Slightly off-centre

Morticia would have been 90 years old today...





"I like men. I like the sound of their voices, the way they think. They're more sensitive than women. With a woman, everything is either this or that, black or white. But a man can see shades of grey. That's what I call being sensitive."

"Morticia was the perfect role for me because my sense of humour is just slightly off-centre."

"I didn’t have kids and I need this. I need to work. When I work, I feel better. When I work, I can do anything. When I’m not working, I’m facrumpsing around like an old biddy, snarling at everything. This, I like. I understand it. It’s my life."

"I'm in love with everything about show business. The only thing that ever came easy to me in life has been acting."

Facts:

• Miss Jones was naturally blonde.
• Her first husband was Aaron Spelling, later famous as the producer of glossy telly series such as Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart and Dynasty.
• She surprisingly didn't want to kiss Elvis Presley when she co-starred with him in King Creole because she had a fever.
• Despite appearing on screen for only eight minutes, she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in The Bachelor Party.
• The blatant sexual chemistry between Morticia and Gomez in The Addams Family caused a moral outrage in conservative America.
• Surprisingly, The Addams Family only ran for two years before being cancelled by the TV network.
• When the show ended, the producers gifted Carolyn Jones with Morticia's oval-backed wicker chair as a memento; she kept it in her bedroom for the rest of her life - the chair itself was originally a prop from From Here to Eternity, in which she was due to play prostitute Alma Burke, but became ill before filming and lost the role to Donna Reed.

Carolyn Sue Jones (28th April 1930 – 3rd August 1983)

Read my previous tribute to Miss Jones.