Cricket Montgomery on CBS’s long-running
soap opera As The World Turns.
Later on in her acting career, Loring appeared in three low-budget B-rate slasher flicks,
1987s Blood Frenzy and Savage Harbor, and 1988s Iced.
She Was Married Four Times
When Loring was 15, she married her childhood sweetheart, Farrell Foumberg.
The couple had one daughter together before divorcing a year later in 1974.
Loring married her second husband, Doug Stevenson, in 1981.
Husband number two was an actor and contract performer best known for his role on the CBS/Proctor
& Gamble soap opera Search for Tomorrow.
Loring gave birth to a second daughter while married to Stevenson, but their marriage once
again fizzled out shortly after she gave birth.
After their divorce was finalized in 1983, Loring began dating adult film actor Jerry
Butler.
The two met on the set of the 1987 adult film Traci's Big Trick.
At the time, Loring was working as a make-up artist and uncredited writer in the adult
film industry after failing to find work in Hollywood.
Loring and Butler got married shortly after meeting, but in the ensuing years, she grew
increasingly dissatisfied and resentful over her husband's continued involvement in adult
films.
Eventually, this led Butler to secretly participate in film shoots without her knowledge.
In a candid interview that he gave to Dateline NBC in the 90s, Butler described himself as
addicted to the lifestyle of the adult film industry, although he did express shame over
his clandestine behavior and how it negatively affected his marriage.
The couple later made an appearance on the Sally Jessy Raphael Show, once again discussing
the damage that Butler’s career was causing to their marriage.
Eventually, Loring had enough and filed for divorce in 1992.
That same year, however, Butler made his exit from the adult film world and virtually disappeared
from the spotlight for many years.
In 2003, Loring married her fourth and final husband, Graham Rich.
The two remained together for five years before separating in 2008.
In 2014, their divorce was finalized, and Loring remained single for the remainder of
her life.
John Astin Is The Last Surviving Addams Family Cast Member
On the original Addams Family sitcom, veteran actor John Astin portrayed the family’s
patriarch Gomez Addams.
Unlike Loring, Astin went on to have a long and prolific acting career after The Addams
Family went off the air in 1966.
He wound up reprising his role as Gomez in the 1977 TV film Halloween with the New Addams
Family and did so once again in the Hanna-Barbara animated series The Addams Family, which aired
from 1992 to 1993.
Aside from his role as Gomez Addams, Astin also starred in the 1972 TV film Evil Roy
Slade.
On the big screen, he had notable roles in films such as 1961's West Side Story, 1962's
That Touch of Mink, 1963s Move Over Darling, 1976's Freaky Friday, 1985's National Lampoon's
European Vacation, and 1987's Teen Wolf Too.
Behind the camera, Astin made his directorial debut with the 1958 short Prelude.
That work went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Later in his career, Astin did quite a bit of voice-over work, contributing to animated
series like Recess, The Wild Thornberries, As Told By Ginger, and most recently, Justice
League Action.
At the age of 92, Astin is now pretty much retired from acting, although he has never
officially said so.
He's currently living with his third wife, Valerie Ann Sandoval, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Carolyn Sue Jones
Jones was arguably best known for her role as Morticia Addams on The Addams Family.
She began her acting career in the early 50s and by the end of the decade, she had achieved
recognition for her work with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
for her performance in 1957's Bachelor Party.
Two years later, she was nominated for a Golden Globe and was considered to be one of the
most promising actresses of her time.
The Addams Family proved to be the peak of her acting career, and she only ended up making
sporadic on-screen appearances primarily in guest-starring roles in the years that followed.
Most notably, she portrayed Mrs. Moore, the wife of a plantation owner in the hit miniseries
Roots.
Jones died of colon cancer on August 3, 1983, at the age of 53.
Jackie Coogan
Born on the 26th of October, 1914, Coogan began his career as a child actor appearing
in silent films.
After appearing in Charlie Chaplin’s 1921 classic The Kid, he became one of the first
child stars in the history of Tinsel Town.
Famously, Coogan ended up successfully suing his mother and stepfather for allegedly squandering
his film earnings.
This litigation led to the enactment of the California Child Actors Bill, better known
as the Coogan Act.
He continued to act throughout his life and experienced a second wind of sorts when he
portrayed Uncle Fester in the Addams Family.
After suffering from kidney and heart ailments, Coogan passed away from heart failure on March
1, 1984, at the age of 69.
Ted Cassidy
Noted for his tall stature, unusual facial features, and booming voice, which were caused
by a condition called acromegaly, Cassidy often was cast in offbeat roles in shows such
as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeanie.
Most famously, he portrayed Lurch on The Addams Family.
Cassidy was also famous for narrating The Incredible Hulk TV series and even voiced
the title character for the show's first two seasons.
In 1965, Cassidy released a seven-inch record on Capital Records which featured two songs,
The Lurch and Wesley.
The former song went along with a dance number that he performed on the September 11, 1965,
episode of the LA-based music variety show Shivaree.
Later in his career, Cassidy appeared in films such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,
Harry, and Walter Go to New York, and Goin' Coconuts.
In 1973, he co-wrote the screenplay for the film The Harrad Experiment.
Complications from Cassidy's acromegaly led to his death on January 16, 1979, at the age
of 46.
Blossom Rock
Born on August 21, 1895, Rock got her start on the vaudeville stage before branching out
to film and television.
Sometimes billed as Marie Blake, she appeared in notable early Hollywood films like My Dear
Miss Aldrich and Love Finds Andy Hardy before being featured in nine of the Dr. Kildare
films put out by MGM from 1938 to 1942.
Rock's most significant role of her career was that of Grandmama Addams in the Addams
Family.
Sadly, shortly after the production of Season 2 wrapped up in 1966, Rock suffered a stroke
in December 1967, which affected her speech and prevented her from continuing her acting
career.
A little over 11 years later on January 14, 1978, she died at 82 in Los Angeles, California.
Ken Weathermax
Weathermax was born in Los Angeles, California, on September 29, 1955.
Before playing Pugsley Addams on The Addams Family, he played Porky in the first three
seasons of Lassie under the name Donald Keeler.
After The Addams Family’s cancellation, he ended up entering the US Army at 17.
When he was 21, he reprised his role as Pugsley in the 1977 TV film Halloween with the New
Addams Family.
While he didn't do much acting after that, Weathermax did establish a behind-the-scenes
career working as a movie studio grip and set builder while occasionally making appearances
at Addams Family-related events with Lisa Loring.
The two former co-stars remained lifelong friends until Weathermax's death on December
7, 2014.
Weathermax was 59 years old when he died of a heart attack at his home in West Hills,
California.
On that note, we'll go ahead and wrap this video up, but before we sound off, we'd like
to toss the mic over to you to let your voice be heard.
Did you know that actor John Astin is now the last surviving cast member of the original
Addams Family series and that Lisa Loring, the actress who portrayed Wednesday, just
passed away at 64?
Let us know in the comments, and as always, thanks for watching.