Charles Samuel "Chaz" Addams ^[2] (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American cartoonist known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters. Some of the recurring characters, who became known as the Addams Family, became the basis for two live-action television series, two animated TV series, three motion pictures and a Broadway musical.

Biography[link]

Life[link]

Charles Samuel Addams was born in Westfield, New Jersey, the son of Grace M. (née Spears) and Charles Huy Addams, a piano-company executive who had studied to be an architect.^[3] He was known as "something of a rascal around the neighborhood" as childhood friends recalled.^[4] Addams was distantly related to U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, despite the different spellings of their last names, and was a first cousin twice removed to noted social reformer Jane Addams.^[4][5]

A house on Elm Street, and another on Dudley Avenue that police once caught him breaking into, are said to be the inspiration for the Addams Family mansion in his cartoons. College Hall, the oldest building on the current campus of the University of Pennsylvania, where Addams studied, was also an inspiration for the mansion.^[6] He was fond of visiting the Presbyterian Cemetery on Mountain Avenue.^[7] One friend said of him, "His sense of humor was a little different from everybody else's." He was also artistically inclined, "drawing with a happy vengeance" according to a biographer.^[4]

His father encouraged him to draw, and Addams did cartoons for the Westfield High School student literary magazine, Weathervane.^[3][7] He attended Colgate University in 1929 and 1930, and the University of Pennsylvania, where a fine-arts building on campus is named for him, in 1930 and 1931. In front of the building is a sculpture of the silhouettes of Addams Family characters.^[7] He then studied at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City in 1931 and 1932.^[3][7]

In 1933 he joined the layout department of True Detective magazine, where he had to retouch photos of corpses that appeared in the magazine's stories to remove the blood from them. Addams complained that "A lot of those corpses were more interesting the way they were."^[8]

His first drawing in The New Yorker ran on February 6, 1932 (a sketch of a window washer), and his cartoons ran regularly in the magazine from 1938, when he drew the first instance of what came to be called the Addams Family, until his death. He was a freelancer throughout that time.^[4][4]

During World War II, Addams served at the Signal Corps Photographic Center in New York, where he made animated training films for the U.S. Army. In late 1942, he met his first wife, Barbara Jean Day, who purportedly resembled the cartoon Morticia Addams.^[4] The marriage ended eight years later, after Addams, who hated small children, refused to adopt one.^[4] She later married New Yorker colleague John Hersey, author of the book Hiroshima.^[5]

He married his second wife, Barbara Barb (Estelle B. Barb), in 1954. A practicing lawyer, she "combined Morticia-like looks with diabolical legal scheming," by which she wound up controlling the "Addams Family" television and movie franchises and persuaded her husband to give away other legal rights.^[4] At one point, she got her husband to take out a $100,000 insurance policy. Addams consulted a lawyer on the sly, who later humorously wrote, "I told him the last time I had word of such a move was in a picture called Double Indemnity starring Barbara Stanwyck, which I called to his attention." In the movie, Stanwyck's character plotted her husband's murder.^[4] No one has accused Barbara Barb Addams of attempting the same. They divorced in 1956.^[5]

The Addams Family television series began after David Levy, a television producer, approached Addams with an offer to create it with a little help from the humorist. All Addams had to do was give his characters names and more characteristics for the actors to use in portrayals. The series ran on ABC for two seasons, from 1964 to 1966.^[7]

Addams was "sociable and debonair," and described by a biographer as "A well-dressed, courtly man with silvery back-combed hair and a gentle manner, he bore no resemblance to a fiend." Figuratively a ladykiller, Addams squired celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Joan Fontaine and Jacqueline Kennedy on social occasions.^[4]

Later, he married his third and last wife, Marilyn Matthews Miller, best known as "Tee" (1926–2002), in a pet cemetery.^[3] In 1985, the Addamses moved to Sagaponack, New York, where they named their estate "The Swamp."^[9]

Death[link]

Addams died September 29, 1988, at St. Clare's Hospital and Health Center in New York City, having suffered a heart attack while still in his car after parking it. An ambulance took him from his apartment to the hospital, where he died in the emergency room.^[3] As he had requested, a wake was held rather than a funeral; he had wished to be remembered as a "good cartoonist." He was cremated, and his ashes were buried in the pet cemetery of his estate "The Swamp."^[5]:318

Cartoons[link]

His cartoons regularly appeared in The New Yorker, and he also created a syndicated comic strip, Out of This World, which ran in 1956. There are many collections of his work, including Drawn and Quartered (1942) and Monster Rally (1950), the latter with a foreword by John O'Hara. Typical of Addams's work, one cartoon shows two men standing in a room labeled "Patent Attorney." One is pointing a bizarre gun out the window toward the street and saying, "Death ray, fiddlesticks! Why, it doesn't even slow them up!"

Dear Dead Days (1959) is not a collection of his cartoons (although it reprints a few from previous collections); it is a scrapbook-like compendium of vintage images (and occasional pieces of text) that appealed to Addams's sense of the grotesque, including Victorian woodcuts, vintage medicine-show advertisements and a boyhood photograph of Francesco Lentini, who had three legs.

Addams drew more than 1,300 cartoons over the course of his life. Those that did not appear in The New Yorker were often in Collier's and TV Guide.^[7] In 1961, Addams received, from the Mystery Writers of America, a Special Edgar Award for his body of work. His cartoons appeared in books, calendars and other merchandising. Singer-guitarist Dean Gitter's 1957 recording Ghost Ballads (Riverside, RLP 12-636), folk songs with supernatural themes, was packaged with album art by Addams showing a haunted house.

In 1946, Addams met science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury after having drawn an illustration for Mademoiselle magazine's publication of Bradbury's short story "Homecoming", the first in a series of tales chronicling a family of Illinois vampires named the Elliotts. The pair became friends and planned to collaborate on a book of the Elliott Family's complete history with Bradbury writing and Addams providing the illustrations, but it never materialized. Bradbury's stories about the "Elliott Family" were finally anthologized in From the Dust Returned in October 2001, with a connecting narrative and an explanation of his work with Addams, and Addams' 1946 Mademoiselle illustration used for the book's cover jacket. Although Addams' own characters were well-established by the time of their initial encounter, in a 2001 interview Bradbury states that "(Addams) went his way and created the Addams Family and I went my own way and created my family in this book." ^[10]

Janet Maslin, in a review of an Addams biography for The New York Times, wrote, "Addams's persona sounds cooked up for the benefit of feature writers... was at least partly a character contrived for the public eye," noting that one outré publicity photo showed the humorist wearing a suit of armor at home, "but the shelves behind him hold books about painting and antiques, as well as a novel by John Updike."^[4]

In Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, Cary Grant references Charles Addams in the auction scene. Discovering Eve with Mr. Vandamm and Leonard, he says, "The three of you together. Now that's a picture only Charles Addams could draw." The filmmaker was a friend of Addams', and owned two pieces of original Addams art.^[11] Addams is also mentioned as "Chas Addams" in Edward Eager's fantasy novel Knight's Castle.

Bibliography[link]

By Addams[link]

Books of Addams's drawings or illustrated by him^[12]

• Drawn and Quartered (1942), first anthology of drawings (Random House)
• Addams and Evil (1947), second anthology of drawings, (Simon and Schuster)
• (illustrations) Afternoon in the Attic (1950), John Kobler’s anthology of short stories
• Monster Rally (1950) third anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
• Homebodies (book) (1954) fourth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
• Nightcrawlers (1957), fifth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
• Dear Dead Days: A Family Album (1959), compilations book of photos (G.P. Putnam & Sons)
• Black Maria (1960), sixth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
• Drawn and Quartered (1962) re-released (Simon & Schuster)
• The Groaning Board (1964), seventh anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
• The Chas Addams Mother Goose (1967) Windmill Books
• My Crowd (1970), eighth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
• Favorite Haunts (1976), ninth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
• Creature Comforts (1981), tenth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster)
• The World of Charles Addams, by Charles Addams (1991), posthumously compiled from works with the copyright owned by his second wife, later named Lady Barbara Cloyton (Knopf) ISBN 0-394-58822-3
• Half - Baked Cookbook, by Charles Addams (2005), anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster) ISBN 0-7432-6775-3
• Happily Ever After: A Collection of Cartoons to Chill the Heart of Your Loved One, by Charles Addams (2006), anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster) ISBN 978-0-7432-6777-9
• The Addams Family: An Evilution (2010), about the evolution of The Addams Family characters (arranged by H. Kevin Miserocchi) ISBN 978-0-7649-5388-0

About Addams[link]

• Davis, Linda H., Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life (2006), Random House, 382 pages

See also[link]

• Edward Gorey, contemporary American cartoonist with similar macabre style

References[link]

External links[link]

• Charles Addams Foundation

Carolyn Jones
Jones and John Church in The Homecoming, 1968.
Born	Carolyn Sue Jones[1] (1930-04-28)April 28, 1930 Amarillo, Texas
Died	August 3, 1983(1983-08-03) (aged 53) West Hollywood, California
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1952-1983
Spouse	Don Donaldson (m. ?-?; divorced) Aaron Spelling (m.1953-1964; divorced) Herbert Greene (m.1968-1977; divorced) Peter Bailey-Britton (m.1982-1983; her death)

Carolyn Sue Jones^[2] (April 28, 1930 – August 3, 1983)^[1] was an American actress.

Jones began her film career in the early 1950s, and by the end of the decade had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party (1957) and a Golden Globe Award as one of the most promising actresses of 1959. Her film career continued for a few years, and in 1964 she began playing the role of Morticia Addams in the television series The Addams Family, receiving a Golden Globe Award nomination for her work.

Early life[link]

Jones was born in Amarillo, Texas, the daughter of Julius Alfred and Cloe Jeanette (née Southern) Jones.^[2] She had some Native American ancestry.^[3][4][5][6] In 1934 her father abandoned the family and her mother moved herself and her two children to her parents' home in Amarillo. Carolyn suffered from severe asthma that often restricted her from childhood activities. She was an avid reader, and loved Hollywood magazines. When her condition permitted she loved to go to the movies. After her graduation, her grandfather agreed to pay her tuition to the Pasadena Playhouse.^{[citation needed]} Therefore, she moved to California in 1947 to pursue her acting career.

Career[link]

Jones secured a contract with Paramount Pictures and made her first film in 1952. In 1953, she married aspiring film-maker Aaron Spelling. She appeared in several episodes of Dragnet, credited as Caroline Jones in at least one episode; had an uncredited bit part as a nightclub hostess in The Big Heat, and a role in House of Wax, as the woman who is converted by Vincent Price into a Joan of Arc statue, brought her good reviews.^{[citation needed]} In 1954 she played Beth in Shield For Murder, earning $500.00 per day for playing the role.^[7]

She was cast in From Here to Eternity, but a bout with pneumonia forced her to withdraw. Donna Reed, almost a decade Jones's senior, was recast in her role and won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance.

Jones made her TV debut on the DuMont series Gruen Playhouse in 1952. She appeared in two Rod Cameron syndicated series, City Detective and State Trooper, as Betty Fowler in the 1956 episode, "The Paperhanger of Pioche". She guest-starred in Ray Milland's CBS sitcom, Meet Mr. McNutley. In 1955, Jones appeared on the anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the episode "The Cheney Vase" as a secretary assisting her scheming boyfriend Darren McGavin in attempting an art theft, and opposite Ruta Lee. In the 1962-1963 season, Jones guest starred on CBS's The Lloyd Bridges Show, which Spelling created. While married to Spelling, she appeared on the NBC program, Here's Hollywood.^{[citation needed]}

Jones appeared in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alfred Hitchcock's remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party. In 1958, she shared a Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Newcomer" with Sandra Dee and Diane Varsi, and appeared with Elvis Presley in King Creole.

In 1959, she played opposite Frank Sinatra in Frank Capra's A Hole in the Head, Dean Martin in Career, and Anthony Quinn in Last Train from Gun Hill. In 1960, she guest starred with James Best and Jack Mullaney in the episode "Love on Credit" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson, a Four Star Television production. By 1963, she and Spelling were separated, and by 1964 they were divorced.

She appeared three times as a guest star in the TV series Wagon Train, in the first season (1957) episode "The John Cameron Story," and in the later color episodes "The Jenna Albright Story" (1961) and "The Molly Kincaid Story" (1963).

In 1964, with a long coal black wig, Jones began playing Morticia Addams in the television series The Addams Family, a role which brought her success as a comedienne and a Golden Globe Award nomination. She guest-starred on the 1960s TV series Batman, playing Marsha, the Queen of Diamonds,^[8] and in 1976 appeared as the title character's mother, Hippolyta, on the Wonder Woman TV series. Her last role was the scheming matriarch of Clegg Clan, Myrna in the soap opera "Capitol".

Literary work[link]

In 1971, Jones wrote a novel titled, Twice Upon a Time, which was published by Trident Press.^[9] The story follows the life of Susan Maxwell, a "glamorous movie star" through her work as an actress and through her romances. There are similarities with this character and Jones herself, as it explores Hollywood life, as well as the character's roots in Texas; Jones herself was raised in Texas.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life and illness[link]

Her acting career began to decline after The Addams Family ended in 1966. Sporadic roles in the 1970s included that of Mrs. Moore, the wife of the plantation owner who was also "Chicken George's" father, in the Roots mini-series.

Jones landed the role of the power-driven political matriarch Myrna Clegg in the CBS daytime television soap opera Capitol in 1981. The following year, shortly after Capitol debuted, she was diagnosed with colon cancer, and played many of her scenes in a wheelchair.^{[citation needed]} The cancer spread quickly to her liver and stomach. Marj Dusay took over her role after Jones died of cancer.^[10]

Marriages[link]

Carolyn Jones was married four times. While studying at the Pasadena Playhouse, Jones married Don Donaldson a twenty-eight year-old fellow student; the couple soon divorced.^[11] Jones was subsequently married to television producer Aaron Spelling from 1953 until 1964;^[12] Tony Award-winning Broadway musical director, vocal arranger and co-producer, Herbert Greene, who was her vocal coach, from 1968 until their divorce in 1977; and British actor Peter Bailey-Britton from 1982 until her death.

Death[link]

Jones died on August 3, 1983, aged 53, at her home in West Hollywood, California, nine months after her wedding to Bailey-Britton on December 14, 1982. Her body was entombed at Melrose Abbey Memorial Park Cemetery in Anaheim, California, beside her mother.

Acting credits[link]

Film appearances[link]

TV appearances[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carolyn Jones

• Carolyn Jones at the Internet Movie Database
• Carolyn Jones at AllRovi
• Carolyn Jones at Yahoo! Movies
• Carolyn Jones at the Internet Broadway Database
• Carolyn Jones at Cult Sirens
• Carolyn Jones at filmreference.com

Charles Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American journalist. He was most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.

Kuralt's "On the Road" segments were recognized twice with personal Peabody Awards. The first, awarded in 1968, cited those segments as heartwarming and "nostalgic vignettes"; in 1975, the award was for his work as a U.S. "bicentennial historian"; his work "capture[d] the individuality of the people, the dynamic growth inherent in the area, and ...the rich heritage of this great nation."^[1] He shared in a third Peabody awarded to CBS News Sunday Morning.

Early life and career[link]

Kuralt was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a boy he won a children's sports writing contest for a local newspaper by writing about a dog that got loose on the field during a baseball game. Charles’ father, Wallace H. Kuralt. Sr., moved his family to Charlotte in 1945, when he became Director of Public Welfare in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.^[2] Their house ^[3] off Sharon Road, then 10 miles south of the city, was the only structure in the area. During the years he lived in that house, Kuralt became one of the youngest radio announcers in the country. Later, at Charlotte’s Central High School, Kuralt was voted “Most Likely to Succeed.”^[4] In 1948, he was named one of four National Voice of Democracy winners at age 14, where he won a $500 scholarship. He later attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he became editor of The Daily Tar Heel and joined St. Anthony Hall. He worked as a reporter for the Charlotte News in his home state, where he wrote "Charles Kuralt's People," a column that won him an Ernie Pyle Award. He moved to CBS as a writer, where he became well known as the host of the Eyewitness to History series. He traveled around the world as a journalist for the network, including stints as CBS's Chief Latin American Correspondent and then as Chief West Coast Correspondent.^[5]

In 1967, Kuralt and a CBS camera crew accompanied Ralph Plaisted in his attempt to reach the North Pole by snowmobile, which resulted in the documentary To the Top of the World and his book of the same name.

"On the Road"[link]

Kuralt was said to have tired of what he considered the excessive rivalry between reporters on the hard news beats:

"I didn't like the competitiveness or the deadline pressure," he told the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, upon his induction to their Hall of Fame. "I was sure that Dick Valeriani of NBC was sneaking around behind my back — and of course, he was! — getting stories that would make me look bad the next day. Even though I covered news for a long time, I was always hoping I could get back to something like my little column on the Charlotte News."^[6]

When he persuaded CBS to let him try out just such an idea for three months, it turned into a quarter-century project. "On the Road" became a regular feature on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in 1967.^[7] Kuralt hit the road in a motor home (he wore out six before he was through) with a small crew and avoided the interstates in favor of the nation's back roads in search of America's people and their doings. He said, "Interstate highways allow you to drive coast to coast, without seeing anything".^[8]

According to Thomas Steinbeck, the older son of John Steinbeck, the inspiration for "On the Road" was Steinbeck's Travels with Charley (whose title was initially considered as the name of Kuralt's feature). During his career, he won three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards for journalism. He also won a George Polk Award in 1980 for National Television Reporting.

Retirement and death[link]

At age 60, Kuralt surprised many by retiring from CBS News. At the time, he was the longest tenured on-air personality in the News division. Yet he hinted that his retirement might not be complete — in 1995 he narrated the TLC documentary The Revolutionary War and in early 1997 he signed on to host a syndicated, three-times-a-week, ninety-second broadcast, "An American Moment," presenting what CNN called "slices of Americana." At that time, Kuralt also agreed to host a CBS cable broadcast show, I Remember, designed as a weekly, hourlong review of significant news from the three previous decades.

He was hospitalized in 1997 and died of complications from lupus, aged 62, that year.

One of Kuralt's books was titled North Carolina Is My Home. Kuralt's younger brother Wallace, who died in December 2003, was also well known in his home state, having been the owner of The Intimate Bookshop on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill for many years. In addition, a portion of land along the Roanoke, Tar, Neuse, Cape Fear Ecosystem — so named for the rivers which flow into the Albemarle, Currituck, and Pamlico Sounds — has been named for Kuralt, honoring his having given as much time to nature and wildlife as to people in his "On the Road" and Sunday Morning stories.

By request in his will, Kuralt was buried on the UNC grounds in Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.^[9] The University uses a Kuralt speech in its television commercials and displays many of his awards and a re-creation of his office in its Journalism School.

Posthumous controversy[link]

Two years after his death, Kuralt's personal reputation came under scrutiny when a decades-long companionship with a Montana woman named Patricia Shannon was made public. Kuralt apparently had a second, "shadow" family with Shannon while his wife lived in New York City and his daughters from a previous marriage lived on the eastern seaboard. Shannon asserted that the house in Montana had been willed to her, a position upheld by the Montana Supreme Court. According to court testimony, Kuralt had met Shannon while doing a story on "Pat Baker Park" in Reno, Nevada, that Shannon had promoted and volunteered to build in 1968. The park was in a low-income area of Reno that had no parks until Shannon promoted her plan. Kuralt mentions Pat Shannon and the building of the park — but not the affair — in his autobiography.^{[10][11][12][13]}

References[link]

External links[link]

• Charles Kuralt Collection, 1935-1997 in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Ralph Grizzle, Remembering Charles Kuralt. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2000. (ISBN 0967909600)
• Charles Kuralt's People. Asheville, North Carolina: Kenilworth Media, 2005. A collection of his award winning Charlotte News columns.
• Booknotes interview with Kuralt on Charles Kuralt's America, December 31, 1995.
• CNN, "Charles Kuralt, CBS's Poet of Small-Town America, Dies at 62", a CNN obituary
• In re Estate of Kuralt, 15 P.3d 931 (2000)
• Find-A-Grave profile for Charles Kuralt

William "Bill" Geist (born May 10, 1945) is an American author, columnist, and television journalist.

Early life[link]

Geist was born in Champaign, Illinois, and graduated from Champaign Central High School. He served in the United States Army as a combat photographer with the First Infantry Division in Vietnam. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, graduating with a BA Communications (1968), and the University of Missouri, graduating with an MA in Communications (1971). He later returned to the University of Illinois, giving the speech at the 2005 commencement.

Career[link]

Geist began his career in 1972 when he joined the Chicago Tribune's Suburban Trib subsidiary, where he worked as a reporter and columnist until 1980. From 1980 until 1987, he was a New York Times columnist; his "About New York" column appeared twice a week during this time. In August 1987, he joined CBS as a correspondent, where he contributes to CBS Evening News, 60 Minutes II and, occasionally, CBS Sports. He appears regularly on CBS Sunday Morning hosted by Charles Osgood, where he offers the Everyman's perspective on American pop culture and current events.^[1]

Geist is the bestselling author of a number of books including:

• Toward a Safe & Sane Halloween & Other Tales of Suburbia (1985)
• The Zucchini Plague and Other Tales of Suburbia (1987)
• City Slickers (1990)
• Little League Confidential: One Coach's Completely Unauthorized Tale of Survival (1992)
• Monster Trucks and Hair in a Can: Who Says America Doesn't Make Anything Anymore? (1994)
• The Big Five-Oh: Facing, Fearing, and Fighting Fifty (1997)
• FORE! PLAY: The Last American Male Takes Up Golf (2001)
• Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America (2007)

Awards[link]

His awards include a 1992 Emmy Award for his report on the 66th anniversary of Route 66 and a 2005 Emmy Award for his report on Greenwood, Mississippi, the headquarters of the Viking Range Company.

On April 15, 2011 he was awarded the 2,437th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an honor he had applied for himself, two years earlier, as a joke, while doing a story on the Walk for CBS News.^[2]

Personal life[link]

He married his wife Jody in June 1970. They live in New York City and have two children: a son, Willie Geist, who works at MSNBC as a co-host of the show, Morning Joe, and a daughter, Libby Geist, who is an award-winning documentary film producer (Crazy Love, Black Magic, Ring of Fire).

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bill Geist at IMDB
• CBS News Sunday Morning

Uncle Fester, or Fester Addams, is a member of the fictional Addams Family and the antagonist of the crossover films. He was played by Jackie Coogan in the original television series, by Christopher Lloyd in the first two feature films, and by Patrick Thomas in the third, Addams Family Reunion. Finally, Michael Roberds played Fester in The New Addams Family. In the Broadway musical, the part was originated by Kevin Chamberlin, with Brad Oscar taking over on March 8, 2011.

Character[link]

Uncle Fester is a particularly shy man when it comes to seeing someone he likes and he is a completely hairless, hunched, and barrel-shaped man with dark, sunken eyes and often a deranged smile. He always wears a heavy, full-length fur coat. Fester was derived from a character drawn by cartoonist Charles Addams, although these were single page cartoons, with no stories or character names. Nevertheless, the character is recognizable in a number of cartoons, both by his appearance (bald, stooping, sunken eyes) and behavior (e.g. turning the shower to a special "scalding" setting, feeding his garden plants on blood plasma, or releasing an eagle on the neighbor's homing pigeons). However, he is almost never seen in the same cartoons with the rest of the family, even for family celebrations like pouring boiling oil on carol singers (though he was in one cartoon with the two children—going fishing with dynamite). It may be that he was introduced to the family at the time of the sitcom for dramatic convenience. It is known that the name "Fester" was chosen by Addams for the sitcom.

Fester has a strange ability to conduct electricity. He would often demonstrate this by putting a light bulb in his mouth, which would illuminate, accompanied by a loud, crackling noise (in the TV series the bulb's wire is sometimes clearly visible). He claims to possess 110 watts of power in one episode of the sitcom, while in another episode he demonstrated his "magnetic" quality by levitating a metal paperweight up to his hand. When struck directly on the head by a fired cannonball, he appears only mildly dazed, while the cannonball bounces off his head.

He also often appears happy to suffer from a severe migraine that can only be relieved by putting his head in a screw press and tightening it to levels that normal people would not be able to withstand. Other times, he seems to do it for mere fun.

In the original sitcom of the 1960s, Fester is said to be Morticia's maternal uncle, but in all other filmed and animated content he is Gomez's brother, making him uncle to Wednesday and Pugsley. He is known as "Tío Lucas" in Spanish-speaking countries. In Brazil, he has two names: "Tio Chico" (original series and cartoon), and "Tio Funéreo" (movies).

Live action TV series[link]

In the 1960s television series, Fester (played by Jackie Coogan) is uncle to Morticia Addams. In one episode, he became perplexed when asked his last name, suggesting that he has none or has somehow forgotten it. In several episodes, Fester refers to the Addams lineage as if it were his own, but the flashbacks in the episodes "Morticia's Romance, Parts 1 and 2," clearly establish him as Morticia's uncle, brother of her mother, Hester Frump, a.k.a. Granny Frump (Margaret Hamilton). Perhaps, lacking a last name of his own, Fester was all the more dedicated to upholding the honor of another. In various episodes, he was a partner in typical sitcom schemes with Gomez, Morticia, or Grandmama Addams, indicating no real preference for any family member over others.

Fester's known ancestry dates back to his Great-Grandfather Blob (not to be confused with Gomez's Cousin Blob, a two-headed ghost), who received the gift of a sacred ruby after he had pried it from the head of a Hindu (whom it was giving a terrible headache). The ruby remained in the family until Fester unthinkingly used his slingshot to hurl it at a yowling stray cat. "It was the only rock in the house!" he said in his defense.

Per the 1960s sitcom, little is known of Fester's childhood, save that his father (Morticia's maternal grandfather) was an excruciatingly strict man who severely disciplined him, paddling him even when he was good and paying him to stay out of public (Fester considered this to be experience in "public relations"). He refused to allow Fester to even touch a battleaxe (a treasured toy among people with the Addams's macabre tastes) until he was eight. As an adult, Fester defended his father's strictness, pointing to his own character as proof of its effectiveness: "I didn't become what I am by accident! I had upbringing like no other!"

Fester has also offered contradictory information about his educational background. In the sitcom's first episode, he notes that he never went to school ("And look how [well] I turned out!"), but he later claims to have failed recess three times. As an adult, Fester took correspondence courses in various subjects, and his educational endeavors occasionally formed an episode's main plot. It may be from one such course that he obtained his fraternity paddle, which he once threatened to use on Wednesday in imitation of his father's punishment style; however, like many an uncle, Fester proved to have more bark than bite in dealing with the children. When he suspects someone of maligning, cheating, or otherwise mistreating anyone in the family, Fester is ever ready with his blunderbuss "Genevieve", eager to "shoot 'em in the back!" However, he is far less eager in meeting a malefactor in a face-to-face duel; he was briefly enthusiastic about a pistol duel with a enemy until he asked, somewhat timidly, "Does he get one too?...Loaded?"

Another prized possession was his cannon, "Old Reliable", which he normally kept in his bedroom. Fester maintained a treehouse in the Addams yard and frequently retreated to his closet to think. After receiving the gift of a motorcycle in the episode "The Addams Family Meets a Beatnik", Fester often drove it through the living room, inevitably crashing in the conservatory (Several episodes used identical footage of this scenario.). Fester also collects three-dollar bills.

The 1998 live-action series continues the tradition of having Fester (played by Michael Roberds) as Gomez's biological brother, yet between this version and the 1960s series this is the only visible difference.

Animated TV series[link]

This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. Please help clarify the article; suggestions may be found on the talk page. (February 2009)

In the first animated series by Hanna-Barbera, Jackie Coogan reprised his role as Fester. In the second animated series by Hanna-Barbera, Fester was voiced by Rip Taylor. In this series, Fester is perhaps the most loving of self-inflicted injury. He would allow other members (usually Lurch) to harm him anyway they can, but his greatest fondness was blowing himself up. As a running gag, Fester would never believe Grandmama's predictions until she predicts something that causes him great harm (or in his case, great joy). Fester also is very fond of the Addamses' next door neighbour, Norman Normanmayer, a boring person controlling an underwear empire, who hates Fester (and the whole Addams family) for his strangeness (on an occasion, Fester comes on a visit through the sewer pipes). Fester seems quite oblivious to the matter that Norman hates him and, possibly due to the Addams family nature, thinks that all the angry, aggressive outbreaks are a sign of affection.

This Fester also introduces himself, through his self-made comic books, as "Festerman", a gothic hero with a weakness to chimneys, who gives his flying cape to enemies upon request—so as to fall and would bring villains to their knees...simply by enjoying all the harm they would give him to the point of wearing them out. During this series, he is given a musical-type episode about the "Fester Way", his own, strange way of life.

Film[link]

In the movie, The Addams Family, Fester (played by Christopher Lloyd) is the long-lost brother of Gomez Addams. He was believed to have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle for twenty-five years. A grifter named Abigail Craven (Elizabeth Wilson) conspires to steal the Addams' fortune using her son, Gordon, who displays an eerie resemblance to the missing Fester. On the night that the Addamses hold a séance to contact Fester's spirit, Gordon shows up at their door, posing as Fester. Although he is baffled and horrified by the Addamses at first, Gordon begins to take a liking to the family and their eccentric ways. In the end, he disobeys his mother and helps Gomez and his family get their house back. It is later discovered that Gordon is actually Fester, and that Abigail found him after his accident in the Bermuda Triangle, suffering from amnesia.

In Gomez's home movies from their childhood, Fester is shown to be hairless as a child (although, as Gordon Craven, he is seen shaving his head). At the end of the movie, it is revealed that Fester acquires his ability to conduct electricity after being electrocuted by lightning, which also restores his memory.

Fester also appears in the film's sequel (again played by Lloyd), Addams Family Values. This film centers around Fester's marriage to Debbie (Joan Cusack), the recently hired nanny who wishes to murder Fester and inherit his share of the Addams fortune.

Fester again appears in the direct-to-video film Addams Family Reunion, here played by Patrick Thomas. He is portrayed as a mad scientist reminiscent of old Grade-B horror films. He creates a dog named "Butcher" as a birthday present for Pugsley -- a dog that mutates into a hair-devouring brute whenever someone says "good boy." At the end, Butcher attacks Cousin Itt -- who is, understandably, quite nervous around him.

Musical[link]

In the musical, Uncle Fester, who has been played by Brad Oscar and Kevin Chamberlin is, as aforementioned, shy around people he likes; in this case, he's in love with the moon. Fester serves as the narrator, and interacts more with the audience than with the rest of the family. The subject of love is apparently his "specialty," and he is able to play the banjo, shown when he sings a love song to the moon.

Video games[link]

Uncle Fester has appeared in several Addams Family video games, frequently as the player character or a playable character. He is the star of his own Nintendo Entertainment System game titled Fester's Quest and the main playable character in the Addams Family Values Super Nintendo Entertainment System game. He is also the main character in "Electrifying" arcade machine, where simulated "electrical shocks" are passed through the player as they hold on to 2 handles. He also appeared as an antagonist to Heavy Metal 2000: The Videogame.

References[link]