Lisa Loring, the original Wednesday Addams, passed away on Saturday at the age of 64 after suffering a stroke.
Wednesday as a character earned a massive fan following after Jenna Ortega played the role of the famous Addams family member in the series by Netflix. However, way before her, Loring played the young Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family from 1964 to 1966 and won hearts.
According to Variety, her daughter, Vanessa Foumberg said, “She went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands.”
A friend of Loring’s, Laurie Jacobson, reported her death on Facebook, writing that she “was in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams.”
American actor Butch Patrick, known for playing Eddie Munster on The Munsters, remembered her on Facebook and wrote, “Very sorry to hear of my dear friend Lisa Loring’s passing. We were very close and worked together often. I know she was very weak. I was in her company just a few weeks ago. Godspeed my friend.”
Recently, Loring’s shimmying dance called The Drew gained newfound attention after Netflix’s Wednesday series where Ortega does her own dance. Like Ortega, Loring’s Wednesday was known as a gloomy young girl with a penchant for creepy pets, including a lizard named Lucifer, a spider named Homer and playing with a headless doll.
Loring was born in the Marshall Islands to parents who had served in the Navy. She lived in Hawaii before coming to Los Angeles with her mother. The 64-year-old started her career with modelling at the age of three and then starred in an episode of Dr. Kildare, a 1961 medical drama.
After hit series The Addams family, Loring joined a sitcom called The Pruitts of Southampton by Phyllis Diller. She also appeared in series like The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Fantasy Island and Barnaby Jones. Loring then secured a recurring role as Cricket Montgomery in As the World Turns from 1980 to 1983.
She also acted in movies Savage Harbor, Blood Frenzy and worked as a makeup artist for adult films under the name “Maxine Factor.