Ken Weatherwax
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". Biography. Weatherwax was born in Los Angeles, California, into a show-business family. His aunt was actress and dancer Ruby Keeler, while his half-brother, Joey D. Vieira, played "Porky" on the first three seasons of "Lassie" under the stage name of Donald Keeler, beginning in 1954. His uncles were Frank and Rudd Weatherwax, Lassie's trainers and owners of the first dog to play the role. Career. 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 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. After its cancellation, Weatherwax found he was typecast as Pugsley and lost interest in acting. 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. The two remained lifelong friends until Weatherwax's death. Death. Weatherwax died on December 7, 2014, of a heart attack at his home in West Hills, California, at the age of 59. The staff at Dearly Departed Tours & Artifact Museum raised the funds to have Weatherwax interred in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood in 2017. A portion of his remains  are located at Dearly Departed Tours & Artifact Museum.