Carolyn Sue Jones

Carolyn Sue Jones (April 28, 1930 – August 3, 1983) died at the age of 53. In 1964 she began playing the role of Morticia Addams in the television series The Addams Family, receiving a Golden Globe Award nomination for her work.

After being spotted by a talent scout at the Playhouse, Jones secured a contract with Paramount Pictures and made her first film, The Turning Point, in 1952. In 1953, she married aspiring filmmaker Aaron Spelling. She appeared in several episodes of Dragnet, credited as Caroline Jones in at least one episode; had an uncredited bit part as a nightclub hostess in The Big Heat, and a role in House of Wax as the woman who is converted by Vincent Price into a Joan of Arc statue. In 1954, she played Beth in Shield for Murder, earning $500 per day for playing the role.

Jones was cast in the 1953 film From Here to Eternity in the role of Alma "Lorene" Burke, which was written for her. However, a bout with pneumonia forced her to withdraw; the role earned Donna Reed the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Jones made her TV debut on the DuMont series Gruen Playhouse in 1952. She appeared in two Rod Cameron syndicated series, City Detective and State Trooper, as Betty Fowler in the 1956 episode, "The Paperhanger of Pioche". She guest-starred in Ray Milland's CBS sitcom, Meet Mr. McNutley. She made five appearances on the crime drama series Dragnet, starring Jack Webb, between 1953 and 1955. In 1955, Jones appeared on the CBS anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents in the episode "The Cheney Vase" as a secretary assisting her scheming boyfriend Darren McGavin in attempting an art theft, and opposite Ruta Lee.

In 1956, Jones appeared in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and in Alfred Hitchcock's remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much. In 1957, she had the lead in the episode "The Girl in the Grass" on CBS's Schlitz Playhouse, with once again Ray Milland and Nora Marlowe.

She appeared three times as a guest star in the TV series Wagon Train, in the first-season (1957) episode "The John Cameron Story" and in the later color episodes "The Jenna Albright Story" (1961) and "The Molly Kincaid Story" (1963).

In 1958, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party, and she also shared a Golden Globe Award for "Most Promising Newcomer" with Sandra Dee and Diane Varsi, and appeared with Elvis Presley in King Creole.

In 1959, she played opposite Frank Sinatra in Frank Capra's A Hole in the Head, Dean Martin in Career, and Anthony Quinn and Kirk Douglas in Last Train from Gun Hill. In 1960, she guest-starred with James Best and Jack Mullaney in the episode "Love on Credit" of CBS's anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson, a Four Star Television production.

In the 1962-1963 season, Jones guest-starred on CBS's The Lloyd Bridges Show, which Spelling created. While married to Spelling, she appeared on the NBC program Here's Hollywood.

In the epic 1963 Western, How The West Was Won, she played the role of Sheriff Jeb Rawlings' (George Peppard) wife. She appears with Peppard and Debbie Reynolds in the last speaking/singing scenes of the film.

In 1964, using a long coal-black wig, the brunette Jones began playing Morticia Addams in the television series The Addams Family, a role which brought her success as a comedian and a Golden Globe Award nomination. She guest-starred on the 1960s TV series Batman, playing Marsha, the Queen of Diamonds, and in 1976 appeared as the title character's mother, Hippolyta, on the Wonder Woman TV series. Her last role was that of Myrna, the scheming matriarch of the Clegg Clan, in the soap opera Capitol from the first episode in March 1982 until March 1983, though she already knew that she was dying of cancer. During her occasional absences, veteran actress Marla Adams subbed for her.

Jones was diagnosed with colon cancer in March 1981. She continued to work, telling her friends she was being treated for ulcers. After a period of apparent remission, the cancer returned in 1982, and in July 1983, she fell into a coma at her home in West Hollywood, California. She died there on August 3, 1983.