- By Sukanya Saha
- Mon, 30 Jan 2023 02:09 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Lisa Loring, the celebrated actor who portrayed Wednesday Addams in the original The Addams Family movie, passed away on Saturday evening in a hospital surrounded by her family. She was 64 years old and succumbed to a stroke. Her daughter confirmed her death to Variety.
"She went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands," she said.
Laurie Jacobson, a close friend of Loring, shared on Facebook that she had suffered a stroke due to her smoking and high blood pressure. After being on life support for 72 hours, Loring's family chose to take her off of it over the weekend.
Jacobson paid tribute to Loring's "legacy in the world of entertainment", writing, "She is embedded in the tapestry that is pop culture and, in our hearts, always as Wednesday Addams."
Loring portrayed Wednesday Addams from 1964 to 1966 in the earliest adaptation of Charles Addams' cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker. At the tender age of five, she took on the character in the production.
Her portrayal of the peculiar Addams daughter, with her spooky style and iconic pigtails, has had a lasting impact on subsequent renditions of the character in movies and television.
Jenna Ortega's performance in the recent Netflix adaptation of the series inspired a viral dance that was based on the angular moves of the original actor, Loring. Ortega expressed gratitude to Loring when the dance went viral on the internet.
After her breakout performance as Wednesday Addams, Lorry went on to star in The Pruitts of Southampton, a popular TV sitcom, as well as in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., a spy drama. She was then offered a recurring role on As the World Turns, a long-running daytime soap opera.
She also featured in a variety of slashers in the 1980s, such as Blood Frenzy, Iced, and Savage Harbor. Additionally, she worked as a makeup artist during the filming of the adult film Traci's Big Trick, where she got acquainted with her future spouse, adult film actor Jerry Butler.
The marriage between Loring and Butler was highly publicised and the two of them often publicly argued about the latter's ongoing work in the pornographic film industry. In 1992, they ended their relationship and Loring is survived by her two daughters, Marianne and Vanessa, and her two grandchildren, Emiliana and Charles.