Charles Addams

Lore & Background

Addams was born in Westfield, New Jersey, the son of Grace M. Spear and Charles Huey Addams, a piano company executive. As a child, he enjoyed visiting the Presbyterian Cemetery, wondering what it was like to be dead. He was distantly related to U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams and was a first cousin twice removed to social reformer Jane Addams. He attended Colgate University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Grand Central School of Art in New York City.

Addams joined the layout department of True Detective magazine in 1933, retouching photos of corpses. His first drawing for The New Yorker appeared in the February 4, 1933, issue, and his first Addams Family cartoon ran on August 6, 1938. During World War II, he served at the Signal Corps Photographic Center making animated training films. He created a 1952 mural for a Hamptons hotel bar, now at Penn State. Television producer David Levy approached him to create The Addams Family series, for which Addams named characters and suggested qualities for actors.

Addams married three times: first to Barbara Jean Day in 1943, who resembled Morticia Addams; second to Barbara Barb in 1954, a lawyer who gained control of Addams Family rights; and third to Marilyn Matthews Miller in a pet cemetery. He was sociable and debonair, accompanying women such as Greta Garbo and Jacqueline Kennedy. He died on September 29, 1988, at age 76.

Reader's Guide

Charles Addams created a lasting cultural icon in the Addams Family, a group of ghoulish characters that first appeared in The New Yorker in 1938 and later inspired a television series, films, and merchandise. His work, characterized by dark humor and macabre settings, drew from his childhood experiences in Westfield, New Jersey, including visits to a cemetery and houses that inspired the Addams Family mansion. Over his career, Addams drew more than 1,300 cartoons for publications such as The New Yorker, Collier's, and TV Guide, and published collections including Drawn and Quartered and Monster Rally. He received a Special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1961. His influence extended to film title sequences for The Old Dark House and Murder by Death, and his friendship with Ray Bradbury led to a planned but unrealized collaboration. The Addams Family remains a staple of popular culture, reflecting Addams's unique perspective on the grotesque and the humorous.

Did You Know?

• Addams retouched photos of corpses for True Detective magazine, complaining that 'a lot of those corpses were more interesting the way they were.'
• He was distantly related to U.S. presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.
• His third wedding took place in a pet cemetery.
• Alfred Hitchcock owned two pieces of original Addams art and referenced him in the film North by Northwest.