TLDR: The original The Addams Family ran for two seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1966 and produced one of television’s most enduring ensemble casts.
Of the principal cast, only John Astin survives, at age 95. Carolyn Jones, Ted Cassidy, Ken Weatherwax, and Blossom Rock have all passed away, and Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday Addams, died in 2023.
When The Addams Family premiered on ABC on September 18, 1964, it arrived on the same night as its supernatural sitcom rival The Munsters on CBS. Both shows featured monstrous families cheerfully oblivious to their own oddness.
Only one of them produced a cast that has remained genuinely iconic sixty years later.
The Addams Family did it with a warmer, more subversive sense of humor, and the people who played those roles have stories that are just as compelling as anything Charles Addams originally drew.
John Astin (Gomez Addams)
John Astin is the last surviving principal cast member, now 95 years old and living in Baltimore.
He continued acting steadily after the show, racking up hundreds of credits across five decades, and has taught acting at Johns Hopkins University for years.
His personal life is perhaps better known for his marriage to Patty Duke and the complicated paternity story of their son Sean Astin.
Carolyn Jones (Morticia Addams)
Carolyn Jones played Morticia with a combination of languid grace and genuine comic timing that defined the character for generations.
She had been an Academy Award-nominated actress before the show, and she remained active in television after it ended.
She died on August 3, 1983, at age 53, from colon cancer, leaving behind a career that deserved far more recognition than Morticia’s shadow allowed.
Ted Cassidy (Lurch and Thing)
Ted Cassidy stood 6 feet 9 inches tall and had a deep, resonant voice that was entirely his own, not a character affectation.
He played both Lurch the butler and the disembodied hand Thing simultaneously, a dual role almost nobody noticed at the time. After the show he built a long career in voice acting, most notably narrating The Incredible Hulk animated series.
He died on January 16, 1979, at age 46, from heart failure following surgery to remove a benign heart tumor.
Lisa Loring (Wednesday Addams)
Lisa Loring was six years old when she first played Wednesday Addams, and her deadpan delivery of the character’s grim lines became one of the show’s most quoted pleasures.
She appeared in Wednesday Season 1 on Netflix in 2022, playing adult Wednesday’s friend Freya, just months before her death. She died on February 5, 2023, at age 64, from a stroke caused by a brain aneurysm.
Ken Weatherwax (Pugsley Addams)
Ken Weatherwax played Pugsley Addams as a cheerfully masochistic child who genuinely enjoyed his sister’s torture devices.
After the show he worked as a lighting technician in the film industry, largely stepping away from acting. He died on December 20, 2014, at age 59, from a heart attack at his home in Beaumont, California.
Blossom Rock (Grandmama Addams)
Blossom Rock, born Marie Blake, was the sister of actress Jeanette MacDonald and had spent decades in Hollywood as a character actress before playing Grandmama.
She suffered a stroke in 1974 that left her incapacitated for the rest of her life. She died on January 14, 1978, at age 81.
The Wednesday Netflix Connection
The Netflix series Wednesday, which premiered in November 2022 and became one of the platform’s most watched shows, renewed global interest in the original cast.
Lisa Loring appeared in Season 1, John Astin has been discussed in connection with the production, and the show has directly inspired a new generation of fans to search backward to the 1964 original.
The renewed traffic to the original show is one of the more unexpected legacies of a streaming series built around a completely reimagined version of the same family.
Original Addams Family Cast: Frequently Asked Questions
Is anyone from the original Addams Family cast still alive?
Yes. John Astin, who played Gomez Addams, is the last surviving principal cast member. He is 95 years old as of 2026 and lives in Baltimore.
Who has died from the original Addams Family cast?
Carolyn Jones died in 1983, Ted Cassidy in 1979, Blossom Rock in 1978, Ken Weatherwax in 2014, and Lisa Loring in 2023. Jackie Coogan, who played Uncle Fester, died in 1984.
Who played Wednesday Addams in the original show?
Lisa Loring played Wednesday Addams in the original 1964-1966 ABC series. She was six years old when the show began and later appeared in Wednesday Season 1 on Netflix in 2022, just months before her death in 2023.
