Remembering Lurch

When I was a kid I watched The Addams Family on the television set at Lavender Lane in Aragona Village, a suburb of Virginia Beach, Virginia. I was just a chap and it was early in my education and I was enamoured with the characters from Morticia and Gomez through Cousin It and Lurch.

Sadly many of the actors portraying those original series characters have passed the earth and in particular I recall Ted Cassidy who played the towering Lurch — butler to the Addams Family and his always understated slow cadence monster voice.

His portrayal was so characature and comic book in it's presentation that I couldn't help but find it endearing over the years I watched from the beginning through syndication much later.

Theodore Crawford Cassidy was born July 31, 1932 and died January 16, 1979. He was an actor who did a lot of character work outside The Addams Family and some of these were sinister villians. His formidable 6 foot 9 inch frame and deep voice simply added to the effect he had on those roles he played.

I loved the many unusual characters he took on over the years.

He had surgery for what should have been a routine benign tumor removal from his heart. However complications arose and he was readmitted and passed at age 46, thus ending the possibility for more roles of the likes of Lurch.

Ted Cassidy was cremated and his cremains were scattered.

Happy birthday in Heaven and rest in peace.