They're Creepy & They're KookyA closer look at all the iterations of The Addams Family, who first appeared as cartoons in The New Yorker in 1938 and star in a brand new Tim Burton series in 2022. Watch 'Wednesday' on Netflix.
The Addams Family and The Addams Family Values movies that came out in the 90s are some of the most beloved entries in the creepy, kooky family's franchise. But where is the Addams family cast now? Some, like Christina Ricci, continued their acting careers to great success. Meanwhile, the careers of others, like Raúl Juliá, were sadly cut short.
To find out more about the Addams Family actors and answer the question "where are they now?" read on, and see if any of the answers are surprising.
The precocious Wednesday Addams was Christina Ricci's breakout role (she had only just made her film debut a year before as a 10-year-old in Mermaids). It was also the start of a long and successful acting career bearing Golden Globe, Independent Spirit, MTV Movie, Emmy, and Screen Actors Guild award nominations. She continued appearing in "spooky" roles with Casper, Sleepy Hollow, and The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, but also took on serious dramatic and indie roles as in Monster and The Opposite of Sex. She played Trixie in the2008 live-action Speed Racer, which has gained a fervent cult following but was a notorious box office flop at the time. As of 2020, she was still highly active in her Hollywood career.
When it comes to her personal life, she was briefly engaged to comedian and actor Owen Benjamin in 2008, later announced her engagement to dolly grip James Heerdegen in 2013, and filed for divorce from Heerdegen on July 2, 2020. According to People, news of the divorce followed a domestic battery call at Ricci's home, after which she was reportedly granted an emergency protective order against her husband, and asked for sole legal and physical custody of the couple's five-year-old son, Freddie.
Ricci is also a national spokesperson for RAINN, a network that offers resources and aide for victims of sexual maltreatment.
Pugsley Addams was never much the center of attention in the franchise, and his actor, Jimmy Workman, tends to shy from the spotlight as well. Aside from reprising his role in Addams Family Values, Workman appeared in minor roles in Black Sheep, and As Good as It Gets, as well as making a few TV appearances before retiring as an actor to work behind the camera as part of a technical crew.
As a result, you may actually be more familiar with the name of his little sister, Modern Family star Ariel Winter. In fact, Workman was briefly involved in a legal dispute over the actress back around 2014. He, his parents, and his other sister, Shanelle Gray, battled for custody over the then-teen. Eventually, guardianship was awarded to Gray.
Things have been relatively quiet since then. As of 2019, Jimmy was living in California with his family and working for Teamsters Local 399, a trade union representing working in the motion pictures industry.
Fun fact: the newest Addams family member, baby boy Pubert, was actually a girl, and more than that, he was two girls! The baby was played in alternating scenes by young twins Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper. The two were just one year old at the time of filming. Aside from this appearance, the only other acting work they did was as twins Gracy and Claire Taylor in a 1998 Home Improvement episode titled "Say Goodnight, Gracie."
Since then the two have led relatively private lives, joining school softball teams, going to college and university, and generally being normal. Kristen is even married!
The regal matriarch of the Addams family continued to have as remarkable a life as an actress as Morticia does as a character. Career-wise, she was already a three time Academy Award nominee (and one time winner) before starring in the 1991 film, and was nominated for plenty of Golden Globes and Emmys afterwards. She went on to frequently work in Wes Anderson films, provide voice work throughout the Disney Fairies film franchise, and even appeared in John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum in 2019. Her television work is just as rich and also continues up to the present day, with plenty of voice acting and live action appearances on shows like Transparent.
Aside from acting, she published a memoir in two parts, worked as a director, and became involved in activism, particularly with regards to animal rights. Huston currently sits on the advisory council of Save the Chimps, the largest chimp sanctuary and rescue in history.
As for her personal life, a year after The Addams Family came out, she married sculptor Robert Graham, whom she remained with until his death in 2008.
The ever-romantic and doting Addams family father, Gomez, was portrayed by Puerto Rican actor Raúl Juliá. Like Anjelica Huston, also had quite a career even before his appearance in the film, working primarily in theater on and off Broadway. We saw him return to this world after the first Addams Family movie as he played the title role in a 1992 revival of Man of La Mancha. He then appeared in an award-winning performance as the lead of HBO's The Burning Season, a biographical drama of Brazilian environmentalist Chico Mendes.
Sadly though, his last role in a major theatrical film would come as soon as 1994. He was cast as the arch-villain in the film adaptation of Street Fighter, a role he was excited to take since his children were such huge fans of the videogame. He was unwell throughout filming, however, as he had been battling stomach cancer for the past 3 years. Complications eventually landed him in the hospital, where he suffered a stroke and passed away on October 24th of 1994. He was 54.
Juliá was a humanitarian throughout his life, among many charitable works notably contributing to the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) and The Hunger Project. As such, his wife Merel Juliá honored his legacy by co-founding the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, which anually presents the Raúl Juliá Award for Excellence to an individual or organization that most advances the foundation’s mission to promote the next generation of Latinos in entertainment. HOLA also renamed its Founders Award the Raúl Juliá HOLA Founders Award. He's even had a school named after him.
You wouldn't recognize him out of his role, but there actually was someone under all that hair playing cousin Itt (or It, depending on your preference). As a child, Franklin had a growth hormone deficiency, resulting in his adult height is barely 5 feet. But this ended up boosting his career, as it allowed him to make his debut as Isaac in The Children of the Corn despite being much older than the child character he was portraying. It also made him the perfect height for Itt.
He most recently appeared in episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine in 2017, and Fresh Off the Boat in 2018. But for a time after The Addams Family, he quit acting altogether and actually became an English teacher at a California high school, saying of the decision, "After the events of 9/11, I saw the shallowness of showbiz and felt a great desire to leave a greater legacy than just being Cousin Itt. Teaching seemed to be a perfect fit for my theatrical talents and to touch many lives."
He married David White in 2008, and eventually returned to writing and acting in 2016.
