Lisa Loring, Wednesday Addams in ‘The Addams Family,’ Dies at 64

Lisa Rowling, who was the macabre yet cherubic portrayal of Wednesday Addams in the 1960s television series The Addams Family, has spawned a revived role in films and more recently in the popular Netflix series, but it was announced Saturday that she will return to California. Died in Burbank, BC. 64.

Her daughter, Vanessa Currys Dominguez, said Rowling suffered a stroke and was taken off a ventilator.

Rowling auditioned for the role of Wednesday when she was five years old. According to Dominguez, her grandmother owned a Mexican restaurant on Ventura Her Boulevard in Sherman’s Oaks neighborhood in Los Angeles, which was popular with those in the film industry. Through these connections, Ms. Rowling did several child modeling jobs before being offered her role in “The Addams Family” in 1964.

In a 1980 interview with the soap opera magazine Daytimers, Ms. Rowling said, “I got it because I pouted.”

In one fan-favorite episode, she tells Lurch, the family butler, how to dance.

“Take it easy,” Wednesday says, all his legs slipping and his knees wobbly as he encourages his zombie-like sidekick. “Let yourself go.”

Lisa Ann DeSynthes was born on February 16, 1958 in Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, the only child of James P. DeSynthes and Judith Ann (Currys) DeSynthes, who were stationed in the U.S. Navy. Her parents divorced shortly after her family moved to Los Angeles when she was a toddler.

The Addams Family, which premiered on ABC in 1964, was based on the creepy and harmless characters Charles Addams created for a series of cartoons that first appeared in The New Yorker in 1938. Television his series is largely based on Wednesday’s Parents, Gomez and Morticia (John Astin and Carolyn Jones) as the heads of a geeky household that includes Uncle Fester. grandma; Wednesday’s brother, Pugsley; and a disembodied hand known as Thing that popped out of the box.

Adams did not name the character until it was developed for television in the mid-1960s. I said I named it Wednesday.

Dressed in black and pigtails framing her pale face, Rowling played as a girl obsessed with death on Wednesday and talked about cutting off doll heads and feeding her pet spider. Did.

Rowling returned to school after “The Addams Family” was canceled in 1966. She got married for the first time when she was 15, gave birth to her first child, and divorced a year later, her daughter said.

She reprized her role of Wednesday Addams in the 1977 reunion special “Halloween with the New Addams Family”. Her other television credits include ‘Uncle’s Daughter’, ‘Fantasy Island’ and ‘Barnaby Jones’. Her film credits include “Savage Harbor” (1987), “Way Down in Chinatown” (2014) and “Doctor Spine” (2015).

In 1980, she starred as Cricket Montgomery in the CBS soap opera As the World Turns.

Dominguez’s mother considered acting as a way to support the family as a single mother. “It was something that happened in her life.”

In addition to Dominguez, Rowling has another daughter, Marianne Stephenson Keller, and two grandchildren. Rowling’s first of her three marriages ended in divorce. Her husband, Graham Rich, died last year, according to her Dominguez.

Wednesday Adams’ role has been seen in television, film, stageThe latest work is the Netflix series “Wednesday” starring Jenna Ortega, 20, as a teenage version of the character who is sent to boarding school for outcasts, vampires, and werewolves.Ortega is Rowling’s quote Of her inspiration for repeating Wednesday’s dance moves, A sensation on TikTok When at the dance club.

of interview At Silicon Valley Comic-Con 2018, Ms. Rowling said she was so young when she auditioned Wednesday that she hadn’t yet learned to read, much less dance.

“Who taught you to dance like that?” she said. “I can’t dance like that!”