Characters / The Addams Family

The characters found in The Addams Family.

For characters as presented in Wednesday, see here.

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Addams Family

General

^{Click here to see the family from the 1960s series.}
Their house is a museum where people come to see 'em.

^{Click here to see the family from the '90s films.}
"We gladly feast on those who would subdue us."

The titular family. A weird but loving bunch of people who are unaware that others find them scary or bizarre.

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• Ambiguously Human: For starters, there is the fact that their definition of "playtime" involves methods that would more than likely injure or kill most people, yet they somehow always make it out of their pastimes unscathed. Some of them also have inhuman abilities — Morticia can literally smoke from her body, and Fester can generate electricity, most famously by putting a light bulb in his mouth and it lights up. However, nothing explicit is ever said about any of them actually being some sort of supernatural being (except for Thing, obviously).
• Badass Family: Comes with being able to survive things that would kill most people and being willing to give mean people their just deserts.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: Grandmama makes treats such as toadstool soufflés.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Bordering on Blue-and-Orange Morality. They are often depicted as being completely unaware that other people find them strange or scary.
• Creepy Good: They're good people and a very loving family, but they still have rather creepy and disturbing habits and pastimes.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite how dark, creepy and macabre the family is, the Addams are all genuinely good people. Amusingly, the Addams aren't even aware of how strange they are. They think of themselves as a typical, normal American family and are nice enough to try not to say anything about those weirdos who play with puppies and pick flowers. Gomez and Morticia are actually the most affectionate and loving couple in the show, and possibly in television as a whole, barely keeping their hands off each other and are unashamedly affectionate in public.
• Horrible Judge of Character: The Addams consider the Normanmeyers good family friends despite (or probably because of) the Normanmeyers' actions.
  • In the films, shysters and career criminals like Abigail Craven and Debbie Jellinsky are able to worm their way deeply into the family's good graces quite easily.
• Hypocritical Humor: Par for the course with the jokes of the show. The Addams see themselves as the true normal people; it's everyone else who is a freak.
• Idle Rich: They're a very wealthy family, so Gomez, Morticia and the rest of the adults (besides Lurch, of course) are usually depicted as being unemployed due to not needing to work. On the occasions when Gomez is depicted as having a job, he is shown to be so wildly successful that he barely needs to think about it.
• Inexplicably Awesome: It's unknown how they can do all their crazy games without being killed or hurt.
• Large Ham: To the point of being a House of Hams, they tend to be very dramatic and hammy, especially when "playing".
• Made of Iron: Zigzagged. Most of the time, they never get hurt or killed even when they logically should, however there are some exceptions, such as Gomez getting amnesia in "Amnesia in the Addams Family".
• Mr. Vice Guy: While their reputation as being pretty decent people who usually don't mean harm is generally accurate, they've had their moments of jerkiness:
  • Morticia and Gomez pretend to fight in one episode... except she takes it seriously for some reason, and, as punishment, witholds affection and forces him to sleep on the couch.
  • Wednesday turns into a Big Sister Bully who means actual harm to the campers that annoy her in the 1990s remakes and their spinoff.
  • Tish, too, from the 90s, has much more of a Sugar-and-Ice Personality and has a snobby side, sneering at the children's play about singing flowers and Debbie's liking of pastels. Basically, non-goth preferences are beneath the Addams.
  • Gomez and Fester think Morticia's "odd" sister Ophelia (the Marilyn Munster of the family) is unattractive, weird, and Gomez goes so far as to say the last boyfriend who got away from her was a "lucky man".
  • Gomez deliberately tries to ruin Tish's sculpting career because he can't handle his wife's focus being on something else for so long, even going so far as to try to manipulate her with a lie that the children are suffering under her "neglect".
• Named by the Adaptation: None of them were named until the TV series.
• Nice to the Waiter: Lurch is their faithful manservant and they treat him as a member of their own family, while Lurch doesn't seem to mind working for them.
• Quirky Household: To call them all weird would be putting it lightly, but they're nonetheless an incredibly loving and tight-knit family.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Both of the movies' Big Bads in particular are driven by the Addams' wealth and naïveté making them supposedly easy targets to con and murder as a dark Get-Rich-Quick Scheme. They might have succeeded, were it not for the Addams' other quirks making disposing of them a far more difficult task.
• Thicker Than Water: Whatever else can be said about the Addams family, they stick together.

Gomez Addams

^{Click here to see his incarnation in the 1960s series}
"I love a man with integrity! I wish I knew one."

^{Click here to see his incarnation in the '90s films}
"Dirty pool, old man. I like it!"

Played by: John Astin (1964-66 TV series, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Halloween with the New Addams Family, 1992 animated series), Lennie Weinrib (1973 animated series), Jack Riley (The Addams Family Fun-House), Raúl Juliá (1991 film, 1992 pinball table, Addams Family Values), Tim Curry (Addams Family Reunion), Glenn Taranto (The New Addams Family), Nathan Lane, Roger Rees (Broadway musical), Oscar Isaac (2019 film, 2021 film), Luis Guzman (Wednesday)

The family patriarch. Always exudes a manic sort of energy and high amounts of enthusiasm.

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• The Ace: In the '90s cartoon, to the point he literally can't fail if he tried (in fact, there's an episode where he spends the episode trying, and failing, to fail).
• Adaptational Attractiveness: His live-action television and film counterparts are portrayed as dashing and good-looking, in contrast to his New Yorker counterpart's homely appearance.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In the musical, he doesn't do any of his wacky hobbies.
• Aerith and Bob: He's the only member of the family who has what can be considered a normal name. Although, 'Gomez' is usually a surname.
• All-Loving Hero: Despite his gothic appearance and quirky behavior, he is a very accepting and friendly guy. He doesn't even let the weird (in his opinion) habits of his neighbors stop him. In fact, the only way to upset him is to flirt with his wife.
• Amnesia Episode: He got amnesia in the aptly named episode "Amnesia in the Addams Family".
• Berserk Button: Threaten any member of his family (especially his wife and children) and you have a hell of an enemy to deal with.
• Born Lucky: Gomez's methods of making money have barely any more thought put into them than throwing darts at a board with your eyes closed. Yet no matter what he invests his fortune in it always ends up turning him a mint.
• Character Catchphrase: "Tish! That's French!"
• Cigar Chomper: As shown in the above image, Gomez spends a lot of scenes smoking cigars, even when he's on his head practicing his Zen Yogi poses. While the expensiveness of the habit does reflect the Addams' absurdly large amount of money, the aggressiveness usually implied by the trope usually doesn't come into play, as Gomez is one of the more genial and less intimidating members of the family. (According to the 1991 film, he started smoking at his mother's insistence when he was five years old.)
• Crazy Jealous Guy: He doesn't take kindly to any other man who expresses a romantic interest in his wife.
• Dashing Hispanic: In the movies when portrayed by Raúl Juliá, less so in other depictions when he is played by non-Hispanic actors though Tim Curry, aping Raul Julia, tried to be Hispanic. What's ironic is that Julia himself was trying to play Gomez off as Italian.
• Depending on the Writer: How good he really is with a sword. In most episodes of the 60s show where he fences, it's nothing like as dramatic and fast-paced as the 90s films, but he's not portrayed as terrible and the difference comes across like it could be down to actor/budget limitations. However, at least two episodes make him laughably bad for a joke or the plot. In the 90s films he's extremely good to the point of being near-superhuman.
• Does Not Like Spam: He dislikes fudge so much that he's angry at his children for making it.
• Fetish: While he can barely keep his hands off of Morticia to begin with, she can really get him going if she speaks French.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: In the live-action films, he is the responsible sibling to Fester's foolish sibling. While there's no denying that Gomez is a weirdo, he's also a suave and successful businessman who is Happily Married and the loving father of two children. Meanwhile, Fester has No Social Skills, no job, and is completely out of his depth when it comes to love. Played with in that, through the family's skewed moral logic, Gomez sincerely views Fester as a figure to be admired and admits to having envied him during their youth.
• Good Parents: Along with Morticia. Unlike most sitcoms, he, the father, actually has just as much of a role in raising his children as his wife does.
• Happily Married: Since they're meant to be the exact opposite of the bickering sitcom couples of the time, Morticia and Gomez are madly in love.
• Harmless Electrocution: In the update of "Uncle Fester's Illness", he gets struck by lightning and is unaffected. In "Cleopatra, Green of the Nile", he sits in an electric chair and is unharmed, in fact, he seems to enjoy it.
• Heroic BSoD: Twice in the films.
  • After getting kicked out of his own home and losing his family's fortune, Gomez just loafs around watching daytime television.
  • When Pubert suddenly turns blonde and rosy, Gomez has a complete breakdown and can't even get out of bed.
• Hypochondria: Used to be a hypochondriac when he was engaged to Ophelia.
• Keet: He is very energetic and upbeat.
• Large Ham: Especially in the live-action movies. Overly enthusiastic reactions to everything that happens to or near him are one of his signatures.
• Limited Wardrobe: His everyday clothing consists of a pinstriped suit. Apparently, he used to have variations on his clothes but had so much trouble finding his best suit that he decided to wear nothing but best suits.
  • In the movies he wears an assortment of expensive-looking suits and robes befitting his lounge-lizard image.
• Lorre Lookalike: His appearance in the original New Yorker comic—his height, his eyes, his hair, and so on—were inspired by 1930s horror actor Peter Lorre, but John Astin's performance became so memorable that nearly all of Lorre's inspiration was pushed out by Adaptation Displacement.
• Love at First Sight: With Morticia.
• Made of Iron: Zigzagged. He's been shown to be immune to electricity, cyanide and henbane (the latter two he drinks, in fact). In the update of "Morticia's Romance", he falls into a vat of hydrochloric acid and survives unharmed. Averted, and possibly inverted, in the N.E.S. video game, which has rats being able to hurt or kill him.
• Manchild: Downplayed in that he still manages to be, in the family's own demented way, an attentive, caring, and competent patriarch, but Gomez approaches everything life throws at him with a boyish sort of enthusiasm, as though he were experiencing it for the first time.
• Opposites Attract: He's a Large Ham while his wife is The Stoic, and they couldn't be more in love with each other.
• Papa Wolf: He cares about his children enough that he'll harm anyone who dares to endanger them.
• Perky Goth: He's the most energetic and emotional of the Addams family.
• Pig Man: He has a slightly porcine appearance in the New Yorker comics and the animated cartoons (the first more than the second). His appearance in the 2019 film takes this up to eleven.
• Rail Enthusiast: He has an extensive model train layout in both the TV show and the movie adaptations, on which he likes to cause crashes and other disasters.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Morticia's blue.
• Royal Rapier: Has quite the passion for swordsmanship.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: His signature attire is a pinstripe suit.
• Slasher Smile: One of Astin's trademarks as an actor, so naturally his version often sports one.
• Springtime for Hitler: "The Day Gomez Failed" focuses on him trying to fail at something for the first time. Morticia announces that he did that by failing at failing.
• Standard '50s Father: A morbid parody of this trope. Gomez is a loving, cigar-smoking font of guidance and encouragement for his family... it's just that all of the guidance and encouragement he espouses is about as far from wholesome as you can get.
• Tablecloth Yank: Does it when dancing with Morticia in the first movie.
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The Ugly Guy to Morticia's Hot Wife. While it's most pronounced in the comic, cartoon and 2019 movie, the live-action incarnations of Gomez, while dashing and charismatic, are still less conventionally attractive than their respective Morticias.
• Uncle Pennybags: It was quite common that he'd offer to lend someone money, and then give them more than they actually needed, by several orders of magnitude.

Morticia Addams

^{Click to see her incarnation in the 1960s series}quoteright:310:
"Mind if I smoke?"

^{Click to see her incarnation in the '90s series}
"Welcome, honored guests. Entrails?"

Played by: Carolyn Jones (1964-66 TV series, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Halloween with the New Addams Family), Janet Waldo (1973 animated series), Liz Torres (The Addams Family Fun-House), Anjelica Huston (1991 film, 1992 pinball table, Addams Family Values), Nancy Linari (1992 animated series), Daryl Hannah (Addams Family Reunion), Ellie Harvie (The New Addams Family), Bebe Neuwirth, Brooke Shields (Broadway musical), Charlize Theron (2019 film, 2021 film), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Wednesday)

The loving family matriarch. Highly supportive of, encouraging to, and in love with her husband.

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• Adaptation Personality Change: In the musical, she's way more insecure and emotional than usual.
• Affectionate Nickname: Her husband will shorten her name down to "Tish", usually whenever she says something in French. He also calls her "cara mia"^note "my beloved" in Italian and "querida"^note "dear" in Spanish quite often.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Make Morticia angry. If Gomez doesn't kill you, you'll be treated to Morticia maintaining her low-key nature and speaking in the most calm-yet-threatening voice you'll probably ever hear.
• Casual Kink: She's all but stated to be into some rather extreme forms of bondage.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: When Gomez gets distracted by her French while she's in the middle of something she considers more vital, she says: "[important thing] now, [romantic word] later."
• Cold Ham: She's The Stoic to the extreme, particularly in comparison to her husband, but can often be just as dramatic as him by virtue of how eccentric the family's general behavior is.
• The Comically Serious: In contrast to Gomez, she's low-key and borderline emotionless. But given how unaffected she is by the weirdness around her, this makes Morticia often hilarious.
• Darkness Von Gothick Name: Her first name, Morticia, resembles the word "mortician" and likely comes from the Latin word "mortem", which means death.
• Dissonant Serenity: While she's The Stoic, her general demeanor is that of placid indifference, which particularly stands out when opposite the family's outrageous antics (including her own).
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: She has long hair as black as the night (probably to distinguish her from Lily Munster's iconic skunk stripe) and skin pale as a ghost. However, she is a very nice person—she just has some unusual hobbies and a slightly odd outlook on life (to put it mildly).
• Face Framed in Shadow: Downplayed, the live-action movies gave her a band of light from eyebrow to cheekbone in every scene. Even in well-lit environments. It's implied that she is a vampire...
• Good Parents: Along with Gomez. She wants the best for her children, no matter what that means.
• Goth: Morticia was swinging this look way before it was cool. And since she got in early, she managed to snag the perfect goth name.
• Gratuitous French: Peppers her speech with various French words and phrases, much to her husband's delight.
• Happily Married: Since they're meant to be the exact opposite of the bickering sitcom couples of the time, Morticia and Gomez are madly in love.
• Harmless Electrocution: In the update of "Uncle Fester's Illness", she gets struck by lightning but is unaffected.
• Ironic Name: Her maiden name is "Frump", but she's anything but frumpy.
• Limited Wardrobe: Has worn the same black dress ever since her and Gomez's wedding day.
• Love at First Sight: With Gomez.
• Mama Bear: Is very taken aback when someone messes with Pugsley or Wednesday.
• Misery Trigger: Morticia does not like it when a) she thinks her and Gomez's relationship is at stake or b) someone in her family appears to be turning normal. Mostly, she is sad when these things happen, however, not angry.
• The "Mom" Voice: Morticia is, in fact, a mother of two children. But her ability to correct errant behavior or offer consolation and comfort in a nurturing way is not limited to Wednesday and Pugsley. She has prevented Uncle Fester from shooting people in the back with his blunderbus with a stern word, shown compassion and support for Lurch, and even kept Thing's antics in line with a well-placed word and a look.
• Not So Stoic: In the show, when she suspects Gomez is cheating on her, she breaks down crying.
• Opposites Attract: She's The Stoic while her husband is a Large Ham, and yet they couldn't be more in love with each other.
• Out-of-Character Moment: In "Cousin Itt the Vocational Counselor", she actually gets mad at Gomez and stays mad, then when she's no longer mad, she talks about "sending him out in his bare feet without a thought to his sinuses", which is coming from the lady who loves to sit in drafts.
• Parental Bonus: In the movies, most of her lines are laced with romance and double entendres.
• Perpetual Smiler: In her own stoic way, she usually has a mysterious smile on her face.
• Phrase Catcher: She'll respond to her amorous husband with "mon cher".
• Proper Lady: Her manners are impeccable and she's ever tranquil and formal.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to Gomez's red.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Morticia is the "normal" sister between her and Ophelia, being a more traditional woman (by Addams standards) who dresses in classic black, is calm, prim, not athletic like Ophelia, and is Happily Married compared to Ophelia, who has bad luck with men.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Morticia is beautiful, reserved, soft-spoken, and calm. Her knowledge of multiple languages, along with literature such as Shakespeare, Milton, Poe and Keats, is matched only by her expertise in poisonous plants and various supernatural abilities. The first film demonstrates that she is also quite willing to threaten people with death all without raising her voice, especially if they're a threat to her family, who she is devoted to. And while she's rarely shown using physical violence (and would prefer not to get blood on the carpets), she displays Improbable Aiming Skills with thrown knives and with a crossbow. In the first episode of The New Addams Family, when Vlad suddenly kisses her, she even displays similar skill in judo to her sister, throwing him effortlessly to the ground, then calmly saying "I'll pretend that didn't happen" and walking off.
• The Stoic: She's close to unflappable, and almost always wears a calm smile on her face.
• Statuesque Stunner: In the live-action films, in which she's portrayed by Anjelica Huston. However, this trope is taken to the extreme in the original comics and animated films, as there, Morticia is depicted as being One Head Taller than Gomez, who is drawn as short and stout.
• Too Kinky to Torture: Especially in the films. All the Addams like being tortured, although this is seen most prominently with Morticia in the films.
• Tranquil Fury: In the films. She never flies off the handle when she is angered, instead maintaining her low-key nature and speaking in the most calm-yet-threatening voice you'll probably ever hear. When she does - run. If the eyebrows also go up, then it's too late for running!
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: The Hot Wife to Gomez's Ugly Guy. While Gomez is made significantly more attractive in his live action incarnations, he's still less conventionally good-looking than Tish; with the majority of his appeal stemming from his personality and stylishness rather than his looks.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: A wife variant for Gomez. It’s implied through her talk with Fester in the 1991 movie that she is protective enough about Gomez that she will kill Fester if it turns out he’s a fraud taking advantage of her husband who wanted his brother back.
• Women Are Wiser: A twisted parody of this trope in a similar vein to how Gomez parodies the Standard '50s Father. While Morticia is more restrained and sensible than her husband is most of the time, she is so reserved that she comes across as being eerily calm to the point of seeming almost emotionless. This has the effect of wrapping back around and making her seem just as kooky as he is, as she treats every situation with calm ambivalence regardless of how absurd or dangerous it may be.

Lurch

^{Click here to see his incarnation in the 1960s series}
"You rang?"

^{click here to see his incarnation from the '90s films}

Played by: Ted Cassidy (1964-66 TV series, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, 1973 animated series, Halloween with the New Addams Family), Pat McCormick (The Addams Family Fun-House), Carel Struycken (1991 film, Addams Family Values, Addams Family Reunion), Jim Cummings (1992 animated series), John DeSantis (The New Addams Family), Zachary James (Broadway musical), Conrad Vernon (2019 film, 2021 film), George Burcea (Wednesday)

The faithful servant. Always acquiesces to the Addams' wishes, even when they sometimes make him give the vocal equivalent of a Face Palm.

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• Battle Butler: When push comes to shove, he can kick ass like the rest of the family.
• Butler Space: Sometimes, he shows up just seconds after the gong rings, even if previous shots showed he wasn't in the room beforehand.
• Character Catchphrase: In the 60s series, his was a guttural "You rang?" whenever called. This was actually a Throw It In! by the actor which the producers loved. And when bringing a guest into the house, he often says "Follow me" when leading a guest to see one of the Addams, particularly Gomez.
• Dumb Muscle: In some incarnations, Lurch is not very bright. One episode of the 1960s show even had Wednesday wonder if Lurch knows how to count.
• Frankenstein's Monster: He has the appearance of one, to say the least, but some continuities make jokes implying that he is made from dead body parts, was brought to life in a lab, and/or was created by a mad scientist.
• Gentle Giant: While physically intimidating, Lurch is a very nice guy.
• Informed Attribute: Played for laughs. If you ask the Addams family, Lurch is an eloquent devil-may-care playboy.
• Made of Iron: In Addams Family Values, he gets hit on the head with a dropped cannonball and swallows a mis-thrown dart, both with little obvious reaction.
• Only Sane Man: Sometimes he's depicted as being weary of the family's eccentric ways, however, more often than not, he shares them. Other times, he's just plain old hard to read.
• Servile Snarker: Usually with just an eye-roll and a groan, and sometimes remarks in one or two words.
• The Singing Mute: In the stage adaptation, Lurch sticks with his canon dialect of only grunting until the final number, when he sings his first ever words.
• Small Parent, Huge Child: Lurch is 6'9", but the episode "Mother Lurch Visits" reveals that his mother is very short.
• Suddenly Voiced: Is silent throughout the play until he sings Move Toward the Darkness at the end.
• Undying Loyalty: In the first film, despite the Addams losing their fortune and living in poverty, he sticks with them regardless even though he doesn't have to.
• The Voiceless: In the original New Yorker comics and in the live-action movies. In other continuities, he is rather talkative...somewhat. He mostly talks in a low moan.

Wednesday Addams

Wednesday Friday Addams

^{Click here to see her in the 1960s series}
Her doll didn't lose her head—she's Marie Antoinette. She and Pugsley chopped it off.

^{Click here to see her in the '90s films}
"This is my costume. I'm a homicidal maniac. They look just like everyone else."

Played by: Lisa Loring (1964-66 TV series, Halloween with the New Addams Family), Cindy Henderson (The New Scooby-Doo Movies, 1973 animated series), Noelle Von Sonn (The Addams Family Fun-House), Christina Ricci (1991 film, Addams Family Values), Debi Derryberry (1992 animated series), Nicole Fugere (Addams Family Reunion, The New Addams Family), Krysta Rodriguez, Rachel Potter (Broadway musical), Chloë Grace Moretz (2019 film, 2021 film), Jenna Ortega (Wednesday)

The Addams daughter. Originally portrayed as a typical, average (if rather morbid) Cheerful Child, the films made her into a much more subdued Deadpan Snarker, and this iconic portrayal has stuck with the character ever since.

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• Adaptation Personality Change: Wednesday's personality varies widely depending on the incarnation.
  • In the original cartoons, she is a sensitive, "wan and delicate" child in a near-perpetual state of melancholy, befitting the "full of woe" claim.
  • In the movies, she's The Comically Serious and a Deadpan Snarker.
  • In the 60s TV series, she's a Cheerful Child with macabre interests.
  • In the '90s TV reboot The New Addams Family, she's similar to her movie incarnation, but with more sadism.
  • In the musical, she references how she use to be more like the movie version, but being in love makes her much more expressive and petulant towards her mother as she's growing up.
• Adaptational Villainy: In The New Addams Family. Her tendencies to physically harm Pugsley are exaggerated and she always wants to intimidate and frighten everyone who comes by her family's house.
  • Though it started in the 1991 remake where she has entirely lost the Cheerful Child personality she had and become far colder, snarkier, and actually tries to harm others outright instead of in the playful way the family usually does.
• Age Lift: In the original 1960s show, she was just 6 years old and younger than her brother Pugsley. Most other adaptations make her older than Pugsley (or making them at least very close in age to each other), with both the 1991 movie and The New Addams Family making her 11. In the stage musical, she's 18 while Pugsley is still a little boy. She is also a teenager in Wednesday.
• Berserk Button: In the 90s animated series, grabbing her by the braids. Gomez and Morticia refer to the last person to do it in the past tense, and Pugsley even flat-out tells the perpetrator (a robber) You Do Not Want To Know what she'll do.
• Big Little Sister: She is younger than her brother Pugsley in the 90s cartoon despite being taller and more intelligent.
• Big Sister Bully: In The New Addams Family, she just adores to outright torture her brother Pugsley. However, Pugsley, being an Addams, often enjoys it.
• Breakout Character: Wednesday Addams was such a popular part of The Addams Family that she was made the co-protagonist of the sequel Addams Family Values, which revolves (in part) around her antics at Summer camp. Moviegoers of the 1990s instantly fell in love with Christina Ricci's performance as an eternally snarky Creepy Child, and she's still cited as one of the most memorable parts of the movies. Many younger fans — who mostly discovered the TV series through the films — are often surprised to learn that Wednesday was a rather minor character in the show, and she was originally a relatively normal Cheerful Child. After the movies, she would quickly become a far more promiment character in the franchise, to the point that she eventually got her own TV-show on Netflix called Wednesday.
• Characterization Marches On: Wednesday was originally portrayed as being a macabre Cheerful Child early on. It wasn't until the 90s films that she would become the stoic Deadpan Snarker that has defined her since.
• Creepy Child: Almost goes without saying. In the films, she's cold, stoic, calculating, and interested in disturbing topics. The TV version is considerably more cheerful and friendly, though she still has unnerving interests.
• Creepy Monotone: In the films from the 1990s, she almost never raises her voice.
• Daddy's Girl: Had shades of this in the 1960s show, often hanging out with Gomez.
• Dark Is Not Evil: She is fascinated with death and the macabre however she shows great concern when those she cares about are in trouble or injured.
• "Day of the Week" Name: Her name is Wednesday Friday Addams.
• Deadpan Snarker: Famously so.
  [during lifeguard practice at summer camp]
  Amanda: I'll be the victim!
  Wednesday: All your life.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Especially as played by Christina Ricci. Like her mom, she has dark hair and pale skin, and while benevolent, is quite gothic.
• Enfant Terrible: In the movies and The New Addams Family, she can come off as being downright cold. This is not in keeping with her TV or original cartoon personality, but is a dead ringer for her portrayal in Jack Sharkey's 1965 book adaptation, where she's described as staring right through you — literally. As if she were examining your viscera.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Although she tries to kill her baby brother (or possibly just plays with him by the normal Addams definition), she makes it very clear that she doesn't like hearing Debbie call him a brat.
  • She also resents Debbie for manipulating her uncle and being "sloppy" in her plan to eliminate him.
  • Her monologue during the horribly racist Thanksgiving play is loaded with barely restrained contempt as she lists the ways Native Americans have been degraded and have seen their entire way of life destroyed by white colonizers, culminating in her leading all the campers who were objectified and mocked by the prejudiced and ableist counselors on a rampage that burns the camp to the ground.
• Extra Digits: In the original comic strip she had an extra toe on her right foot, but this trait didn't carry over to later incarnations of the character.
• Girliness Upgrade: Played with; while little Wednesday of the 60s show has a much girlier personality with her sweetness and love of her dolly, 90s Wednesday- much more of a tomboy- is the one who wears nail polish, has a white floral pattern on her black dress, and discovers romance.
• Girlish Pigtails: Never without her pigtails. As stated above, in the 1992 series, don't grab them.
• Goth: Just like her mother, Morticia.
• Harmless Electrocution: In the update of "Uncle Fester's Illness", she gets struck by lightning with the rest of her family, but survives.
• Large Ham: Except in the films, where she's an expressionless Deadpan Snarker. Although even then she has her moments, such as during her Shakespeare performance in the first film.
• Limited Wardrobe: She mainly wears the same outfit, although there have been several exceptions. Even on Halloween, she wears her usual black dress, claiming that she's dressed like a psychopath because "they look just like anyone else".
• Little Miss Snarker: Usually in Black Comedy way, although adaptations tend to vary as to how snarky and how dark her humor is.
• Meaningful Name: Charles Addams chose her name based on the old "Monday's Child" rhyme, which says "Wednesday's child is full of woe".
• Perpetual Frowner: She seldom smiles. In the second movie, after being forced to watch animated Disney movies for the better part of the day, Wednesday is asked to smile. She does. Sort of.
• She Is All Grown Up: In the 2010 musical. The main plot was about her turning 18 and falling in love with a normal man.
• Slasher Smile: Yikes.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's cold and expressionless, unlike the rest of her family. However, she expresses interest in Joel and does indeed care about her family, including her brothers and her uncle.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior:
  • In the 1991 film, she's obsessed with the Bermuda Triangle, according to Morticia. When asked to write about a hero for a school project, she completes a report about her great-aunt Calpurnia, who danced naked in the town square, enslaved a minister, and was burned as a witch.
  • In Addams Family Values, she pretends to guillotine her baby brother for crimes against the state. Later, when pushed to the breaking point by the mean-spirited staff at summer camp, she hijacks the play with a carefully planned ambush where she proudly, publicly announces that she will scalp the camp counselors and burn a catty girl at the stake (neither of which happen, the counselors get a different, slightly more ambiguous form of punishment and the girl shows up in a later scene fine, though probably scarred for life).
• The Un-Smile: Again, in the second movie, she gives an unsettling smile to the counselors after they torment her with sappy movies. This is a warning sign that she has something sinister in the works.
• When She Smiles: There are moments where her smile appears genuine, it just doesn't help much that she seems to show it mostly for sadistic and twisted reasons.
• William Telling:
  • In the first movie, she fires a crossbow at an apple that's been jammed into Pugsley's mouth.
  • In the play, she tests her fiancée's craziness by shooting an apple off his head while blind folded.

Pugsley Addams

^{Click here to see him in the 1960s series}200:

^{Click here to see him in the '90s films}

Played by: Ken Weatherwax (1964-66 TV series, Halloween with the New Addams Family), Jodie Foster (The New Scooby-Doo Movies, 1973 animated series), Butch Patrick (The Addams Family Fun-House), Jimmy Workman (1991 film, Addams Family Values), Jeannie Elias (1992 animated series), Jerry Messing (Addams Family Reunion), Brody Smith (The New Addams Family), Adam Riegler (Broadway musical), Finn Wolfhard (2019 film), Javon Walton (2021 film), Isaac Ordonez (Wednesday)

The Addams son, and Wednesday's brother. A (usually) Cheerful Child whose intelligence varies depending on the adaptation.

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• Adaptational Curves: While Charles Addams described the character as a "fat" and "pudgy" boy, in his early incarnations Pugsley was sometimes drawn as an average-sized (though round-faced) kid, before Addams settled for his round and stout design. In a similar way, while all of Pugsley incarnations through the franchise are fat, the extent of his chubbiness varies from media to media - The Addams Family Reunion movie had the part played by a very large and overweight actor, while the musical had average-sized and slim actors portray the boy (sometimes with a bit of padding to make him pot-bellied).
• Adaptational Dumbass: He went from being a boy genius in the 1960s show to being a child of average intelligence in the movies to being The Ditz in the 90s animated series.
• Adaptational Name Change: Charles Addams, when asked to name his character, decided to give him the name "Pubert Addams", however the producers of the 60s sitcom felt that it sounded too risqué, so he was called "Pugsley" instead.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: He was blond in the original New Yorker comics, had dark hair in the 1960s show, was made blond again in the 1970s cartoon, had brown hair in the live-action films, was blond once more in the 90s cartoon, and had brown hair once more in The New Addams Family, before yet again returning to his original blond in the new animated movies.
• Adaptation Personality Change: In the original cartoons, usually scowling; by the time of the films, usually smiling.
  • In the original cartoons, as well as in the animated series, Pugsley was a mischief-maker and cunning prankster, often bullying or having a dominating hand over his sister Wednesday. However the live-action movies completely changed that by having Wednesday be the dominent and clever one, while Pugsley was reduced to a naive sidekick, slow-minded younger sibling and unwilling victim of her games. The animated movies decided to mix those two incarnations by still having Pugsley as the younger, inexperienced, easily-dominated and overshadowed sibling, but also keeping his love for trouble and mayhem, and showing that he can be clever and talented in his own ways (in fact it is his entire character plot in the 2019 movie).
• Age Lift: Originally portrayed as the elder Addams sibling, the 1991 move and it's sequel make him the younger and in following adaptions this portrayal is continued making Wednesday the eldest. In the Musical, she is a young adult (of marrying age) while he is still a young boy.
• Butt-Monkey: In the 90s cartoon and especially in The New Addams Family he was the unluckiest in the family.
• Child Prodigy: In the original 1960s television show he was smart enough to invent a disintegration gun.
• Creepy Child: While a nice boy, he has the same unusual interests as the rest of his family.
• The Dog Bites Back: While Pugsley had to put up with Wednesday torturing him most of the time in The New Addams Family, he eventually had his revenge by trapping Wednesday and her identical cousin Monday Jones inside a trunk in the episode "Keeping Up with the Joneses".
• Enfant Terrible: In the original cartoons, at least, he is nothing less than the embodiment of malice.
• Fat and Skinny: The fat to Wednesday's skinny.
• Gadgeteer Genius: In the 1960s series, Morticia claims he has the American space program beaten by decades, and, given that the episode has someone mistake Pugsley's rockets for alien spacecraft, she's probably right.
• Harmless Electrocution: In the new version of "Uncle Fester's Illness", he gets struck by lightning with the rest of his family, but survives.
• Little Big Brother: Despite being shorter and less intelligent, he is older than Wednesday in the 90s cartoon.
• Made of Iron: Exaggerated in the cartoon, where in one scene, he gets cut in half but is fine in the next scene.
• Sibling Murder: In The New Addams Family, Wednesday mentioned that he ate an unnamed third sibling (most likely Pubert).
• Too Kinky to Torture: He seems to enjoy torture (but not in that way, he's just a kid).

Uncle Fester

^{Click here to see him in the 1960s series}

^{Click here to see him in the '90s films}
"I AM AN ADDAMS!"

Played by: Jackie Coogan (1964-66 TV series, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, 1973 animated series, Halloween with the New Addams Family), Stubby Kaye (The Addams Family Fun-House), Christopher Lloyd (1991 film, Addams Family Values), Rip Taylor (1992 animated series), Patrick Thomas (Addams Family Reunion), Michael Roberds (The New Addams Family), Kevin Chamberlin (Broadway musical), Nick Kroll (2019 film, 2021 film), Fred Armisen (Wednesday)

The family uncle. He was originally Morticia's uncle, but was later retconned into being Gomez's brother (and thus the children's uncle instead). He shares the same manic enthusiasm as his brother (and then some) with added Mad Scientist tendencies.

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• Adaptation Personality Change: The live-action films make him more quiet and awkward compared to his zany and outgoing portrayal in other adaptations.
• All-Knowing Singing Narrator: In the musical, Fester narrates, especially at the beginning of Act 1 ("Little Wednesday Addams... has grown up and found love."), at the end of Act I ("I mean, is this any way to end an act?"), and at the beginning of Act II ("What happens now?... Let's find out, shall we?"). Several times, he steps in with the Ancestors for a Set Switch Song or some narrative singing.
• Ambiguously Bi: He said that he didn't have a specific sexuality in the musical.
• And Starring: In Season 1 of the '64-'66 series, Jackie Coogan's name appeared first among the supporting cast in the closing credits.
  • In Season 2, he was promoted to the opening credits as the third leading performer following John Astin and Carolyn Jones. To avoid having to re-do the opening credits sequence, the title "Featuring Jackie Coogan" appears over an image of him during the montage of all the other characters besides Morticia and Gomez.
• Author Avatar: Charles Addams revealed in a 1977 New Yorker retrospective on the Addams family that he thought of Fester as his own avatar.
• Backup from Otherworld: Forces the ghosts of his ancestors into helping him get Wednesday and Lucas together in the musical.
• Baldness Angst:
  • Inverted. He once had hair but thinks he looks better without it.
    Uncle Fester: I was thin then, and I had hair. I do look better now, don't I?
    Morticia: Much.
  • He did want a toupée in one episode, but only because he had a love interest who was said to hate bald people.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Near the end of the play, he straps a rocket to his back and blasts off to the moon without a helmet. He appears at the very end to do his light bulb trick so he must have been okay.
• Big Fun: He's fun-loving and overweight.
• Can't Spit It Out: When he first meets Debbie, he's so smitten he can barely speak.
• Cool Uncle: While Fester would ordinarily qualify as a Creepy Uncle for being so strange and unsettling, the Addams children absolutely adore these qualities and embrace him as a beloved member of the family.
• Criminal Amnesiac: Happens in the first film, although it is one of the cases where the villain is not responsible for the amnesia.
• Criminal Doppelgänger: One shows up in the first movie and scams the family out of their house and money. Turns out to be Fester after losing his memory.
• Diet Episode: "Fester Goes on a Diet" focuses on him dieting to try and get thinner and, for some reason, taller.
• Dirty Coward: His idea of defending his family's honor is shooting the offender In the Back with his blunderbuss. According to him, it's cowardly, but it's also the safest option.
• Distaff Counterpart: At the end of Addams Family Values, Fester befriends a woman named Dementia. Like Fester, she's pale, bald, and wears heavy black robes.
• The Dog Bites Back: After enduring his adoptive mother’s verbal and physical abuse in the first movie, he finally turns on her and uses one of Gomez’s books to stop her and Tully.
• Double Standard: Looking the way he does, Fester shouldn't be as shallow as he is when he mistakes an attractive makeup sales lady as being in love with him, and he reacts to her "affection" with utter disgust. Of course, he IS an Addams and has a very different idea of beauty...
• Electrified Bathtub: Debbie tries to kill him this way in Values. Being Fester, he ends up sitting happily with a lit lightbulb in his mouth.
• Extreme Omnivore: He's eaten newts, cacti, soap, thermometers, and tongue depressors.
• Fantastic Diet Requirement: In "Uncle Fester's Illness", it's revealed that, without occasionally consuming mercury, he becomes lethargic and loses his electrical powers.
• Fat Bastard: Averted. He is overweight but is actually a very nice and friendly person despite sharing the questionable interests and hobbies of the other Addams. Though he was like this as an amnesiac in the movie before his memory returned.
• Fat Comic Relief: A funny guy and rather big as mentioned above.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: In the live-action films, he is the foolish sibling to Gomez's responsible sibling. While there's no denying that Gomez is a weirdo, he's also a suave and successful businessman who is Happily Married and the loving father of two children. Meanwhile, Fester has No Social Skills, no job, and is completely out of his depth when it comes to love. Played with in that, through the family's skewed moral logic, Gomez sincerely views Fester as a figure to be admired and admits to having envied him during their youth.
• Harmless Electrocution: Electricity doesn't have any negative effects on him, in fact it even seems to be good for him and he frequently "charges himself up".
• Head in a Vise: His usual method for getting rid of his headaches.
• Height Angst: In addition to wanting to be thinner in "Fester Goes on a Diet", he wanted to be taller.
• Henpecked Husband: The way Debbie treats him.
• I'm a Humanitarian: One New Yorker cartoon◊ shows him contemplating dishes on offer at an automat, which include an aspic, a salad, a pie — and a human head.
• Informed Ability: In the first live-action movie, Gomez claims that Fester "could have had any woman [he] wanted, dead or alive." despite Fester being incredibly ugly and having No Social Skills. The sequel goes to great lengths to show that the only woman willing to pursue him romantically is a murderous Gold Digger thinly masking her disgust for him. Justified in that, through the family's twisted logic, Fester being so conventionally undesirable is presumably precisely why Gomez believes him to be a Chick Magnet.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the old series. Fester could be snarky and was disgusted that a woman far more attractive than him (supposedly) wanted to marry him.
• Jet Pack: At the end of the musical, he flies off to the moon with a rocket strapped to his back.
• Kavorka Man: At the end of Addams Family Values, he finds a girlfriend named Dementia. Downplayed in that the rest of the movie demonstrates that most women find him repulsive. ^note Jackie Coogan was actually a real life case, being married four times including to legendary pinup model Betty Grable.
• Large Ham: In more or less every adaptation save the 1991 film. Patrick Thomas, his actor in Addams Family Reunion, takes this up to eleven.
• Limited Wardrobe: He never takes off his coat.
• Looks Like Orlok: Bald head, hunched shoulders, dark sunken in eyes, he's got most of the package, except that he's not a vampire.
• Love Freak: In the musical, illustrated by his song, "Let's Not Talk About Anything Else [but love]".
• Love Imbues Life: When singing about his love for the moon in the play, he starts dancing with an Anthropomorphic Personification of the moon but this is likely an Imagine Spot.
• Made of Iron: Able to eat seemingly anything, withstand great amounts of electricity, and walk across hot coals barefoot, all with no ill effects on him. In Addams Family Values, he even survives an explosion unscathed.
• Mad Scientist: Chemist and very fond of inventing all kinds of fire works.
• Omniglot: Is mentioned as being fluent in 12 languages in Values.
• Playing Sick: In "Cat Addams", he, along with Itt and Thing, pretends to be sick so he can pretend to be cured by the vet, in order to make the vet feel brave enough to treat Kitty Cat. He hams up being sick too much, so Morticia snaps him out of it by saying, "He doesn't need a doctor, what he needs is an undertaker", which made him sit up abruptly and say "I'm not dead yet!".
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Throughout the franchise, Fester's relation to the family varied. While it wasn't made clear in the original New Yorker strips by Charles Addams how he was related to the family, he was made Morticia's uncle in the 1960s television show. After that, he was made Gomez's brother in the 70s animated series, then back to Morticia's uncle in the 1977 special Halloween with the Addams Family, and was permanently made Gomez's brother again in the live-action movies, the 90s animated series, and The New Addams Family.
• Shipper on Deck: In the musical, he's trying to make sure Wednesday and Lucas stay together.
• Sick Episode: He appears sick in "Uncle Fester's Illness" due to not being able to hold a charge. He gets better when he eats a thermometer.
• Stout Strength: The live action movies demonstrate that he's strong enough to be able to lift a man and turn him upside down using only one hand.
• Too Kinky to Torture:
  • A key plot point in Addams Family Values. Gold Digger Debbie attempts to bump off Fester, but only seems to give him pleasure.
  • A running gag in the 90s cartoon has Fester regularly getting blown up, either by other people or doing it himself for the fun of it. His comic book character "Festerman" even tells his arch enemy his one weakness is chimneys, and when said enemy produces a chimney Festerman starts writhing in agony... and then asks him to hold the chimney closer, causing the bad guy to snap from frustration.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Cacti in the 1960s show. A rather notable case in that the food isn't called by name.
• Trigger-Happy: Uncle Fester is fond of solving problems with his blunderbuss, and it's a Running Gag that he'll yell about shooting an offender in the back, sometimes politely asking them to turn around.
• Weight Woe: He tried to slim down to impress his Love Interest in "Fester Goes on a Diet".
• Wolves Always Howl at the Moon: Stands on the roof doing it in Values.

Grandmama Addams

^{Click here to see her in the 1960s series}

^{Click here to see her in the '90s films}

Played by: Blossom Rock (1964-66 TV series), Janet Waldo (The New Scooby-Doo Movies, 1973 animated series), Jane Rose (Halloween with the New Addams Family), Judith Malina (1991 film), Carol Channing (1992 animated series), Carol Kane (Addams Family Values), Alice Ghostley (Addams Family Reunion), Betty Phillips (The New Addams Family), Jackie Hoffman (Broadway musical), Bette Midler (2019 film)

The mother of... one of the family heads... maybe. Implied to be a witch, she has a penchant for concocting potions and attempting to tell fortunes, as well as contact the deceased, with her Crystal Ball.

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• Adaptational Ugliness: In the 1991 movie and Addams Family Values she sports unhealthy-looking skin tones, unkempt hair, bad teeth, and in the latter film very sunken eyes.
• Beauty Inversion: Carol Kane in Values is made up to look very poorly aged. She was actually just 41 and quite pretty at the time.
• Composite Character: A rather complicated case. In the original 1960s show, Granny was Gomez's mother with Morticia's mother Hester Frump being a separate character (played by Margaret Hamilton, often in her full Elmira Gulch outfit from The Wizard of Oz). The two grandmothers are seen together and appear to have a warm friendship in the two-parter "Morticia's Romance". She is apparently Morticia's mother in the two feature films. Grandmama would remain the standard grandparent in later adaptations, but it would vary whether she is Gomez's mother or Morticia's mother and she would rarely coexist with Morticia or Gomez's mother as two separate characters. The 2010 musical mercilessly lampshades the issue by revealing near the end of the story that Gomez and Morticia each believe her to be the other's mother.
• Cool Old Lady: She wrestles with alligators.
• Crystal Ball: Uses one to conduct a seance to contact Fester in the 1991 film. She also used one at least once in the series.
• Deadpan Snarker: Compared Debbie's mansion interior to the gates of Hell, then cheerfully told Debbie she'd placed a curse on her.
• Dirty Old Woman: In the 90s cartoon, she's often seen flirting with younger men.
• The Gadfly: Used Thing to fool Margaret into thinking her own hand had come off.
• Granny Classic: With a macabre twist to her as befitting of an Addams.
• Harmless Electrocution: Gets struck by lightning in the new version of "Uncle Fester's Illness", survives unharmed.
• Lethal Chef:
  • In the 1991 film, she prepares unidentified serpentine organisms (possibly eels or giant worms) in a dark gray sauce for dinner. Fester looks revolted, after which she advises him to "start with the eyes".
  • During the model train scene in the movie, she's shown reading from The Joy of Cooking while also cross-referencing Gray's Anatomy.
  • Later in that same movie, after the Addams have fallen upon hard times, she hunts dogs and cats for the family's meals.
• Messy Hair: It was a bit untamed in the original series but it looks like a fluffy birds nest in the first movie and it goes down to her feet in the second.
• Precision F-Strike: Utters the only swear word in the musical when she tells Pugsley to stay out of her shit.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Whether she's Gomez's mother or Morticia's mother is never consistent. She started out under the name Granny Frump as Gomez's mother in the comic strips. The 1960s TV series kept her as Gomez's mother, but gave the Frump name to Morticia's mother as a separate character, before making the primary Grandmama Morticia's mother in the 70s cartoon. She went back to being Gomez's mother in the 1977 special Halloween with The New Addams Family, once again coexisting with Morticia's mother. After that, she became Morticia's mother again for the live-action films and the 90s cartoon and went back to being Gomez's mother in The New Addams Family and the 2019 animated film. The inconsistency was mocked in the 2010 musical, when Gomez and Morticia are stunned by the realization that she's been living with them for years with Gomez convinced she's Morticia's mother and vice-versa, implying she is in fact a total stranger.

Cousin Itt

from the 1991-93 films

Played by: Felix Silla (1964-66 TV series, The Addams Family Fun-House, Halloween with the New Addams Family - physical actor), Tony Magro (1964-66 TV series - voice), John Stephenson (The New Scooby-Doo Movies, 1973 animated series), John Franklin (1991 film, Addams Family Values), Pat Fraley (1992 animated series), Phil Fondacaro (Addams Family Reunion), David Mylrea and Paul Dobson (The New Addams Family, physical actor and voice respectively), Snoop Dogg (2019 film)

An Addams' cousin. A short creature who is covered completely with long hair and usually wears a bowler hat, gloves, and sunglasses. Speaks exclusively in high-pitched gibberish that is understood only by the Addams and no one else. In the films, he falls in love with, marries, and has a child with Margaret Alford.

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• Adapted Out: Isn't seen or mentioned in the musical.
• Advertised Extra: He only showed up in three episodes of the 70s cartoon albeit appearing in the opening.
• Ambiguously Human: He's considered part of the human(ish) Addams clan, yet we never get any hint if there's meant to be a person under there. At the very least, he can procreate with humans.
• Ascended Extra: Despite being an Advertised Extra in the 70s cartoon, episodes that don't feature him are scarce in the 90s cartoon.
• Canon Foreigner: He was created for the television series, though his first New Yorker appearance predated the series' debut by less than a year (Charles Addams introduced him into the comic in anticipation of his appearance on the TV series).
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Has the habit of sitting in a chimney.
• Extreme Omnivore: He eats the thermometer while Playing Sick in "Cat Addams".
• Eyes Out of Sight: He is a most extreme case, being covered in hair from head to toe. Some continuities even imply that he's nothing but hair.
• The Faceless: Hidden under all that hair.
• Happily Married: To Margaret in the 1991 film after she leaves Tully. They even have a child, named "Whatt" from the obstetrician.
• Incredible Shrinking Man: Shrinks in "Morticia's Romance".
• Intelligible Unintelligible: To the other Addams; they understand his gibberish.
• Kavorka Man: He sure has a lot of girlfriends despite being short and hairy. In the 1991 film, he successfully woos Margaret and marries her.
• Nice Guy: In the 1991 film, Margaret falls in love with him because he took the time to listen to her marital problems and showed her genuine respect and kindness Tully hasn't given her in years.
• Playing Sick: He does this along with Fester and Thing in "Cat Addams" to make the vet brave enough to treat Kitty Cat.
• Spell My Name With An S: Both the 1991-93 and 2019 film versions of the character's name are spelled with only one T.
• The Unintelligible: To outsiders, his way of talking just sounds like nonsense.

Thing T. Thing

from the 1991-93 films

Played by the hand of: Ted Cassidy (1964-66 TV series, Halloween with the New Addams Family), Jack Voglin (1964-66 TV series, when Thing and Lurch had to be in the same scene), Christopher Hart (1991 film, Addams Family Values, Addams Family Reunion), Steven Fox (The New Addams Family), Victor Dorobantu (Wednesday)

The Family's... thing. Originally drawn in the cartoons as a semi-obscured human, he was reduced to a disembodied hand coming out of a box in the series; the films did away with his box and made him fully able to walk on his fingers. Known for being quite handy, sometimes a handful, and always willing to give a hand.

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• Ambidextrous Sprite: Ted Cassidy would sometimes use his left hand as Thing to see if anybody noticed.
• Ambiguously Bi: In Addams Family Values, he goes stiff after getting a kiss from Debbie. Later, when Fester laments his loneliness, Gomez reminds him that he has Thing. Fester complains that he would rather have a woman with a body.
• Ambiguously Gay: Minor case in the old TV series. When the Addams are trying to "help" a pair of newly weds who moved in next door, Morticia questions Thing if he ever wants to meet a nice girl, to which he gives a negative response. When Morticia laughs it off and affectionately tells him to find his "own friends" he gives a much more positive response. Gomez laughingly refers to Thing as a "woman-hater," but this statement largely contradicts Thing's helpful interactions with the female Addams. So it's unclear if Gomez is correct in his assumption, or if his words had another meaning.
• Badass Fingersnap: The musical starts with the hand sticking out of the curtains and clicking along to the iconic theme tune, usually helped by the audience.
• Bilingual Bonus: In the 1991 film and Wednesday, he occasionally spells things out in American Sign Language.
• Character as Himself: Usually credited as playing "itself".
• Composite Character: Inverted in the 2019 movie. It features the hand version of Thing from the TV series and most other adaptations, but a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it glimpse of the humanoid "Thing" from the original cartoons can be seen hiding in the shadows at one point, as an Easter Egg.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the 1960s series, Ted Cassidy (who also played Lurch) normally played him with his right hand, but would occasionally change to his left just to see if anyone would notice.
  • The comic version of Thing is this in the 2019 movie.
• Helping Hands: All you ever see is Thing's right hand. Several times he's nothing but a right hand.
• Hidden Depths: The opening credits of the second film are accompanied by Thing riding a roller skate through the halls as if it were a skateboard, doing tricks and even using the contours of the walls/floor as a half-pipe.
• In Name Only: In the original New Yorker comics, Thing was a complete person only partially seen who often appeared in strips as a hidden Easter Egg spying on the family. All other incarnations made Thing a disembodied hand, though some New Yorker strips of the family did feature a hand reaching from some sort of opening (e.g., a pipe or a sea shell).
• Mysterious Middle Initial: Subverted. He signs himself Thing T. Thing, but when asked what the "T" stands for, Gomez and Morticia respond with "Thing".
• Phrase Catcher: "Thank you, Thing," whenever he does something helpful. Especially prominent in the old TV series, where it's said at least Once per Episode, but in almost all other incarnation the phrase appears from time to time.
• Playing Sick: In order to make the vet brave enough to treat Kitty Cat, he did this along with Fester and Cousin Itt by flopping back into his box.
• Repetitive Name: Thing T. Thing. The "T" stands for "Thing".
• Spanner in the Works: In the first movie, he follows Morticia without anyone's knowledge back to the house as she attempts to confront Fester and Abigail, and runs off to warn the others when he notices that she's in trouble. In the second movie, he hits Debbie with a car just in time to keep her from shooting Fester.
• The Speechless: Well, he is a disembodied hand.
  • Subverted in the films, in which Thing finds a voice through Morse Code by knocking on hard surfaces.
  • In the 1965 Jack Sharkey book, he writes if he has anything to say. He came with the house, and did not at first realize that the Addams family had legitimately bought the place.

Pubert Addams

Played by: Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper (physical actors), Cheryl Chase (voice)

The third Addams child, appearing only in Addams Family Values.

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• Badass Adorable: He is a cheerful baby, after all.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: When Wednesday and Pugsley try to guillotine him, he stops the blade by pinching it between the thumb and forefinger of one hand.
• Bearded Baby: He's a baby with a mustache.
• Bus Crash: The character is never seen again after Addams Family Values. In The New Addams Family, Wednesday mentions they used to have a third sibling, until Pugsley ate it. Pubert is the only character who would fit this criterion.
• Expy: The Addams are confused that their relative is blonde, rosy, and not at all like them. Pubert is essentially a male infant version of Marilyn Munster.
• Inexplicably Awesome: There's no clear reason why he survives all the misadventures he does. He's just an Addams.
• Meaningful Name: None of the Addams family had names until the TV series, and Charles Addams suggested "Pubert" for the boy, but the network wouldn't allow it. He became "Pugsley", so this is a Shout-Out to Charles Addams's original suggestion.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He's basically a baby version of Gomez, right down to the mustache for some reason (other than being an Addams, that is).
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He laughs after electrocuting Debbie to ashes.

Film characters

Abigail Craven

"Loving mother. Grateful son. Understood?"

Played by: Elizabeth Wilson

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• Abusive Parent: She uses physical and verbal abuse on Fester when he seems to be acting out of line to her, primarily when he starts enjoying his time with the Addams family. When he tries to argue against his mother taking Gomez’s fortune, she insults him and tells him that she should have left him where she found him.
• Big Bad: Of the first live-action film.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Charms her way into the Addams' good graces by disguising herself as a therapist under the name "Greta Pinder-Schloss" who has a pretentiously knowledgeable, patient and motherly attitude towards the ignorant.
• Buried Alive: How she was dealt with by the kids after being defeated.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Despite Tully being the one to come up with the whole idea of robbing the Addams family, she fully intends to abandon him when she gets her hands on the Addams' fortune.
• Con Woman: She's obviously been scheming and scamming for decades, looking for that last huge payoff. And she thinks she's found it with the Addams family fortune.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  Tully: I've been the Addams' lawyer for years. They're morons.
  Abigail: Obviously.
• Evil Matriarch: She’s Fester’s adoptive mother and she constantly abused her authority over him to ensure he stuck to their plan. When it becomes clear “Gordon” is starting to warm up to the Addams family, she becomes angry and resorts to emotional blackmail to get him back under her thumb.
• Evil Redhead: She's a redheaded woman, and a deceitful antagonist.
• Herr Doktor: She disguises herself by pretending to be a German psychiatrist named Dr. Pinder-Schloss. She even fakes the accent.
• Loan Shark: She strong-armed Alford into repaying her for the thousands that she gave him. Unlike most fictional examples though she isn't a crime boss of a whole organisation but merely a conwoman who's looking for easy targets and has only one enforcer, her adopted son whom she emotionally manipulates into assisting her. She also mentions store-front scams.
• Manipulative Bitch: As befits a career criminal and con woman, she is great at scheming. Plays the Addams family like fiddles with her fake "Dr. Pinder-Schloss" identity, convincing them that her son Gordon is the long-lost Fester. Even when the charade starts to fall apart, she manages to save it by convincing Gomez and Morticia that their suspicion and unease around "Fester" only proves he is Fester. And above all else, she decades ago molded an amnesiac Fester Addams into her dutiful son and criminal accomplice.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Played with. She smacks Fester in frustration and quickly backpedals, saying "Do you see what they've driven me to?"

Tully Alford

"No loans! I'm not a bum! Don't say it!"

Played by: Dan Hedaya

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• Actually Pretty Funny: Tends to react this way to the Addams, particularly Grandmama and Things prank on his wife. It's not clear how much of this is genuine or just him being a Slimeball.
• Amoral Attorney: He is seen trying to embezzle the Addams fortune, primarily to escape from his debts with Loan Sharks but also because of his own greed and desire for their doubloons. Some comments about them being his last paying clients additionally give off a very bad impression. Even Craven mocks and lampshades it.
  Tully: Hey, I have been the Addams' lawyer for years. They are morons.
  Abigail: Obviously.
• Awful Wedded Life: To the point that his wife Margaret left him for Cousin Itt. In fact his retort to his wife's rhetorical question why she married him, was because he said yes. Only goes to show how badly he treated Margaret if she proposed to him and he couldn't give her the dignity of basic respect in return.
• Buried Alive: How he was punished by Wednesday and Pugsley after being defeated, assuming he even survived the fall before that.
• Butt-Monkey: Often finds himself in humiliating situations, usually at the hands of Gordon/Fester who loves manhandling him since he is too cowardly to seriously react.
  • It seems that Gomez's "playing" at fencing with Tully is a common event, as is Gomez humiliating and kicking his ass.
  • Even the Addams' house gets in on the act, as the front gate loves "romping' with Tully. And the bear skin rug tries to take a bite out of him, too. And that's within the first ten minutes of the movie!
• The Dragon: By the end of the first live-action film he has elevated into this from a simple terrified pawn after taking matters into his own hands by getting the Addams' evicted and Gordon becoming much less cooperative leading Abigail to trust him more.
• Only Sane Man: The only central character of the first movie to find anything strange or shocking about the Addams. Even Abigail (herself a pretty creepy person) seems completely unphased by them. Tully spends much of the first quarter of the movie as an audience surrogate to give us an outsider's introduction to the bizarre family. (Though even he gets a kick out of Grandmama using Thing to scare the wits out of Margaret during the seance.)

Margaret Alford-Addams

"These are your last paying clients. Need I remind you?"

Played by: Dana Ivey

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• Awful Wedded Life: One-half of the couple mentioned under Tully's entry. After Tully dies, she marries Cousin It and they later have a...what..
  Margaret: Why did I marry you?
  Tully: Because I said yes!
• Evil Makeover: Not actually evil, but Addams—in the second film, after her marriage to It and becoming an Addams, she's developed dark eye bags that make her fit in with the group.
• Good Counterpart: To her husband Tully, who's an Amoral Attorney looking to cheat the Addams Family out of their vast fortune and looks down on them as freaks. Margaret, meanwhile, does charity work and is on a friendlier basis with the Addams family from the start. She immediately voices her doubts when Fester and "Dr. Pinder-Schloss" show up out of fear the family's being scammed, and eventually leaves Tully for a more fulfilling marriage with Cousin It.
• Happily Married: With Cousin It.
• Not So Above It All: Gradually comes round to the Addams eccentricities over the course of the film after initially being creeped out by them.
• Perky Goth: In at least some sense. Her emotional temperament improves greatly after marrying Cousin It, and while she dresses in a standard black garb for Fester's wedding, her default wardrobe consists of bright colors like pink. Morticia and the rest of the Addams are perfectly fine with this, indicating she's truly considered part of the family. She even smiles fondly when Wednesday tells her her costume for Halloween is "a homicidal maniac, they look like everyone else".
• Running Gag: In the first movie, she manages to trick herself into Fester's "Chinese finger torture trap" gag device more than once. She's even chosen to model it at the charity auction for this reason.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: A variation as she finds Cousin It more charming than being married to Tully.
• Took a Level in Kindness: She is noticeably happier once Tully perishes and she weds Cousin It shortly afterwards, later mentioning how grateful she is to have joined the Addams clan.

Deborah/Debbie “The Black Widow” Jellinsky-Addams

"I'll get you! And your little hand, too!"

Played by: Joan Cusack

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• Aesop Amnesia: You'd think that after several failed attempts at killing Fester, including throwing a radio in his bath and exploding a massive bomb five feet from him, she'd realize that Addamses are a little too hardy to just kill using standard means. Despite this, she hooks up the entire family to electric chairs with the assumption that they're bound to die this time.
• All Take and No Give: For all her moaning about deserving love, Debbie proves to be a very selfish individual demanding love and material gain from those around her with no capability or desire to give any back.
• Ax-Crazy: Big time as a multiple murderer led by a twisted sense of entitlement.
• Big Bad: Of Addams Family Values.
• Berserk Button: Don't criticize her taste in interior decoration.
• Black Widow: Her prominent moniker. She killed her previous husbands for their money. She didn't have much luck with Fester, him being an Addams and all.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Had she gotten it through her thick head that Fester and the rest of his family would've been perfectly happy with giving her whatever she wanted and were, in fact, overjoyed to discover she was a bloodthirsty psychopath, she would've finally gotten everything she wanted as well as a husband who worshipped the ground she walked on. Also she could've avoided getting electrocuted and turned into a pile of ashes after Pubert altered the electrical wiring and redirected the chargeback to her. But then again who could see that coming?
• Deadpan Snarker: "You shouldn't be married, you should be studied."
• Determinator: She wants the Addams fortune at any costs, even when seemingly outrun during her chasing Thing and Fester. She simply follows the two to the house and sets out to kill the whole family: it's only thanks to Pubert that she's stopped.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Debbie's response to getting a Malibu Barbie instead of a Ballerina Barbie for her birthday? Burn down the family home with her parents still in it. And that was only the beginning.
• Domestic Abuse: She emotionally abuses Fester by breaking his spirit and isolating him from Gomez and the others under the guise of saying this is how he can prove he loves her by letting her keep him to herself. Combined with all her attempts to kill Fester, which unlike the usual Addams Family methods are not done for the enjoyment of both parties.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Morticia. Morticia dresses all in black while Debbie is evil and dresses in white. Morticia not only loves Gomez but respects and supports him, and their kinky torture games are committed with consent on both partners' ends. Debbie only wanted Fester's money, puts him through psychosexual mind games to keep him away from his family, wants him dead just to get everything he owns, and laughs in his face saying "No woman in her right mind would love you!" Morticia loves each of her children dearly and is a Mama Bear. Debbie secretly hates the Addams' kids and tries to kill them along with their parents.
  • She also serves as one for Margaret Alford-Addams from the last Movie as an outsider to the Addams Family that eventually became a part of the Addams Clan. Margaret only knew of them secondhand through her previous husbands' dealings in finances with them, but it was only after spending time to really get to know the Family, she happily marries into the family and is wholeheartedly accepted by them, despite Margaret not initially sharing in many of the Families quirks. Meanwhile Debbie only got into the family because she was interested in getting their money and never really loved Fester and due to her façade the rest of the family never really got to trust her until the end when Debbie becomes completely unhinged and shows her true ruthless side hidden beneath, yet she is too blinded by her greed and hatred for them that she doesn't see their appreciation for her bloodlust.
• Eviler than Thou: While it looks as though she'd fit right in with the Addams Family given her real nature, the truth is Debbie is a sociopath who could never be one of them as she lacks the ability to love, respect, or support anyone that's not herself. For as twisted and depraved as the Addams Family are, they enjoy torturing and trying to kill each other because to them it's a game that they all choose to play and deep down they love each other as family. Debbie, despite the Addams family all showing they completely sympathize with her messed up life story, still wants them all dead and gone to get their money.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: In-universe. Her decorating instincts are a bridge too far even for Morticia. It's justified from a character standpoint: if she was a Barbie-obsessed psychopath even as a kid, of course she would grow up into a woman who leaned towards ostentatious, so-chic-it's-tacky choices in fashion and home decor.
  Morticia: You have gone too far. You have married Fester; you have destroyed his spirit; you have taken him from us. All that I could forgive. But, Debbie...
  Debbie: [snarling] What?!
  Morticia: [glancing around the house and wincing] ...Pastels?
  [Debbie flinches, cut to the quick]
  Debbie: ...GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!!
• Gold Digger: Marries rich men for their money, kills them, then spends their fortune to her heart's content. In a Visual Pun, she even digs out the Addams matriarch's wedding ring.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Electrocuted by the cross-wired death chairs she tries to use on the Addams.
• Hypocrite:
  • Debbie whines about wanting to be loved, but to her love is a thing that means everyone stops what they're doing to shower her with attention and gifts. What makes her so hypocritical is how easily she proves incapable of loving someone back in any way, shape, or form.
  • She despises the Addamses, especially Fester, and considers them a clan of absolute freaks... even though she's a serial-killing black widow with a childish fixation on luxury, who murdered her parents for giving her the wrong Barbie. If she had the capacity to care about other people, or at least hadn't isolated Fester from his loved ones, she and the family would've gotten along like a house on fire; if she'd told them the truth about her past, they would've loved her even more, and welcomed her as a true Addams. She's just too far gone to see herself as anything but a normal woman who deserves the finer things in life, and them as a bunch of weirdos.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Claims she just wants this... "and jewelry." With emphasis on the jewelry. Hence, the "Serial Killer" Gold Digger part.
• It's All About Me: Of the most psychotic degree. Murdered her parents and spouses for refusing even the pettiest of whims interpreting as signs of a lack of love.
• Irony:
  • She honestly wouldn't be out of place in the Addams Family given her demeanor; the family even agree with her during her presentation before she's set to electrocute them. She's just too greedy to get along with them and also has no emotional attachments unlike them.
  • When she stays with the Addams, she's actually the scariest thing in that house.
• Killed Off for Real: She met her end when Pubert crossed a few wires during her Villainous Breakdown when she was attempting to electrocute the family.
• Large Ham: Joan Cusack is having the time of her life as an unabashedly evil bitch.
• Light Is Not Good: Dresses almost exclusively in white and decorates her home in pastels, but she's still completely Ax-Crazy.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Debbies many attempts at trying to kill Fester backfire in spectacular ways, from attempting to electrocute him on their Honeymoon, to trying to blow him up in their house. Finally she gets fed up and attempts to just shoot Fester, quoting the trope.
  I've tried to make it look like an accident. I've tried to give you some dignity.
• Manipulative Bitch: She exploits Fester's desire for love and companionship to break his spirit and isolate him from the family so she can eventually kill him and get his money. She also tricks Gomez and Morticia into sending Wednesday and Pugsley to Camp Chippewa after Wednesday wises up to Debbie's true personality.
• Motive Decay: She's introduced as a Black Widow Serial Killer who marries rich men, kills them on their honeymoon, spends their fortune and strikes again. She starts off marrying and trying to bump off Uncle Fester in this way for this purpose. Then she gives a slide show explaining how she killed her parents and previous husbands for not giving her things she wanted (a Ballerina Barbie, a new Mercedes, etc) and/or for putting the needs of the community over her needs, proving that for her one no is enough proof of a lack of love, and even gives a Motive Rant about how she "just want[s] love... and jewelry," both of which Uncle Fester could and did give her in abundance. Yet she still wants to kill him because... she is an Entitled Bastard who decided that whatever she desires must be hers and after a while, she just started to kill the ones she didn't care about to get their fortunes.
• No Body Left Behind: Reduced to nothing but ashes after she's killed.
• Playing the Victim Card: This is Debbie's biggest issue and the reason why she'd never belong with the Addams Family. In her mind, Debbie's a perpetual victim wronged by everyone around her and denied the things she thinks she deserves. She rants about wanting love and material wealth, but is so blinded by her desire to destroy those she thinks have wronged her that Debbie was unwilling to realize the Addams Family would give her all that and more. To Debbie, it's more important for her to keep thinking she's being victimized than to actually get what she wants.
• Self-Made Orphan: She killed both her parents by burning down their house with them inside, on the night of her tenth birthday, for daring to give her a Malibu Barbie instead of a Ballerina Barbie.
  Debbie: That's not who I was. I was a ballerina! Graceful and delicate! They had to go.
• The Sociopath: You think?
• Spoiled Brat: On a murderous scale and one who never grew up in the slightest. If the slide of her hissy fit over a Malibu Barbie doesn't say it all, the slide of the fatal house fire does.
• The Stoic: Never shows a flicker of fear. It's the first indication that she's a psychopath.
• Suddenly Shouting: Frequently slides into this. It'll make you jump.
• They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: You'd never tell from looking at her that she's an Ax-Crazy Black Widow
• Villainous Breakdown: When she fully realizes how durable Fester truly is, she breaks her facade and goes Ax-Crazy.
• Would Hurt a Child: By the end of the film, she has no qualms about killing the entire Addams clan, including Wednesday and Pugsley. Unfortunately for her and fortunately for everyone else, she completely forgot about Baby Pubert.
• Yoko Oh No: She epitomizes this, immediately demanding that Fester cut off his family and preventing them from seeing each other as soon as they marry.

Joel Glicker

"You know what happens if my mom uses fabric softener? ...I die."

Played by: David Krumholtz

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• Ascended Fanboy: Is a big enough fan of serial killers that he collects their trading cards. Turns out that he was personally invited to one's wedding. One gets the impression his leaving flowers at Debbi's grave is like a Beatlemaniac visiting a John Lennon memorial. In fact, considering the maniacs that must be in the Addams family tree, his time there must be like getting to stay at the Lincoln bedroom.
• The Dog Bites Back: He may be wimpy, but even he grows tired enough of being mistreated by Gary and Becky that he participates in Wednesday's coup against the camp along with the rest of the outcast children. He even personally flips the bleachers that his parents are sitting in.
• Nice Jewish Boy: He embodies pretty much every Jewish stereotype (nerdy, fragile health, overbearing parents), yet seems pleasant enough.
• Nightmare Fetishist: He's fascinated by serial killers, and has an almost instant attraction to Wednesday.
• Noodle Incident: Something to do with Michael Jackson has caused him to develop a trigger at the mere sight of one of his posters.
• Pitbull Dates Puppy: He's a total dork who falls for the morbid and sadistic Wednesday on sight.
• Uncertain Doom: It is unclear what happens to him after the hand reaches out of Debbie's grave and grabs him. He may have died of fright or just ran away.

Gary Granger

"I'm sensing some friction here. Something not quite Chippewa."

Played by: Peter MacNicol

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Despite his plucky attitude, Gary is extremely mean-spirited and cruel to the kids at his camp, and can even be seen swatting and dragging campers by the arms after they mess up during rehearsals for his play.
• Happily Married: To Becky Martin-Granger.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Aside from being a blatant pro-privilege elitist who doesn't even respect the "outcast" children at his camp enough to learn their names, his play also liberally and casually employs racist language targeting Native Americans.
• Prima Donna Director: Even by the low, low standards of summer-camp Thanksgiving pageants, Gary's jamboree play is a wretched assortment of clunky dialogue, Mighty Whitey cliches, and some very unfortunate innuendo in the song "Eat Me", and the throwaway line that they put on a different pageant each year suggests he has not gotten better with time; nonetheless, he calls the production his "vision", shows blatant favoritism to Amanda and the other "normal" kids in his casting, and is an absolute terror on set. Wednesday insulting his artistic ambitions is the closest time his passive-aggressive facade comes to breaking completely.
• Skewed Priorities: He is upset when Wednesday, Pugsley, and Joel miss costume fittings for his play because the Addams kids were calling the FBI to find Uncle Fester; Wednesday and Pugsley are worried about their uncle's suspicious disappearance from their lives and Gary is thinking only about his play (and, by extension, himself).
• Small Name, Big Ego: He's offended that Wednesday, Pugsley and Joel want nothing to do with his horrid Thanksgiving play, and can be seen suppressing his fury after Wednesday spells out that his "puerile" work lacks structure and meaning of any kind.

Becky Martin-Granger

"We are gonna show them that anyone — no matter how odd, or pale, or chubby — can still have a darn good time! Whether they like it or not."

Played by: Christine Baranski

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• Girlish Pigtails: In the halfway of the movie, she wore her hair in a pigtails.
• Happily Married: To Gary Granger.
• Pet the Dog: Surprisingly defends Wednesday's family after Amanda complains about Uncle Fester marrying "the help," by saying she's sure the kids' nanny is "a very nice lady." Subverted almost immediately afterward not only by her and Gary sending Wednesday and Puglsey to the Harmony Hut for responding to Amanda's taunts, but also because she's very obviously dead wrong about Debbie being anything close to "a very nice lady" (and most likely wouldn't sense anything wrong even if the two actually met).
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Is just as bigoted as her small-minded, egomaniac husband.

Amanda Buckman

"I think their whole family's like some weird medical experiment. I think they're like... circus people!"

Played by: Mercedes McNab

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• Alpha Bitch: She is considered one, though she more comes across as a vapid, spoiled airhead instead of a typical alpha bitch.
• The Chew Toy: During her stay a summer camp, Wednesday leaves her to drown and has her bound to a pyre drenched in gasoline while Wednesday lights a match. Both times she shows up unscathed in a later scene.
• Foil: The exact opposite of Wednesday in looks and personality.

Dr. Phillip Adams

Played by: Ed Begley, Jr.

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• Big Bad: Of Addams Family Reunion.
• The Dog Bites Back: His father Walter Adams frees the Addams Family for his attempts to poison him. In addition, the film ends with the doctor being electrocuted by mental patients he had tortured with electric shocks.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He's a bespectacled man eager to kill his own father for the money or get the Addams family locked in jail.
• Light Is Not Good: In contrast to the Addams Family being benevolent despite their bizarre and macabre ways, the members of the Adams family look normal but are mostly Jerkasses and Phillip is the worst, plotting to kill the old man.
• Long-Lost Relative: Subverted. He and the Addams family think they're this of each other, but really the Addams just got the wrong reunion invitation.
• Parental Neglect: He doesn't seem to have any interaction with or interest in his own children.
• The Rival: He plays Gomez in several sports and keeps losing, as well as worrying his father may leave Gomez the family fortune.
• Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He's a psychiatrist who tortues his patients rather than try to cure them and is plotting an Inheritance Murder.

Television characters

The Normanmeyers

Left to right: Normina, N.J, Norman.

Voiced by: Rob Paulsen (Norman Normanmeyer), Edie McClurg (Normina Normanmeyer), Dick Beals (N.J. Normanmeyer)

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• Alliterative Family: All of their first names begin with "N".
• Alliterative Name: Norman Normanmeyer, Normina Normanmeyer and Norman Normanmeyer Jr.
• Chromatic Arrangement: Norman wears a powder blue suit, Normina wears a bright yellow dress and N.J. wears a pink shirt.
• Friendly Enemy: N.J. likes the Addams despite their weirdness and his parents' attitude towards them.
• Full-Name Ultimatum: A variation - N.J. is mostly called by his nickname unless he's being scolded as Norman Junior.
• Happily Married: Despite what douchebags they can be, Norman and Normina are also quite devoted to one another almost as much as Gomez and Morticia.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Norman and Normina are constantly thinking of extravagant, horrible ways to try and get rid of the Addams Family for good when they aren't exclaiming how much they loathe and detest the Addams for being monstrous freaks. At no point do they ever understand this behavior is the reason why the Addams Family love them so much, thus making every effort to get rid of them doomed to failure.
• Housewife: Normina appears to be your typical 50's homemaker.
• Hypocritical Humor: Norman Normanmeyer and his wife Normina both despise the Addams for being weird when they themselves have a very unhealthy obsession with underwear. Their obsessive hatred for the Addams family also verges on sadistic at times.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: They may have a rather prejudiced attitude towards the Addams, but always reluctantly thank them for their good deeds and they actually care about their son despite him being friends with Wednesday and Pugsley.
• Kid Has a Point: N.J. recognizes that the Addams are generally decent people that just tend to see things differently. His parents are way too paranoid about the whole thing.
• Knight Templar: They WILL preserve normalcy!
• Mirroring Factions: Norman and Normina fail to recognize that they have a lot more in common with the Addams than they'd like to admit. As the Addams Family are devoted to their strange and bizarre lifestyle, the Normanmeyers are dedicated to the exact opposite end of the spectrum by upholding a very strange idea of "Normalcy" with the same energy as the Addams family. Norman and Normina love each other as much as Gomez and Morticia even if they don't ravish each other as frequently as the Addams husband and wife do. While Norman and Normina don't see eye to eye with their son N.J., they clearly love N.J. and N.J. loves them almost as much as Gomez and Morticia love Wednesday and Pugsley. It's no wonder the Addams Family believe the Normanmeyers are their friends. They have so much in common!
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Rob Paulsen based his voice for Norman on Paul Lynde.
• Obsessively Normal: The reason why Norman and Normina hate the Addams family is because they are "weirdoes".
• Only Sane Man: N.J. is the only member of his family who understands the Addams Family are harmless, and repeatedly points out the ridiculous ways his parents want to get rid of them will only make the Addams like them more.
• Sanity Ball: Norman and Normina take turns holding this whenever the other is getting too excited trying to get rid of the Addams.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: Well, they're not exactly villains, but they oppose the Addams and everything they stand for in the 90s cartoon and are the most frequently recurring semi-antagonists.
• Token Good Teammate: Norman and his wife Normina both despise the Addams family, but not their son N.J., who is even friends with Wednesday and Pugsley.
• Unknown Rival: To the Addams, who never seem to catch on that they aren't their good friends. Uncle Fester in particular sees Norman as his best friend, much to the latter's chagrin.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Zigzagged. While they are rather hostile to the Addams family, it is often only to keep their lifestyle from being a danger to others. That said, there are plenty of episodes where they go out of their way to try and humiliate and harass the Addams not because they pose a threat, but for the joy of making them miserable.

Ophelia Frump

Played by: Carolyn Jones (1960's TV series), Lisa Calder (The New Addams Family)

• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: While her eating habits are a bit closer to "normal" than her sister's and she likes daisies, she's still a bit of a goof.
• Decomposite Character: While she appeared in The New Addams Family, the remake of the episode "Ophelia's Career" replaced her with another relative from Morticia's side of the family named Cousin Catastrophia.
• The Eeyore: Sometimes, especially when she's been dumped.
• Expy: Clearly inspired by the blonde "oddball" cousin Marilyn Munster who had equally bad luck with romance of the rival show, The Munsters.
• Genki Girl: She is very active.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: She likes to Judo-flip men, although she doesn't seem to have evil intentions.
• The Klutz: She has moments of this in "Morticia's Romance". She breaks dishes, knocks Gomez into a bush and breaks a violin by sawing through it with the bow.
• Light Is Not Good: She may be blonde and wearing white but she's also a bit violent and likes to throw men over her shoulder.
• Mood-Swinger: At times she's very perky and upbeat and at other times she's kind of miserable.
• No Social Skills: Has even less social skills than the rest of the family.
• The Ophelia: It's in her name.
• The Pollyanna: Zigzagged. She shifts between being cheerful and perky and being The Eeyore.
• Running Gag: Two running gags about her are her Judo-flipping men (causing her to get dumped) and people pulling daisies out of her head.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Is perkier and far more athletic than her younger sister Morticia, and also prefers white to black. Not to mention, Morticia has only been married once while poor Ophelia can't seem to keep a relationship.

Granny Hester Frump

Played by: Margaret Hamilton

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• Birthday Episode: She had hers in "Happy Birthday, Grandma Frump"
• Casting Gag: Who else could be Morticia's mother other than the Wicked Witch of the West? She's even dressed like Miss Gulch. Apparently, Hamilton was offered to play Grandmama, but turned it down.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Shares the same dark hair as Morticia and a similar personality.
• Genki Girl: Zigzagged. "Happy Birthday, Grandma Frump" proves that she has a lot of energy. However, as this behaviour is considered unusual, she doesn't normally use said energy.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Is annoying to Gomez sometimes.

Kitty Cat

Who's a nice lion then?

Played by:

• Unnamed lion (1964-66 TV series, Halloween with the New Addams Family)
• Shoshoni (The New Addams Family)

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• Does Not Like Spam: Morticia says the reason why he doesn't eat people is because he hates the taste.
• Gentle Giant: Despite being a lion, he is actually quite friendly and doesn't eat people.
• Shrinking Violet: Despite being a lion, he is often just as scared of the visitors as they are of him.
• Sick Episode: Subverted in "Cat Addams". He was thought to be sick because he didn't eat but it turns out that Pugsley had already fed him.
• Team Pet: He is a pet of the Addams family.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Is a lion pet of the Addams family.

Homer

The children's pet spider.

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• Friendly Neighborhood Spider: He is not dangerous and is actually pretty cheerful.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Downplayed. He's not as unusual as some of the other pets, but a spider is still not a normal pet, and his owners are certainly unusual.

Ali and Snappy

The family's two alligators, who Grandmama wrestles with. They weren't named in the live-action series, but got names in the cartoon.

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• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Ali is purple.
• A Lizard Named "Liz": Ali's name is reminiscent of the beginning of "alligator", and Snappy is named that because alligators snap.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Who but the Addams family would keep two alligators as pets?

Aristotle

Pugsley's octopus.

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• Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Not usually, but Morticia did knit him a onesie once.
• Named After Someone Famous: Aristotle was a philosopher.
• Near-Death Experience: Lurch's mother once almost fed him to Cleopatra the plant.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: An octopus isn't a normal pet, and Pugsley is an unusual person.

Isolde and Tristan

The family's piranhas.

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• Piranha Problem: Played with. They eat very fast, but they don't try to eat humans or the other pets.
• Shout-Out: Named after the Star-Crossed Lovers from Tristan and Iseult.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: While fish are a normal pet, piranhas aren't.

Ocho

The family's other octopus, who only appeared in the 1973 cartoon.

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• A Lizard Named "Liz": His name sounds like his species.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: One of the family's many unusual pets.

Mr. B and Zelda

Morticia's two vultures. Mr. B only featured in the 1973 cartoon.

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• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Mr. B is blue and white.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: They're vultures, and Morticia is definitely an unusual person.

Dr. Mbogo

A witch doctor, who was mentioned, but never seen.

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• The Ghost: He remains unseen throughout the series and is only mentioned by name.
• The Medic: Apparently he has knowledge of medicine, although he is never seen.

Arthur J. Henson

Played By: Parley Baer

The Addam's insurance man and the local highway commissioner.

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• Big "WHAT?!": He sometimes yells out in anger or surprise in his office when getting bad news.
• Bullying a Dragon: In his first episode, he accuses Gomez of Insurance Fraud and calls his boss only to find out Gomez owns the company.
• Cutting the Knot: He makes repeated failed attempts to cancel the Addams policy with his company.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He's always seen in a business suit.
• Suit with Vested Interests: As highway commissioner he tries to have the Addams mansion condemned for a new highway project (apparently as revenge for their past experiences) only to cancel it due to learning that they're going to move next to his house if the mansion gets blown up.

Sam L. Hilliard

Played By: Ayn Joslyn

A local official who is introduced in the first episode trying to make the children go to public school.

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• Comically Missing the Point: In the pilot he mistakes the Addam's disapproval for the story of the school telling the story of Saint George for them wanting a cleaner and less violent circiulum in the school when really it was just because they like dragons.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: He goes from truant officer, to mayor candidate to head of the school board, although all three receive some in-universe justification.
• Second Place Is for Winners: After losing the mayor race he gets made head of the school board, a job he actually is more excited about.
• Unfortunate Names: His middle name is Lucifer and Sam Hill is a nickname for the devil in some regions.

Musical characters

Lucas Beineke

Played by: Wesley Taylor (Broadway musical).

Wednesday's fiancé

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• Boy Meets Ghoul: He's a normal boy who falls in love with Wednesday Addams.
• Flyover Country: The Beinekes are from Ohio.
• Love Letter: He writes romantic poems for Wednesday.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: His reaction to his mother's description of "how it used to be" between her and his father.

Mal Beineke

Played by: Terrence Mann (Broadway musical).

Lucas Beineke's father.

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• Flyover Country: The Beinekes are from Ohio.
• Married to the Job: He's doing it to provide for his family.
• Parents as People: They are both imperfect.

Alice Beineke

Played by: Carolee Carmello and Heidi Blickenstaff (Broadway musical).

Lucas Beineke's mother.

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• Dead Sparks: The point of her song "Waiting".
• Flyover Country: The Beinekes are from Ohio.
• Parents as People: They are both imperfect.
• Rhymes on a Dime: When she's depressed or feeling blessed.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: At the beginning of Act 2, this characterizes her O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment:
  I feel so dark. I feel so dead.
  All is black inside my face.

Others

Other Extended Family

Other, more distant members of the Addams clan. Seen in Charles Addams's art, party scenes in the movies, and occasionally referenced in episodes of the TV show.

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• Ambiguously Human: It's even harder to tell whether they're human or otherwise than the main family because of their deformities and odd traits.
• Arrow Catch: In the musical, the ghosts catch the blindfolded Wednesday's arrow and guide it to the apple on Lucas's head.
• Barred from the Afterlife: Fester locks them out of their crypt in the musical until they help him keep Wednesday and Lucas together.
• The Dead Can Dance: The ghosts in the musical.
• Goth: Most of them dress like this.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Many of them have multiple arms. As for dangerous... well, they are Addams.
• Multiple Head Case: Quite a few of them have two (or more) heads.
• Noodle Incident: When a distant relative is brought up, these are sometimes mentioned as well.
• Shipper on Deck: Fester makes them help him with this in the musical.
• Unfinished Business: In the musical, Fester locks their crypt, keeping them on Earth until they help him keep Wednesday and Lucas together.

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