Original 'Wednesay' Actress Dies
by EG
Lisa Loring, who originated the role of Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family TV series, died this weekend at the age of 64. Loring's performance, including her iconic look and dance moves, were copied by Jenna Ortega in the recent Netflix reboot Wednesday. Loring was just five years old when she took the role of Wednesday in 1964. Read on for details.
Lisa Loring, the actress who played Wednesday Addams on the classic TV adaptation of The Addams Family, has died. She was 64.
Loring died Saturday night at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank of complications from a stroke caused by high blood pressure, her daughter Vanessa Foumberg told The Hollywood Reporter.
“She went peacefully with both her daughters [Vanessa and Marianne] holding her hands,” she said.
Loring is best known for her turn as the morbid, pigtailed Wednesday on ABC’s black comedy The Addams Family, a role she took on in 1964. She played the character for only two years but set the template for live-action portrayals of Wednesday and was recently praised as an inspiration for Jenna Ortega’s interpretation on the hit Netflix series Wednesday.
She was born Lisa Ann DeCinces on Feb. 16, 1958, in the Marshall Islands; her parents divorced when she was very young, and she came to live in Los Angeles with her mother. She was given the stage name Lisa Loring and started modeling at age 3. Her first television appearance came in 1964 on an episode of the NBC medical drama Dr. Kildare.
After winning the part of Wednesday in ABC’s, MGM-produced live-action television adaptation of Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoons, Loring began work on the half-hour comedy series at age 5 and a half, revealing in later interviews that she “learned to memorize before I could read” in order to say her lines.
At fan conventions and in several interviews, Loring spoke fondly of her time working on The Addams Family. “It was like a real family — you couldn’t have picked a better cast and crew,” Loring revealed in a 2017 YouTube interview conducted at the convention Monsterpalooza. “Carolyn Jones, John Astin — Gomez and Morticia — were like parents to me. They were great.”
Airing at the same time as CBS’ similarly macabre sitcom The Munsters, The Addams Family ran for two seasons, a total of 64 episodes.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.