Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912 – September 29, 1988) was an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

known for his darkly humorous and macabre characters. Some of his recurring characters became known as

the Addams Family The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 standalone single-panel comics, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' between 193 ...

, and were subsequently popularized through various adaptations.

Early life

Addams was born in

Westfield, New Jersey Westfield is a Town (New Jersey), town in Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, located southwest of Manhattan. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 31,032, an increase of 716 (+2.4% ...

. He was the son of Grace M. (née Spear; 1879–1943) and Charles Huey Addams (1873–1932), a

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

company executive who had studied to be an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. Known as "something of a rascal around the neighborhood," as childhood friends recalled, Addams was distantly related to U.S. presidents

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

and

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...

, despite the different spellings of their last names, and was a first cousin twice removed to noted social reformer

Jane Addams Laura Jane Addams (September 6, 1860May 21, 1935) was an American Settlement movement, settlement activist, Social reform, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of s ...

. Addams would enjoy the Presbyterian Cemetery on Mountain Avenue in Westfield as a child, where – according to author and Addams expert Ron MacCloskey – he would wonder what it was like to be dead. In the cartoons, his ghoulish creations lived on Cemetery Ridge with a dreadful view. A house on Elm Street and another on Dudley Avenue – into which police once caught him breaking and entering – 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 The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, where Addams studied, was also an inspiration for the mansion. 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.

His father encouraged him to draw, and Addams did cartoons for the Westfield High School yearbook, ''Weathervane''. He attended

Colgate University Colgate University is a Private university, private college in Hamilton, New York, United States. The Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York ...

in 1929 and 1930. At the corners of West Kendrick and Maple Avenues in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

, is another home, and myth, that may have inspired the Addams Family house. He also attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1930 and 1931. He then studied at the Grand Central School of Art in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1931 and 1932.

Career

Charles Addams joined the layout department of ''

True Detective ''True Detective'' is an American Anthology series, anthology Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Nic Pizzolatto for the premium cable network HBO. The series premiered on January 12, 2014, and ...

'' magazine in 1933, where he retouched photos of corpses to remove the blood for appearance alongside magazine stories. Addams complained: "A lot of those corpses were more interesting the way they were." The New Yorker Obituary of October 17, 1988, says his first drawing for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' ran in February 1932. However, his first drawing actually appeared in the February 4, 1933, issue. Here he drew the first in the series that came to be called ''

The Addams Family The Addams Family is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 standalone single-panel comics, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' between 193 ...

'' in August 6, 1938 and ran regularly until his death. Addams remained a freelancer throughout that time. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Addams served at the Signal Corps Photographic Center in New York, where he made animated training films for the U.S. Army. Addams created a 1952 mural for the bar of a

Hamptons The Hamptons, part of the East End (Long Island), East End of Long Island, consist of the town (New York), towns of Southampton (town), New York, Southampton and East Hampton (town), New York, East Hampton, which together compose the South Fork ...

hotel. It is now located in the library at

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with ca ...

and depicts prominent Addams Family members. Television producer David Levy approached Addams with an offer to create ''The Addams Family'' television series, with a little help from the humorist. Addams gave his characters names as well as qualities for actors to use in portrayals; the series ran on ABC from 1964 to 1966.

Cartoons

Addams regularly had cartoons in ''The New Yorker'', and he also created the syndicated single-panel comic ''Out of This World'' between 1955 and 1957. Collections of his work include ''Drawn and Quartered'' (1942) and ''Monster Rally'' (1950), the latter with a foreword by

John O'Hara John Henry O'Hara (January 31, 1905 – April 11, 1970) was an American writer. He was one of America's most prolific writers of Short story, short stories, credited with helping to invent ''The New Yorker'' magazine short story style.John O'H ...

. One cartoon shows two men standing in a patent attorney's office; one points a bizarre gun out the window toward the street, saying: "Death ray, fiddlesticks! Why, it doesn't even slow them up!". ''Dear Dead Days'' (1959) is a scrapbook-like compendium of vintage images (and occasional pieces of text) that appealed to the author'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. Beyond ''The New Yorker'' pages, his cartoons appeared in ''

Collier's } ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...

'' and ''

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'', as well as books, calendars, and other merchandise. The 1957 album ''Ghost Ballads'', featuring folk songs with supernatural themes by singer-guitarist Dean Gitter, was packaged with cover art by Addams depicting a haunted house. The

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the E ...

honored Addams with a Special

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards hon ...

in 1961 for his body of work. The films '' The Old Dark House'' (1963) and '' Murder by Death'' (1976) feature title sequences illustrated by Addams. In 1946, Addams met science-fiction writer

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

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

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...

s 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's 1946 ''Mademoiselle'' illustration used for the book's cover jacket. Although Addams's own characters were well-established by the time of their initial encounter, in a 2001 interview, Bradbury stated: " ddamswent his way and created the Addams Family, and I went my own way and created my family in this book."

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, who served as a film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1977 to 1999, serving as chief critic for the last six years, and then a literary critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, M ...

, in a review of an Addams biography for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 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 John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

." Filmmaker

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

was a friend of Addams, and owned two pieces of original Addams art. Hitchcock references Addams in his 1959 film ''

North by Northwest ''North by Northwest'' is a 1959 American spy thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason. The original screenplay written by Ernest Lehman was intended to be the basis for ...

''. During the auction scene,

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English and American actor. Known for his blended British and American accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he ...

discovers two of his adversaries with someone who he also thinks is against him and says: "The three of you together. Now that's a picture only Charles Addams could draw."

Personal life

Addams met first wife Barbara Jean Day in late 1943, who purportedly resembled his cartoon character Morticia Addams. The marriage ended eight years later after Addams declined to have children (she later married ''New Yorker'' colleague

John Hersey John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to no ...

, author of the book ''

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui has b ...

''). Addams married 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 film franchises and persuaded her husband to give away other legal rights. At one point, she got her husband to take out a US$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 ''Double Indemnity'' is a 1944 American film noir directed by Billy Wilder and produced by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Sistrom. Wilder and Raymond Chandler adapted the screenplay from James M. Cain's Double Indemnity (novel), novel of the same na ...

'' starring Barbara Stanwyck, which I called to his attention." In the movie, Stanwyck's character plotted her husband's murder. The couple divorced in 1956. Addams was "sociable and debonair". A biographer described him as being "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 accompanied women such as

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's Silent film, silent and early Classical Hollywood cinema, golden eras. Regarded as one of the g ...

, Joan Fontaine, and

Jacqueline Kennedy Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American writer, book editor, and socialite who served as the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A popular f ...

on social occasions. For about a year after the death of

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich "Rocky" Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the 41st vice president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. He was also the 49th governor of New York, serving from 1959 to 197 ...

, Addams dated Megan Marshack, the aide who was with the former US vice president when he died. Addams married his third and final wife Marilyn Matthews Miller, best known as "Tee" (1926–2002), in a pet cemetery. The Addamses moved to

Sagaponack, New York Sagaponack ( ) is a Village (New York), village in the Southampton, New York, Town of Southampton in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, on the East End (Long Island), East End of Long Island, in New York (state), New York, United States. T ...

in 1985, where they named their estate "The Swamp".

Death

Addams died on September 29, 1988, at the age of 76, at St. Clare's Hospital and Health Center in New York City, having suffered a heart attack after parking his automobile. An ambulance took him from his apartment to the hospital, where he died in the emergency room. As he had requested, a wake was held rather than a funeral; he had wished to be remembered as a "good cartoonist". In accordance with Addams's wishes, he was cremated, and his ashes were interred in the pet cemetery of "The Swamp" estate.

Legacy

The Tee & Charles Addams foundation was established in 1999 "to interpret and share the artistic achievement of Charles Addams’s life through exhibitions and programs developed from all works by Charles Addams including the Foundation’s own collections and from its copyrights of the Addams oeuvre." Prior to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

the foundation offered tours of the couples' property and displayed artefacts from Addams' life. The Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

was named in his tribute by the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, January 7, 2012, Charles Addams was honored with a

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. Addams was inducted into the

New Jersey Hall of Fame The New Jersey Hall of Fame is an organization that honors individuals from the U.S. state of New Jersey who have made contributions to society and the world beyond. The Hall of Fame is a designated 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, overseen by ...

in 2020. On April 30, 2021, the original art for his macabre holiday illustration "Addams and Evil", a 1947 interior book cartoon from ''The Addams Family Christmas'', sold for $87,500, the author's world auction record, over seven times initial estimates.

Works

Books of Addams's drawings or illustrated by him:Author unknown (date unknown). Tee and Charles Addams Foundation. Retrieved on October 26, 2006, from Addams also illustrated two books by other authors. First was ''But Who Wakes the Bugler?'' (Houghton & Mifflin, 1940) by Peter DeVries. The other was ''Afternoon In the Attic'' (Dodd, Mead, 1950) by John Kobler. He also provided the cover art for such books as ''The Compleat Practical Joker'' (Doubleday, 1953) by H. Allen Smith and ''Here at The New Yorker'' (Random House, 1975) by Brendan Gill. *(illustrations) ''But Who Wakes the Bugler?'' (1940) by Peter DeVries *''Drawn and Quartered'' (1942), first anthology of drawings/cartoons (Random House); re-released 1962 (Simon & Schuster) *''Addams and Evil'' (1947), second anthology (Simon and Schuster) *(illustrations) ''Afternoon in the Attic'' (1950), John Kobler's collection of short stories *''Monster Rally'' (1950) third anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster) *''Homebodies'' (1954), fourth anthology (Simon & Schuster) *''Nightcrawlers'' (1957), fifth anthology (Simon & Schuster) *''Dear Dead Days: A Family Album'' (1959), compilation book of photos (G.P. Putnam & Sons) *''Black Maria'' (1960), sixth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster) *''The Groaning Board'' (1964), seventh anthology (Simon & Schuster) *''The Chas Addams Mother Goose'' (1967), Windmill Books; reissued with additional material 2002 *''My Crowd'' (1970), eighth anthology of drawings (Simon & Schuster) *''Favorite Haunts'' (1976), ninth anthology (Simon & Schuster) *''Creature Comforts'' (1981), tenth anthology (Simon & Schuster) *''The World of Charles Addams'', by Charles Addams (1991), posthumously compiled from works with the copyright owned by his third wife, Marilyn Matthews "Tee" Addams (Knopf) *''Chas Addams Half-Baked Cookbook: Culinary Cartoons for the Humorously Famished'', by Charles Addams (2005), anthology of drawings, some previously unpublished (Simon & Schuster) *''Happily Ever After: A Collection of Cartoons to Chill the Heart of Your Loved One'', by Charles Addams (2006), anthology of drawings, some previously unpublished (Simon & Schuster) *'' The Addams Family: An Evilution'' (2010), about the evolution of

characters; arranged by H. Kevin Miserocchi (Pomegranate) *''Addams' Apple: The New York Cartoons of Charles Addams'' (2020), anthology of drawings (Pomegranate)

References

Notes Bibliography * Hardcover reissue, Turner, 2021 * Obituary, ''The New York Times'', Sept. 30, 1988, p. A1 * Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924-1995: The Complete Index.'' Cambria, CA: Comics Access, 1995. .
"The Charms of the Macabre: Charles Addams's cartoon world is full of loving and caring people. How odd."
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' book review of ''The Addams Family: An Evilution'', edited by H. Kevin Miserocchi.

External links

Charles Addams Foundation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Addams, Charles 1912 births 1988 deaths 20th-century American male artists The Addams Family American comic strip cartoonists American horror artists American humorists American magazine cartoonists American comics writers American comics artists American album-cover and concert-poster artists Artists from New Jersey Artists from New York City Colgate University alumni Edgar Award winners Grotesque Hanna-Barbera people Hugo Award–winning writers The New Yorker cartoonists People from Sagaponack, New York People from Westfield, New Jersey Surreal comedy United States Army personnel of World War II University of Pennsylvania alumni Westfield High School (New Jersey) alumni