American television is filled with families of all types. On the one end of the spectrum you have families like The Brady Bunch and on the other you will find ones closer to The Griffins in Family Guy. Regardless of the show, I always have played close attention the female roles in these shows,especially those of the mothers. Maybe it's because for most of my life I have lived primarily with my other and sister, my other being one of five sisters, or because I have more nieces than nephews. In any case, it doesn't change that I love Moms!
Just thinking about all the tv Moms I grew up with, I am having a hard time narrowing down my top five list... heck, a top ten is a little easier, but not by much. In no particular order, my favorite tv Moms of all time include: Roseanne, Marge Simpson, Lisa Landry, Morticia Addams, Lily Munster, Lois Griffin, Nancy Botwin, Kitty Foreman, Sophia Petrillo, Lynette Scavo, Vivian Banks, Lorelai Gilmore, and Peg Bundy. I have my reasons. None of these Moms are perfect by any means, but the lengths they go to love and care for their families is beautiful. Each of these mothers are also very different at the same time. One is a senior, one is a single mom, one has dissociative identity disorder, one is wealthy, and one lives a weird girl named Marilyn. Today, I am going to talk about one of these Moms in particular and her name is Morticia Addams.
Carolyn Jones is the actress that played the role of Mortica Addams. She is one of the few tv Moms that had made spooky and eerie things seem normal and showed a side of motherly love that people did not expect. Carolyn Jones lived an interesting and amazing life and on this day, what would have been her eighty-third birthday, I would like to share some things about her life with you. So without further delay, here are some interesting facts about Carolyn Jones!
1. Carolyn Jones was born on April 28, 1930 in Amarillo, Texas to Cloe and Julius. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a barber. Carolyn had one sister.
2. When Carolyn was four, her father abandoned his family forcing Cloe to relocate herself and daughters to live with her parents.
3. Carolyn grew up having severe asthma which prevented her from doing normal, physical childhood activities. As a result, Carolyn was an avid reader. She especially enjoyed reading Hollywood magazines and attending movies. This is where her desire to act stemmed from.
4. When Carolyn graduated from high school, her grandfather paid for her acting classes and soon after she moved to California to pursue her acting career.
5. Carolyn established a contract with Paramount Pictures and acted in her first film in 1952. It was called The Turning Point.
6. During her acting career, Carolyn was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in The Bachelor Party and was nominated for two Golden Globes. One for The Bachelor and the other for The Addams Family. She won the award for her role as Morticia Addams.
7. During her life she was married four times. The first time to a fellow she met in acting school and the divorced shortly after. Her second marriage was to Aaron Spelling. Yes, The Arron Spelling. They were wed for over ten years before divorcing and never had children, thank goodness! I would hate to think Morticia Addams was responsible for the birth of Tori Spelling. Could you imagine!?!! Her third marriage was to Tony Award winning, Broadway musical director, Herbert Greene. They were married for nine years until they divorced. Her final husband was close to the end of her life. She married Peter Bailey-Britton, her boyfriend of five years. He stayed with her until the day she passed away.
8. In 1981, Carolyn was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was so bad that she ended up having two thirds of her colon removed and even then, the cancer spread to her liver. She didn't tell anyone about it. She just told people that she was weak from having ulcer treatments. During this time she still filmed during the day and had chemotherapy at night. During this time in her life she was in a tv soap opera called Capitol. Even though she was weak she finished out the season she was in during her initial diagnosis and spent a good deal of the show acting from a wheel chair.
9. After a while, it seemed like Carolyn's cancer had gone into remission, but it returned in late 1982. All treatments failed. In July of 1983, Carolyn went into a coma at her West Hollywood home and passed away there on August third of the same year with her husband, Peter, by her side. She was 53 and was laid to rest next to her mother, entombed at The Melrose Abbey Memorial Park Cemetery.
10. A few other things you may not have known about Carolyn involve her love for reading. Carolyn was a huge advocate for libraries and their importance. She was always encouraging people to donate money to them. She also wrote a book in 1971 called Twice Upon a Time. It is the story of a girl from Texas who moves to Hollywood to act. The story talks about the characters career and romantic life. This book was very similar to Carolyn's own life and some people viewed it more as a bio and less as a work of fiction.
I hope everyone has enjoyed this post and learned a little something about this late actress that went from a bookworm to one of America's favorite tv Moms.
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