Morticia Addams in the 1930s. In the cartoons, none of the family members had names. When the characters were adapted to the 1964 television series, Charles Addams' selection of her name was inspired by "mortician". Morticia's maiden name is "Frump" and she has an older sister named Ophelia (also played by Carolyn Jones). In the television series, her mother (Uncle Fester's sister) was named Hester Frump (played by Margaret Hamilton). Her mother-in-law is Grandmama Addams. In the 1990s Addams Family films, Grandmama is actually Morticia's mother, not Gomez's. Morticia is described as a witch; she is slim, with extremely pale skin and
The Addams Family (1991 film) were owned by Charles Addams' widow. Another difficulty in getting the film produced was the obscurity of "The Addams Family" 1964 TV series, as the show had not achieved the syndicated popularity of the similarly-toned comedy "The Munsters". However, production finally moved forward when Addams' widow sold the remaining rights to Orion, who put the film in production with Rudin producing. Anjelica Huston said she based aspects of her performance on her friend Jerry Hall to give the character more warmth. Huston said she would have expected the role to go to Cher but was a longtime fan of Morticia.