Evil Roy Slade: Kind of makes you want to spit.
Posted on 12/08/2014 4:54:19 AM PST by lowbridge
Ken Weatherwax, the actor who played Pugsley on TV’s ‘The Addams Family,” and later worked behind the scenes in movies, has died. He was 59 years old.
-snip
Ken Weatherwax died in his sleep on Sunday morning, December 7, 2014. With his passing, the only regular cast members from The Addams Family still living are John Astin, Lisa Loring, and Felix Silla.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Had no idea Astin was still alive
RIP, Pugs.
Felix Silla was Cousin It? I’d never recognize him on the street.
Amazing what a change in hairstyle will do. ;-)
I wonder if he was related to Bob Weatherwax who was the owner of either the original “Lassie” or Lassie II or Lassie III, I can’t recall.
John Astin is 84. In addition to The Addams Family, he once played the part of "The Riddler" in place of Frank Gorshin on the 1960s Batman TV show. (I'm not sure, but I think there was a salary dispute with Frank Gorshin, so John Astin was brought in to play the part.)
I always liked John Astin in a old “Night Gallery” episode where he played a hippy who died in a car wreck and went to Hell.
Oh I would know him anywhere!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Silla
Felix Silla
Silla was born in a small village outside Rome, Italy. Silla trained as a circus performer, came to the United States in 1955, and toured with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. His multiple talents as a bareback rider, trapeze artist and tumbler brought him to Hollywood, where he became a stuntman, starting with the Gig Young-Shirley Jones vehicle, A Ticklish Affair. His best-known roles are Litvak, the maniacal, miniature Hitler who menaces George Segal in The Black Bird (his favorite role), and Cousin Itt on the TV show, The Addams Family. He was also responsible for the physical performance of the robot Twiki in the TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,[1] a role for which the voice was supplied by Mel Blanc or Bob Elyea. In part due to his short stature of 1.19 m (3 ft 11 in), he has often doubled for children in such movies as The Towering Inferno, The Hindenburg, and Battlestar Galactica. Between movies, he frequently appears in Las Vegas and Reno night clubs with his own musical combo, “The Original Harmonica Band”.
His most famous role was television’s “Cousin Itt” of The Addams Family. Although the character of Cousin Itt did not debut on The Addams Family until almost a third of the way through the entire series, Silla’s performance of the character made him so popular that Cousin Itt was carried over into both the animated series and the motion picture versions of The Addams Family.[citation needed] He provided the voice of Mortimer Goth from The Sims 2, the best-selling video game of 2005. He also played an Ewok in the film Return of the Jedi.
Yes, they were related. Bob trained Lassie. Bob is the son of Rudd. Ken is Rudd’s nephew, so I guess Bob and Ken are first cousins.
....he is also Patty Duke's dad.
Pugsley was always underwritten as a character. In the original comic, both he and Wednesday seldom spoke. Then in the TV show, Wednesday was written to be the more interesting character, as bad girl characters are rarer and can have more complexity than bad boys, who are common in real life.
As such, Pugsley became little more than Wednesday’s assistant or undamaged victim. And this carried over to the movies. Further diminishing Pugsley was his Uncle Fester, who was like an adult Pugsley but with an abundance of character.
From the movies, everybody remembers the casting of Christina Ricci, a top child actress at the time, who had made a splash in the Cher and Winona Rider movie Mermaids the year before; but Jimmy Workman, cast as Pugsley, seemed to be almost an afterthought, with The Addams Family being his first screen credit.
Evil Roy Slade: Kind of makes you want to spit.
Dad? I meant to say husband. Big difference, (or should be).
RIP and prayers to his family...
"But I am feeling much better now!" said Buddy to Judge Stone.
No cause of death indicated. 59 is young to go. Maybe he had a bad heart. No adult photos either.
I liked him,very much in Brisco County Jr. He was absent minded professor Whitwire.
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