When dark comedy The Addams Family was released back in 1991, it quickly became a box office hit, grossing more than $190 million worldwide on a budget of less than $30 million.
Audiences were gripped by the movie’s depiction of twisted family values and fell in love with the deadpan one-liners delivered with icy precision by Christina Ricci in her role as Wednesday.
While it wasn’t a huge critical success – receiving only one Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design – it has since become a cult classic.
Are there any members of The Addams Family still alive?
The Addams Family film wasn’t the first on-screen iteration of Charles Addams’ New Yorker cartoons.
A TV show by the same name aired in the 1960s in black and white, with Lisa Loring playing Wednesday.
All but one of the main cast members have since passed away, with John Astin, who played Gomez Addams, the last survivor. He turned 95 in March 2025.
So what happened to the cast who brought the beloved franchise back to life on the big screen? We take a look at where The Addams Family is now.
Gomez Addams – Raul Julia
Raul Julia was the actor whose energetic performance brought the character of Gomez Addams to life.
But before the movie thrust him into the limelight, he was a leading actor with the New York Shakespeare Festival, with a long career in theatre.
Who is Gomez Addams in real life?
After his appearance in the 1991 film, he returned to the role in the 1993 sequel Addams Family Values. But his life would be beset by health struggles.
Throughout the early 1990s, Raul suffered from stomach cancer, which he underwent surgery for, but he continued to perform – filming The Burning Season and Street Fighter in 1994 despite being physically unwell.
He died in October 1994 at the age of 54 after suffering a stroke.
Morticia Addams – Anjelica Huston
Shortly before she bewitched audiences as Morticia Addams, actress Anjelica Huston had already delivered a bone-chilling performance as the Grand High Witch in the film adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic The Witches.
It was a performance that has since seen her character viewed as one of the most iconic villains in family-horror cinema.
Shortly before she took on the role of Morticia, Anjelica had come to the end of an almost two-decade relationship with Hollywood star Jack Nicholson.
She threw herself into her new opportunity. Anjelica’s portrayal of Morticia in The Adams Family was described as “elegant and wickedly funny” by the New York Times, and her on-screen chemistry with Raul Julia’s Gomez was notable.
But the character came at a cost. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Anjelica revealed the corset she had to wear during filming was deeply uncomfortable.
“Come afternoon, I could be prone to a really good headache from my various bondages,” she told the publication. ”And because I couldn’t lie down (in the corset) or rest, it was fairly exhausting.”
After her role in The Addams Family, Anjelica continued to work in film and television, notably collaborating with Wes Anderson to appear in his films The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited.
In 1992, the actress, now 74, married renowned sculptor Robert Graham. The pair remained together until Robert’s death in 2008.
Uncle Fester – Christopher Lloyd
While Christopher Lloyd’s portrayal of Uncle Fester in The Addams Family remains a firm fan favourite, many people will recognise him for his most famous role, as Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future films.
But despite the actor’s appearance in a string of hits (he also played Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit), he went on to have a fairly low-profile career.
In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, the actor, aged in his 80s, reflected on how it wasn’t fame that he was seeking.
“I need to express myself,” Lloyd explains. “And I gradually discovered that through acting in a role, I could relate to people. So I stuck with it.”
Today, aged 86, Christopher is still acting, with a recurring role in the TV series Tooned Out. The star, who has been married five times, is happily settled with real estate agent Lisa Loiacono and values keeping busy.
“I don’t really mind as long as I’m working,” he told The Guardian. “Whether it’s a lead or cameos, or supporting roles, I love to be doing it. I don’t wait around for the ideal role to come my way – I’ll take what’s given.”
Wednesday Addams – Christina Ricci
After the success of her icy role as Wednesday Addams, actress Christina Ricci went on to become something of an Indie darling, appearing in the 1995 coming-of-age drama Now and Then; the Ang Lee drama The Ice Storm in 1997, and the comedy romance The Opposite of Sex in 1998.
The 2000s saw her take on darker, grittier roles, including as Katrina Van Tassel opposite Johnny Depp in 1999’s Sleepy Hollow, and the girlfriend of serial killer Aileen Wuornos – played by Charlize Theron – in the 2003 film Monster.
In 2013, Christina married camera technician James Heerdegen. The pair had met on the set of the TV show Pam Am in 2011 and went on to welcome a son, Freddie, in 2014.
Christina filed for divorce in July 2020, citing “irreconcilable differences”. In 2021, she married British hairstylist Mark Hampton, and their daughter Cleopatra Ricci Hampton was born in December that year.
Speaking candidly to Anna Faris’ Unqualified podcast in August 2022, Christina, now 45, opened up about marriage in general.
“I would say — and this sounds really annoying and cloying and stupid — but I would say the first time I really fell in love in a healthy way is probably this marriage that I’m in now,” the star said.
“I think that a lot of my relationships in the past had a lot to do with unhealthy things that I was looking for. And I don’t know if you can call [it] love, but I don’t think things that aren’t good for you should be called love,”
Pugsley Addams – Jimmy Workman
After starring in The Addams Family, the actor who played Pugsley when he was just 11 years old took on some minor roles before stepping away from performing entirely.
Jimmy Workman – the older brother of Modern Family star Ariel Winter – instead shifted to working behind the camera, moving into technical and production roles.
Now 44, he lives a life out of the spotlight.
Lurch – Carel Struycken
Known for portraying the towering butler Lurch in The Addams Family, actor Carel Struycken returned for the film’s sequel in 1993 and also for the 1998 TV movie Addams Family Reunion.
He would go on to take on roles as the giant in Twin Peaks and Mr Homn in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He also appeared as Arquillian in the 1997 film Men in Black.
The actor’s height was due to the condition acromegaly – a disorder that leads to excess growth in parts of the body.
Today, Carel, aged 77, is a passionate photographer who creates unique spherical panoramas of landscapes and urban environments.
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Tracey and two children, but the family tragically lost their home to the devastating California wildfires in January 2025.
Thing – Christopher Hart
You never saw Christophre Hart’s face in The Addams Family, because he played a disembodied hand.
He was a top choice for the quirky part, given that he was a skilled magician and sleight-of-hand artist.
After the hit film brought him worldwide fame, Christopher continued to perform magic shows across the globe. He also penned books on magic techniques.
In a 2022 interview with The Face, Christopher, now 64, reflected on the very strange fame he found with Thing.
“Thing, I realise, is a legitimate movie star. I’ll be at a party with friends and then their family comes and they’ll introduce me. And then, because they’re my friends and they’re proud of my credit, they’ll say: ’ Oh, and he played Thing in The Addams Family.’ And they’ll freak out!” he explained.
“They’ll want to look at my hand. And so I do these shots now – when people ask me for photographs, I realise that they don’t really want me in the photograph, per se.
“So I’ll do these shots where I hide behind their back, and I put my hand on their head. They like it when I shake their hand because they’re touching a movie star.”
Grandmama – Judith Malina
After portraying Grandmama in The Addams Family, Judith Malina went back to focusing on her work in theatre.
She produced and directed shows for her experimental theatre company – The Living Theatre – until the last years of her life.
Judith died in April 2015, aged 88, after suffering from lung disease.
