Charles Addams

Charles Samuel Addams, or Chill as his friends called him, was born on January 7, 1912, in Westfield, New Jersey. Records show at the time of his birth the Addams' lived on Summit Avenue.

They moved several times before taking up permanent residence in 1920 on Elm Street and stayed there until 1947. He attended public school in Westfield and was fond of visiting the Presbyterian cemetery on Mountain Avenue. When he was a youngster, he was caught by the police for breaking into a house on Dudley Avenue. On the second floor of the garage behind the main house there is a chalk drawing of a skeleton that is believed to have been drawn by Charles Addams. That house on Dudley and one on Elm Street is said to be the inspiration for the famous Addams Family house. At Westfield High School, Charles became the art editor for the Weather Vane and drew many cartoons.

He graduated in 1929 and attended Colgate University for one year. He switched to the University of Pennsylvania and then studied at Grand Central School of Art in New York City.

He attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1930-1931. Situated on the campus is a fine-arts building named after him, in front of which is a sculpture of the silhouettes of the Addams Family.

He attended the Grand Central School of Art in New York City in 1931-1932.

His first drawing in "New Yorker" ran on February 6 1932, and was a sketch of a window washer.

His dream was to work for the New Yorker Magazine and started submitting cartoons as early as 1935, his very first one had the caption "I forgot my Skates.

Widely known as creator of The Addams Family, whose were published by first time as comic for The New Yorker's newspaper in 1938. Therefore, none of them had name until the release of the The Addams Family (1964). Charles Addams chose personally the name for every character.

" In 1940, he submitted "Downhill Skier," and that got him an offer to come on board full time for New York's premier literary magazine.

At one point, his second wife Barbara got him to take out a $100,000 insurance policy. Addams consulted a lawyer on the sly, who later humorously wrote, "I told him the last time I had word of such a move was in a picture called Double Indemnity (1944) starring Barbara Stanwyck, which I called to his attention." In the movie, Stanwyck's character plotted her husband's murder; however, no one has accused Barbara Barb Addams of attempting the same.

In 1946 Addams met and became friends with sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury, after meeting at "Mademoiselle" magazine. The magazine was going to publish Bradbury's short story "Homecoming", the first in a series of tales about the Elliotts, a family of vampires living in Illinois (for which Addams had made an illustration). Addams and Bradbury were going to collaborate on a book chronicling the Elliott Family's complete history, with Bradbury writing and Addams illustrating, but it never happened. However, in October 2001 Bradbury's collection of tales on the Elliot Family was published, in an anthology called "From the Dust Returned." The book had Addams's original 1946 illustration on its cover, along with a narrative from Bradbury and an explanation of his work with Addams.

Noted director Alfred Hitchcock was a friend of Addams, and owned two pieces of original Addams art. In Hitchcock's film North by Northwest (1959), a scene pays homage to Addams: when Roger Thornhill meets Eve with Mr. Vandamm and Leonard, he comments, "The three of you together. Now that's a picture only Charles Addams could draw.".

In 1961, Addams received a Special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his body of work.

Television producer David Levy approached Addams with an offer to create a series based on his "Addams Family" cartoons (they met at the Palace Hotel lobby in New York). The Family was distinct characters but without personality, so Addams gave his characters names and more characteristics for the actors to use in portrayals. And so was born The Addams Family (1964).

From 1985, Addams lived in Sagaponack, New York. The estate where his family lived was nicknamed "The Swamp.".

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 8-10. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

A scholarship in his name was founded in 1991: the Charles Addams Art Scholarship.

He was nominated for the 2012 New Jersey Hall of Fame for his contributions in the General Category.

Terrence Mann and Andrew Lippa's musical, "The Addams Family," at the Mercury Theater of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois was awarded the 2015 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Midsize Musical Production.

He was nominated for the 2017 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Arts & Letters category.

He was inducted in the 2019-2020 Class of the New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Arts and Letters category.