The Addams Family characters Wednesday and Uncle Fester. The actress who played the iconic Wednesday, Lisa Loring, died over the weekend.
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ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
The Addams Family characters Wednesday and Uncle Fester. The actress who played the iconic Wednesday, Lisa Loring, died over the weekend.
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
Lisa Loring, best known for her role as Wednesday in the first run of The Addams Familydied on Saturday, her agent confirmed to NPR.
Loring, 64, was a “loving Mother, Grandmother and friend” who died surrounded by her family, said Chris Carbaugh of C and V Promotions.
Author Laurie Jacobson, a personal friend of Loring’s, he said in a Facebook post that Loring first “suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure” last week and was on life support for three days.
“Her legacy to her family and friends – a wealth of humor, affection and love – will live on in our memories,” Jacobson wrote.
According to her IMBD page, Loring was born in the Marshall Islands to Navy personnel. Her parents soon separated and her mother moved with her to Los Angeles, where Loring began a modeling career as a young child.
Actress Lisa Loring poses for a photo in 2002.
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Actress Lisa Loring poses for a photo in 2002.
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She solidified her place in the cultural canon starring as 6-year-old Wednesday in the original Addams Family series, which aired in 1964. While the show wasn’t an instant hit (it only lasted two seasons), decades of re-runs turned the eccentric family into a beloved American treasure.
Wednesday’s dark enthusiasm for raising spiders and beheading dolls has helped fans who see themselves as social outsiders. Her dark braids and frock with a white collar continues to inspire gothic fashion.
The character has been given new interpretations in half a dozen films and spin-off series, most recently the 2022 Netflix streaming series Wednesdaywith Jenny Ortega.
Ortega cited Loring’s performance as a major inspiration for the show, especially a delightfully droll dance scene that has since gone viral.
Thanks for Siouxsie Sioux, Rich Man’s Frug by Bob Fosse, Lisa Loring, Lene Lovich, Denis Lavant, and archival footage of goths dancing in clubs in the 80’s. Help me out on this one. https://t.co/zlxlv1JUW4
— Jenna Ortega (@jennaortega) November 25, 2022
After the first Addams Family ended, Loring appeared in several short-lived shows, including The Pruitts of Southampton, Fantasy Island and The Girl from UNCLE, as well as low budget horror films such as Ice.
She landed a memorable recurring role in the early 1980s as Cricket Montgomery on As the World Turns.
Loring semi-retired from acting in the mid-1990s after a friend’s suicide and her own drug addictions, according to IMBD. In later years, she worked as a makeup artist.
Loring married three times and is survived by two daughters.
