Lisa Loring: Original Wednesday Addams actress dies age 64 after stroke
Lisa Loring, the actress who played Wednesday Addams in the first screen adaptation of The Addams Family, has died at the age of 64 after suffering a stroke, her family have confirmed.
In a statement to Variety, Vanessa Foumberg, one of her daughters, said: “She went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands".
Loring played the daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams in the American television series from 1964 to 1966, taking on the role when she was around five years old.
Her performance as the macabre Addams daughter, with her trademark dark braided pigtails, and black smock, greatly influenced the depictions of the character and Halloween costumes for generations to come.
The character was played by Christina Ricci in the 1990s, and by Jenna Ortega in the present hit Netflix series, Wednesday.
A clip from the series showing Loring dancing with Lurch, the towering gloomy butler played by Ted Cassidy, has amassed nine million views on YouTube.
Loring’s personal friend, the author Laurie Jacobson, wrote a moving tribute on Facebook on Monday, confirming the passing.
"She suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure," the post read.
"She had been on life support for 3 days. Yesterday, her family made the difficult decision to remove it and she passed last night.
"She is embedded in the tapestry that is pop culture and in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams."
After her breakout role as Wednesday Addams, she took roles in American sitcom The Pruitts of Southampton and spy fiction drama The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., before playing Cricket Montgomery on CBS soap opera As the World Turns.
Born in 1958 in the Marshall Islands, the actress was reportedly briefly raised in Hawaii before moving with her mother to Los Angeles, where she was said to have begun child modelling aged three.
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