Lisa Loring, the actor who played Wednesday Addams in the macabre 1960s sitcom The Addams Family, died on Saturday, friends and family said. She was 64.
Loring had a stroke on Wednesday, "brought on by smoking and high blood pressure," her friend Laurie Jacobson said on Facebook.
"She had been on life support for 3 days. Yesterday, her family made the difficult decision to remove it and she passed last night," Jacobson wrote.
Her daughter, Vanessa Foumberg, confirmed her death to Variety. "She went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands," Foumberg said.
"Beautiful, kind, a loving mother, Lisa's legacy in the world of entertainment is huge. And the legacy for her family and friends — a wealth of humor, affection and love will long play in our memories," Jacobson said about her friend.
Loring was best known for her role as the original Wednesday Addams in the first TV adaptation of the Addams Family. When Loring auditioned for the role at 5 years old, she couldn't read yet, and she has said that she learned to memorize lines before learning to read.
"She is embedded in the tapestry that is pop culture and in our hearts always as Wednesday Addams," Jacobson said.
In one episode of The Addams Family, Wednesday teaches Lurch to dance a move called "The Drew." It partly inspired Jenna Ortega's viral dance in Wednesday, the popular Netflix series.
"I paid homage to Lisa Loring, the first Wednesday Addams," Ortega said in an appearance on The Tonight Show. "I did a little bit of the shuffle she does, and of course they cut out of camera when I did do it, but it's there."
Loring took on smaller TV roles over the next few decades. In the early 1980s, she landed a recurring role in As the World Turns, playing Cricket Montgomery.
Her last acting credit was for a movie called Doctor Spine.
Loring is survived by two daughters.