Lisa Loring, best known as the first actress to play Wednesday Addams in the original The Addams Family sitcom, has died at 64.
Loring’s daughter, Vanessa Foumberg, confirmed in a statement to Variety that her mother died on Saturday after a stroke.
“She went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands,” Foumberg said.
Laurie Jacobson, Loring’s friend, also reported her death on Facebook, saying she had “suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure.”
“She had been on life support for three days. Yesterday, her family made the difficult decision to remove it and she passed last night,” Jacobson wrote.
“She is embedded in the tapestry that is pop culture and in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams.”
At just six years old, Loring was the first actress to play pigtail-wearing Wednesday after being cast in The Addams Family in 1964. She played the role for the show’s two-year run.
The role has since been played by Christina Ricci in the 1991 hit movie The Addams Family and its 1993 sequel Addams Family Values, and Jenna Ortega in Tim Burton’s Netflix comedy horror Wednesday last year.
Loring’s acting credits also include shows The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Fantasy Island and Barnaby Jones.
From 1980 to 1983, she played the character Cricket Montgomery on the US soap opera As The World Turns. She also appeared in three B-rate slasher films: Blood Frenzy (1987), Iced (1988), and Savage Harbor (1987).
Loring was married four times and is survived by her two children.
Her death leaves 92-year-old John Astin – who played her father Gomez Addams – as the last surviving cast member of The Addams Family.
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