Ken Weatherwax
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Kenneth Patrick Weatherwax (September 29, 1955 – December 7, 2014) was an American child actor best known for having played Pugsley Addams on The Addams Family. Weatherwax made his acting debut in the early 1960s when he was nine years old, playing a boy named "Chester" in Gleem toothpaste commercials alongside Bewitched actress Alice Pearce. He was then cast as Pugsley Addams on The Addams Family, after successfully auditioning with stars Carolyn Jones and John Astin. The program ran for two seasons from 1964 to 1966, and after its cancellation, Weatherwax lost interest in acting due to his being unable to get work from being typecast as Pugsley. He entered the U.S. Army at seventeen, and at the age of 21, he reprised the role of Pugsley in the 1977 reunion film Halloween with the New Addams Family. He established a career behind the camera as a movie studio grip and set builder, while making occasional appearances at Addams Family-related events with former costar Lisa Loring, who had played Pugsley's younger sister Wednesday Addams on the show.
Known For
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.
Wagon Train
A satirical inversion of the ideal of the perfect American nuclear family, they are an eccentric wealthy family who delight in everything grotesque and macabre, and are never really aware that people find them bizarre or frightening. In fact, they themselves are often terrified by "normal" people.
The Addams Family
The original TV Addams Family members prepare for Halloween.