Lisa Loring, who played young Wednesday Addams on The Addams Family from 1964 to 1966 and also appeared in As the World Turns, died Saturday of a stroke, her daughter Vanessa Foumberg confirmed. She was 64.
“She walked peacefully with her two daughters holding hands,” Foumberg said.
A friend, Laurie Jacobson, announced her death on Facebook and wrote that she “was always in our hearts as Wednesday Addams.”
Butch Patrick, who played Eddie Munster in The Munsters, also remembered her on Facebook, writing: “Very sorry to hear of the passing of my dear friend Lisa Loring. We were very close and often worked together. I know she was very weak. I was in your company just a few weeks ago. Thank God my friend.”
Loring’s shimmering frug dance called “The Drew” Frug has garnered renewed attention with the new Netflix series Wednesday, in which Jenna Ortega presents her own take on the Wednesday dance. Her character, Wednesday Addams, was good-natured but dark and had a penchant for collecting creepy pets, including a black widow spider named Homer and a lizard named Lucifer, as well as playing with a headless doll.
Born in the Marshall Islands to parents who had served in the Navy, Loring lived in Hawaii before relocating to Los Angeles with her mother. She started modeling at the age of 3 and was then featured in an episode of “Dr. Kildare.”
After The Addams Family ended its two-year run, Loring Phyllis joined Diller’s sitcom The Pruitts of Southampton.
She appeared on shows like The Girl From UNCLE, Fantasy Island, and Barnaby Jones, and then secured a recurring role as Cricket Montgomery on As the World Turns from 1980-1983.
Lisa Loring has performed at conventions and fan events over the years.
Later in the 1980s she had roles in genre films such as Savage Harbor and Blood Frenzy and worked as a makeup artist on adult films under the name Maxine Factor.
She leaves behind two daughters, Marianne and Vanessa.