Cartoonist, Charles Addams

Not only the creator of the Addams Family, but Charles Addams, was a cartoonist of over 5,000 macabre and wickedly funny 1 panel cartoons. 

He had a passion for unique classic cars and quite the ladies man back in his day. He even had a series of affairs with Joan Fontaine, Jackie Onassis and even Greta Garbo!

Notice how the background use gray tones and perspective accurately in his drawings.

 

His first wife, Barbara Day resembled the character who became known as Morticia in 1933, many years before he married Barbara or either of his two other wives, all of whom had that similar look.

 

This photograph of Addams drawing Morticia as Barbara “poses” was nothing more than a set-up publicity shot. She hated all that referencing of her and Morticia and, after her divorce, she cut her hair into a page-boy style and wore it that way the rest of her life.


1st Wife: Barbara Jean Day           2nd Wife: Barbara Barb      3rd Wife: Marilyn Matthews Miller

Of the three wives, 2nd wife Barbara Barb looked even more like Morticia than Barbara Day. (She even got a nose job to match the character.) But she was an abusive woman who once attacked her husband with an African spear. She was also a lawyer, and she used her legal skills to force Addams to sign over the rights to many of his cartoons. By the time the couple divorced just two years into their marriage, Barb had complete control of The Addams Family rights, and she stalled production on the television show until the producers agreed to give her more money.

 

 

 

There were also 3 actresses who played Morticia; first played by Carolyn Jones in the Addams Family TV series and later by Angelica Huston in the feature film version and Daryl Hannah in the direct to video version.

From People Magazine: 10/17/1988 At first glance, his drawings seem crude, but art critic John Russell has noted “the rock-solid composition, the eye for scale and placement, the calculated ordinariness that lures us into the trap.” 

Cartoonists admire Addams’ sense of architecture. “You could build the rooms he draws,” says his friend Frank Modell, “and his figures are constructed like Romanesque temples.” James Stevenson, another friend, finds his buildings “weirdly animated. You’re not sure what’s alive in his drawings and what isn’t.” And all these effects, Modell says, were achieved with technical mastery. “When Chas painted a cartoon, he began at the top and worked straight down to the bottom—like a rug weaver.” 

 

Charles Addams wanted to be remembered as a "Good Cartoonist," but he became a great American Cartoonist and died on the morning of September 29, 1988, in his car in front of his apartment at West 54th Street in New York City. Tee Addams (Marilyn Matthews) his wife made a remark that could have been a caption for one of his cartoons: "He's always been a car buff, so it was a nice way to go," she told The New York Times.

Who was your favorite Morticia? Did you learn something new? Let us know in the comments section below...

Great Doc about Addams

Learn more about Charles Addams

http://www.charlesaddams.com/

Chas Addams: A Cartoonist' Life

The World of Charles Addams