United States: Ms. Lisa Loring, the American actress who played Wednesday Addams on the classic TV adaptation of The Addams Family, has died at age 64.
Ms. Loring is best known for her role as Wednesday on ABC’s black comedy The Addams Family, which she took on in 1964. Although Ms. Loring only played Wednesday for two years, she established the standard for live-action portrayals of the character. The actress was recently praised as an inspiration for Jenna Ortega’s interpretation on the hit Netflix series Wednesday.
Ms. Loring’s personal friend, Ms. Laurie Jacobson, shared on Facebook that “Loring had suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure and had been on life support for three days before her family decided to remove it on the weekend.”
Ms. Jacobson paid tribute to Ms. Loring’s “legacy in the world of entertainment” by remarking that “she is embedded in the tapestry that is pop culture and in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams.”
Ms. Loring was born Lisa Ann DeCinces in the Marshall Islands in 1958. The American actress later moved to Hawaii and then Los Angeles with her mother. Ms. Loring began modelling when she was three and landed her first role on television soon after, in the medical drama Dr. Kildare.
Following her breakthrough as Wednesday Addams, the veteran actress appeared in the sitcom ‘The Pruitts of Southampton’ and the spy drama ‘The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.’ before landing a recurring role on the long-running daytime soap As the World Turns.
In addition, Ms. Loring also appeared in a number of slashers in the late 1980s, including Blood Frenzy, Iced, and Savage Harbor.