Lisa Loring, who played Wednesday in the original ‘Addams Family’ series, dies at 64

Lisa Rowling, who played young Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family from 1964 to 1966 and also starred in As the World Changed, died Saturday of a stroke, her daughter Vanessa Vonberg has confirmed. She was 64 years old.

“She had her two daughters walking peacefully holding her hand,” said Foumberg.

Her friend Laurie Jacobson announced her obituary on Facebook, writing that she was “always in our hearts as Wednesday Addams.”

Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster in The Munsters, also remembered her on Facebook, writing, “I am so sorry to hear of the passing of my dear friend Lisa Rowling. We are very close. We were good and worked well together. I know she was very weak. I was at your company just a few weeks ago. God thank you my friend. ”

Called “The Drew,” Loring’s shimmering fulgu dance got new attention in her new Netflix series Wednesday. Her character, Wednesday Addams, was good-natured but dark, and tended to collect creepy pets, such as a black widow spider named Homer and a lizard named Lucifer, and play with headless dolls. .

Rowling was born in the Marshall Islands, where her parents served in the Navy and lived in Hawaii before moving to Los Angeles with her mother. She started modeling at the age of 3 and later worked as “Dr. Kildare.”

After The Addams Family ended its two-year run, Rowling Phyllis joined Diller’s sitcom Pruitts of Southampton.

She appeared in shows like her The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Fantasy Island, Barnaby Jones, and from 1980 to 1983 she had a recurring role as cricketer Montgomery in As the World Turns.

In the late 1980s, she starred in genre films such as She’s Savage, She’s Harbor and Blood She’s Frenzy, and Maxine worked as an adult film make-up artist under the name She’s a Factor.

She leaves behind her two daughters, Marianne and Vanessa.

Loring was just six years old when she bagged the role of Wednesday Addams, the gothic, morbid and pig-tailed daughter of the Addams Family.

She played the part for two years from 1964 and 1966 and set the framework for the character which would go on to inspire later versions of The Addams Family, including Netflix hit series Wednesday, which starred Jenna Ortega (Scream) as the morbid teen.

Ortega’s Gen Z take on the character introduced a brand new audience to the gothic clan, with her version of Loring’s dance with Lurch from the original Addams Family TV series sparking a viral TikTok trend.

After 64 episodes of The Addams Family, Loring went on to star in the sitcom The Pruitts of Southampton and spy drama The Girl From UNCLE, before appearing in As The World Turns from 1980 to 1983.

Loring also played Wednesday Addams in the 1977 NBC television movie Halloween with the Addams Family, which reunited almost all of the original Addams Family cast.

Loring is survived by two daughters, Marianne and Vanessa.