Lisa Loring, who originated the role of Wednesday Addams in the iconic sitcom "The Addams Family" in the mid-1960s, has died aged 64. The actress passed away following "a massive stroke," according to Deadline. Loring died on Saturday night in a hospital surrounded by family, her daughter told Variety.
According to a Facebook post by her close friend Laure Jacobson, Loring was pronounced dead after being taken off life support on Saturday night following the cardiac arrest. Loring was on life support for "three days" before she "passed" on Sunday, Jacobson said. "She went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands," Loring's daughter said.
Everyone's Actress
Announcing Loring's death, Jacobson wrote on Facebook, "It is with great sadness that I report the death of our friend, Lisa Loring. 4 Days ago she suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure.
"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 continued.
"She is embedded in the tapestry that is pop culture and in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams. Beautiful, kind, a loving mother, Lisa's legacy in the world of entertainment is huge. And the legacy for her family and friends — a wealth of humor, affection and love will long play in our memories. RIP, Lisa. Damn, girl...you were a ton of fun."
Loring is best remembered as the macabre, pig-tailed Wednesday in the ABC black comedy sitcom The Addams Family, which she played when she was six years old in 1964.
She only played the role for two years, but she established the standard for live-action Wednesday interpretations and was recently hailed as the model for Jenna Ortega's depiction on the popular Netflix series Wednesday.
"She is embedded in the tapestry that is pop culture and in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams. Beautiful, kind, a loving mother, Lisa's legacy in the world of entertainment is huge. And the legacy for her family and friends — a wealth of humor, affection and love will long play in our memories. RIP, Lisa. Damn, girl...you were a ton of fun," Jacobson wrote.
Leaving Behind a Legacy
Loring's character as Wednesday was endearing yet gloomy, and she enjoyed collecting spooky animals including a headless doll, a black widow spider named Homer, and a lizard named Lucifer.
Loring later reprised the role of Wednesday in the 1977 television movie "Halloween with the New Addams Family."
Later, 42-year-old Christina Ricci, took on the role of Wednesday in the critically acclaimed 1991 film "The Addams Family" and its follow-up, "Addams Family Values",
Born Lisa Ann DeCinces on Feb. 16, 1958, in the Marshall Islands, Loring's parents divorced when she was very young and she later came to live in Los Angeles with her mother.
When she was three years old, she began modeling under the name Lisa Loring. In a 1964 episode of the NBC medical drama Dr. Kildare, she made her debut on television.
Loring was actually only 5-and-a-half-year old when she started working on "The Adams Family". Later, in interviews, she admitted that she "learned to memorize before I could read" in order to say her lines.
Loring has often praised the time she spent on working on "The Addams Family" in interviews and at fan events. "It was like a real family—you couldn't have picked a better cast and crew," Loring revealed in a 2017 YouTube interview conducted at the convention Monsterpalooza. "Carolyn Jones, John Astin — Gomez and Morticia — were like parents to me. They were great."
After "The Addams Family" ended, rising actress Loring immediately found TV work. She later starred alongside Astin in "The Pruitts of Southampton" on ABC, a sitcom created by Phyllis Diller, as Susan "Suzy" Pruitt. David Levy served as the executive producer for both programs.
Nevertheless, because of negative reviews, "The Pruitts" would only last one season. Additionally, Loring made an appearance in an episode of "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E." in 1966, but her career was dormant for a while after that.
Loring was married four times and is survived by her two daughters Marianne and Vanessa, and her grandchildren, Emiliana and Charles.
In 1973, Loring married her high school beau Farrell Foumberg at the age of 15. She had her first child the next year, but tragedy struck when her mother Judith passed away at age 34 from persistent alcoholism.
Loring made a comeback as an actor in 1977's "Halloween with the New Addams Family". She also made appearances on the hit network sitcoms "Fantasy Island" and "Barnaby Jones". She played Cricket Montgomery, a recurring character, in the CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" in the early 1980s.
Loring's first marriage with Foumberg ended in 1974. Eventually, in 1981, she married actor Doug Stevenson from the film "Search for Tomorrow." However, they later divorced.
She married adult film actor Jerry Butler in 1987. He had pledged to stop using the pornographic medium. The couple eventually split in 1992 as a result of Butler's repeated, covert performances in adult films without Loring's knowledge.
In 2003, she wed Graham Rich but they divorced in 2014.
