Lisa Loring, who starred in “As the World Turns” and “The Addams Family” from 1964 to 1966, died at the age of 64 after suffering a stroke, according to her daughter Vanessa Foumberg. She passed away calmly, holding the hands of both of her daughters, as per Foumberg.
A friend, Laurie Jacobson, reported her death on Facebook, writing that she “was in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams.” Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster on ‘The Munsters’, also remembered her on Facebook, writing: “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.”
With the release of the new Netflix series “Wednesday,” in which Jenna Ortega performs her own version of Wednesday’s dance, Loring’s shimmying frug dance, known as “The Drew” frug, received additional prominence.
Her character Wednesday Addams was kind-hearted yet depressing. She enjoyed playing with a headless doll and collected frightening creatures like a black widow spider named Homer and a lizard named Lucifer.
Loring, whose parents were both former Navy personnel, was born in the Marshall Islands and then resided in Hawaii before moving to Los Angeles with her mother. At age 3, she began modelling and was subsequently cast in a “Dr. Kildare” episode.
Following the conclusion of the two seasons of “The Addams Family,” Loring joined Phyllis Diller’s sitcom “The Pruitts of Southampton.”
She made guest roles on television shows like “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.,” “Fantasy Island,” and “Barnaby Jones” before landing Cricket Montgomery’s recurrent role on “As the World Turns” from 1980 to 1983.
She appeared in genre films like “Savage Harbor” and “Blood Frenzy” later in the 1980s, and she also worked as a makeup artist on adult movies under the name “Maxine Factor.” Her two daughters are, Marianne and Vanessa.